WILL YOU SAIL OR STUMBLE ON THESE GRAMMAR QUESTIONS? Smoothly step over to these common grammar mistakes that trip many people up. Fill in the blank: I can’t figure out substitution for psyllium husk in baking gave me this gift.

Prize by the Grand Prize Winner is allowed. Algebra – Substitution “Substitute” means to put in the place of another. As that last example showed, we may not always get a number for an answer, sometimes just a simpler formula. In English grammar, substitution is the replacement of a word or phrase with a filler word to avoid repetition. Gelett Burgess’ poem “The Purple Cow” frequently uses the word “one” as substitution for the Purple Cow. Richard Nordquist is professor emeritus of rhetoric and English at Georgia Southern University and the author of several university-level grammar and composition textbooks.

I’d rather see than be one. This author relies on substitution to make his piece less monotonous. Notice how, in lines two and four, “one” is used in place of “The Purple Cow”. Burgess was far from the first, and certainly not the last, writer to use substitution. Substitution is not restricted to writing and can be found in many types of media. See the following spoken examples from television and speeches. Don’t you ever read the Times, Watson?

When I quote others, I do so in order to express my own ideas more clearly. Niles: “I’ll have a decaf latte, and please be sure to use skim milk. All generalizations are false, including this one. Alan Garner: “Hey guys, when’s the next Haley’s comet? Stu Price: I don’t think it’s for like another sixty years or something.

Alan Garner: But it’s not tonight, right? I bet you get married  before I get married . I bet you get married  before I do . María Teresa Taboada, in her book Building Coherence and Cohesion, classifies and structures substitution more clearly.