Dear KG:

You wrote:
> I need to write a formal business letter to clients. This is a lesbian
> couple who were married and share the same last name. What should my
> greeting be?
>
> Dear Mrs. & Mrs. Smith;
>
> Help.
>
The best thing, of course, is to find out what they prefer. Sometimes an application or order form will make this clear. My experience has been that most lesbians prefer Ms., but the civil union/marriage issue is new. When in doubt, you can use their first names as in Ms. Carol and Ms. Angela Smith.

Although it does not specifically address homosexual couples, see our April 1999 newsletter at https://www.englishplus.com/news/news0499.htm for some ideas that may help.

Dear NT:

You wrote:
> Which of the following are correct:
>
> 1-For him, drinking is reprehensible only when his enemies indulge so.
> 2-For him, drinking is reprehensible only when his enemies indulge in that
> way.
> 3-For him, drinking is reprehensible only when his enemies do so.
>
A lot would depend on context. All make sense, but #3 is the most natural sounding. With #2 there is a problem with the “that.” What specific way do you mean? It could make sense in context.

#1 is OK but perhaps a bit stilted. #1 & #3 would be better without the “so,” since there is nothing in the context to tell us what the “so” refers to.

I would drop the “so” in either #1 or #3 unless there was something in the context that gave us a clue what the manner of drinking (what the “so” or “that way”) was.

Dear Mrs A D:

You wrote:
> I note that on your website you advise that the greeting in a business
> letter always ends in a colon but any business letters I have received the
> greeting ends in a comma ie Dear Mrs Dudley,
>
> Please advise
>
Is it done differently in the UK? Colons are standard in business letters I receive. Occasionally an advertiser will use a comma to make a more personal appeal.

Dear NT:

You wrote:
> Consider these sentences:
> 1-He opened the door in such a way that everybody should see what was
> going on inside the room.
> 2-He opened the door in such a way as to allow everybody to see what was
> going on inside the room.
>
> Do these sentences mean:
>
> a-He decided to open the door in order to permit everybody to see what was
> going on inside the room. He needn’t have opened the door.
>
> OR:
>
> b-He deliberately chose a manner of opening the door which would permit
> everybody to see what was going on inside the room. (Maybe he had to open
> the door anyhow, but he could have been discreet).
>
Both interpretations seem to be reading more into the sentence than what the sentence implies. He opened the door. When the door was opened, people could see into the room. Period. There is nothing implied about his intent in these sentences.

Dear S N, Production Coordinator:

You wrote:
> Please let me know if we must have the apostrophe and s after Group or if
> either version of the sentences below is grammatically correct. In the
> sentence with no apostrophe and s, we’re thinking of the name as an
> entity, which is why we wondered if we need the punctuation. Thank you!
>
> If you look below at Sky Lending Group interest rates you can clearly see
> that you are currently above market rates.
>
> If you look below at Sky Lending Group’s interest rates you can clearly
> see that you are currently above market rates.
>

The second would be correct since “Sky Lending Group” is modifying “interest rates.” In modern English we do often turn nouns into adjectives, but if you did that without using the possessive, you would need to begin with “the,” as in “the Sky Lending Group interest rates.” In context, it appears that you did not want to use the article “the,” so the possessive “Sky Lending Group’s interest rates” is the way to go.

Dear A Z:

You wrote:
> a. Eating nothing will cure you.
> b. Eating none of these fruits will cure you.
> c. Eating no fruit will cure you.
> d. The eating of no fruit will cure you.
>
>
> Which of the above correspond to which of the below:
>
> 1. Don’t eat anything/any fruit, and you’ll be cured.
> 2. There is nothing/no fruit that will cure you.
>
The only ones that make sense in English are a and c. A means fasting will cure you. C means that if you eat no fruit you will be cured. D is awkward and no native speaker would ever say it that way. B turns on itself and, again, would never be spoken by a native speaker.

Dear A D:
>
> You wrote:
> a. Freud uses unconscious drives to explain our behaviour.
> b. Marx bases his vision of history on class struggle.
> c. Heisengberg employs subatomic mechanisms to explain the strange
> phenomena we observe.
>
> Are the above sentences logical? Freud doesn’t use unconscious drives, but
> “the idea of unconscious drives”; Marx bases his theories on “the concept
> of class struggle” and Heisenberg employs “the idea or a theory of
> subatomic mechanisms”. Can the words “the concept of…” etc. be
> considered to be implied by the sentences?
>
> Instead of the first sentence can one say: Freud uses the idea of
> unconscious driveS to explain our behaviour?
>
You point is well taken. In conversation and in context, listeners would probably understand what you meant. However, a and c should be made clearer if written. B is probably OK as it is because of the word “vision,” so we understand that we are talking about a theory or idea.

Dear David:

You wrote:
> Please end an argument I have with a friend.
>
> “No military leader would say that it is not difficult”
>
> Is this a double negative???
>
> Thank you
>
No, it is not. The two negatives modify two different words: “leader” and “difficult.” It is only a double negative if they modify the same word or one negative modifies another negative.

This style is commonly used for understatement. You could say “Any military leader would say that it is difficult,” but it does not have same understated effect.

Dear BD, English teacher:

You wrote:
> Is this the proper use of the word that?
>
> A typical noir plot revolves around a female character THAT hires
> a detective.
>
In this sentence with two possible antecedents (“plot” and “character”) “who” would be more precise. “That” normally refers to people only as groups or types. Usually it refers to things. See “That/Which/Who” in Grammar Slammer or https://www.englishplus.com/grammar/00000255.htm.

Dear Mr DA:

You wrote:
> Which is correct?
>
> “A hotel” or “An hotel”
>
> “A hedgehog” or “An hedgehog”
>
> I would be most grateful for your advice.
>
> Kind regards
>
>DA
>
This depends a lot on local pronunciation. There are a few words that can go either way–“historical” is probably the most common example. In most dialects of English, one would say “a hotel” or “a hedgehog”; in most writing you would find that standard. The “H” is pronounced. However, some dialects in English do drop the “H” in pronunciation and would be inclined to say “an hedgehog” or sometimes even “an hotel.” If you were showing this in dialogue, you might spell it “an ‘edgehog” or “an ‘otel” with the apostrophe to show that the “H” is not pronounced. In the case of “hotel” like
“historical” the word comes from the French Norman which did not pronounce the “H” and with some of that still influencing the pronunciation of English in England, you might be more likely to hear “an hotel” in England than in
North America. (The Norman aristocrats were less likely emigrate…)