Everyday Grammar TV: Business, Word Choices - Nouns, Verbs

John: Hi Faith! What’s on your mind today?
Faith: Hi John! I was thinking about a comparison between grammar and business.
John: Really?
Faith: Business owners want to have employees doing the job they are best fitted for.
John: Sure, that makes sense. But how does it connect with grammar?
Faith: In grammar, we want to put words in the right positions. Just like a business owner would want to put the right person in a position.
The idea is this: the subject position is very important.
For example:
The boy threw the ball
Subject verb object

Subjects that are concrete – meaning they can act – are clearer than subjects that are abstract. Abstract words or phrases cannot act.

John: Abstractions are often a result of noun forms that would be better used as verb forms. Consider these two examples.
1.The man took a walk.
2.The establishment of a better tax policy will take place after the elections.

Faith: The first sentence is much easier to understand. The subject is concrete – the man.
The second sentence is much more difficult to understand because the subject is abstract: “the establishment of a better tax policy.”

John: How might we change the sentence so that it is clearer? Here is one possibility:
Council members will establish a better tax policy after the elections.
And that’s Everyday Grammar TV.