The Vine: June 6, 2007
Dear Sars,
Which sentence is correct: “One of my favorite things about my church are the stained glass windows,” or “One of my favorite things about my church is the stained glass windows”? Should I use “is” because the windows are one set of things, or “are” because the there are multiple windows?
Thanks!
The whole Jesus thing is nice, too
Dear He’ll Be Happy You Think So,
“One of my favorite things about my church is the stained glass windows.” The subject of the sentence is “One,” which is of course a singular; “of my favorite things” is a prepositional phrase modifying “One,” and because it ends in a plural, it’s a bit confusing, but “is” is indicated.
And I have “One” in my head now. The Johnny Cash version.
Dear Sars,
I don’t particularly like most of my co-workers (they’re fine in small doses, but extended conversations make me want to throw something), and I’m not a huge fan of parties, so when the summer work party came up in discussion, I made an excuse as to why I couldn’t go, even though it had been deliberately planned for before my vacation starts. And then I got caught out by my boss.
So what’s the most politic thing to do here? Explain to my boss why I made up the excuse (she probably already has some idea of my feelings for my co-workers, since many people here don’t get along)? Brazen it out? Show up, now that my fake excuse has disappeared? Help me!
And I’m Not Even The Most Anti-Social One In The Office
Dear Anti,
I assume you don’t have this conversation on pause right now; if you did, I’d tell you to apologize, but not to offer much else: “I’m sorry I misled you about the reason I couldn’t attend.” You could add that you didn’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings, but the “don’t complain, don’t explain” rule is probably your best bet here. She knows you fibbed to get out of going; she can probably connect the dots.
You don’t have the convo on pause, though, so presumably your boss has already given some indication to you of whether she expects you to attend anyway, but if she hasn’t implied that she now expects you to be there, don’t volunteer.
And in the future, remember: if you don’t want to go to something, leave it at “I can’t make it.” Manufactured excuses either come back to bite you like this, or are a pain to maintain even when they don’t.
Tags: etiquette grammar workplace
