Oxford Modern English Grammar — By Bas Aarts

Tom grinned. “See, Aunt Ellie, that’s a ‘prescriptive rule.’ Bas Aarts would say my sentence is fine. ‘Me’ in subject coordination is common in informal English.”

“Alright,” she said, pouring more wine. “What about the passive voice? ‘Mistakes were made’?” oxford modern english grammar by bas aarts

“Defective modals!” Tom raised his glass. “The best kind.” Tom grinned

“ My team and I ,” Eleanor corrected, before she could stop herself. The ghost of old habits. “What about the passive voice

She opened the wine first, then the book. “Descriptive, not prescriptive,” she murmured, reading the preface. “Grammar as it is , not as it should be.” She found this both liberating and deeply unsettling.

Eleanor laughed. It was a rusty, surprised sound. All evening, they talked about aspect versus tense , the rise of the get -passive (“The window got broken”), and the curious life of the singular they .

“Cover to cover. It’s a noun phrase goldmine. Listen.” He pointed his fork. “You know the ‘split infinitive’? The thing you yelled at me for in 2005? Aarts points out that it’s been used by good writers since the 13th century. ‘To boldly go’ isn’t an error—it’s a style choice .”