Hi FF fans! Today the Grammar Cop is going to provide you with an extra teensy challenge. She will list the infractions but leave it until the end to explain what they were. That will give you more time to spot them yourselves.

1. MONTREAL GAZETTE: “[She] said she had to mount a court battle against the Public Curator of Quebec whom she says is denying her elderly father…”
2. THE SUBURBAN (ad headline by a design company): “From Concept to Realisation”
3. MONTREAL TIMES (another local rag): “[She] has a special degree of respect, admiration and affection for every person who work alongside her, many of whom were with the show …”
4. MONTREAL TIMES (again): “…atmosphere that helped bring the best out of every person who was involved with the show, whether it be in front of, or behind, the camera.”

Okay, ready? The corrections:

1. who, not whom. Why? Because it is the subject of the verb “is denying.”
2. It should be Realization. The use of the letter s is British. In Canada we use the American z in such words.  An exception to this rule is in the use of French: French speakers would spell it with an s. I’d bet my new scarf (the one with the turquoise and pi- oh, sorry!) that this headline was (poorly) translated from French, a frequent occurrence in this majority-French-speaking province.
3. It should be “who works.” It’s singular, to match the subject, “every person,” which is singular.
4. It should be “whether it was in front of, or behind, the camera.” The subjunctive mood of the verb “to be” as used here only works in the present tense, but this sentence is set in the past: note the -ed endings on all the verbs. (An afterthought: maybe it’s best to just leave the verb phrase out altogether, and just say “whether in front of or behind the camera.” You can lose the commas, too.)

There you have it. Do you like this new format? Tune in next week for another great episode of Friday Follies!