Three Kinds of Rules
作者将所谓的英语用法规则分为三类：
1. Some rules characterize the basic structure of English articles precede nouns, verbs regularly precede objects, questions begin with a verb or who, when, why, etc. No native speaker of English has to think about these rules at all. （关于句子结构的基本规则。以英语为母语的人是不会觉察到这类所谓的规则的。）
2. Some rules distinguish standard from nonstandard speech: you was vs. you were, He don't earn no money vs. he doesn't earn any money. The only writers and speakers who worry about these rules are those upwardly mobile types who are striving to join the educated class of writers and speakers. Those who already count themselves as educated think about these rules only when they see or hear them violated. （关于所谓标准用法和非标准用法的规则。只有那些想挤入所谓的受过良好教育的作家阶级才会可以去遵守的规则。）
3. Finally, some grammarians try to impose on those who already write educated standard English particular items of usage that they think those educated writers should observe don't split infinitives; use that, not which for restrictive clauses; use fewer, not less for countable nouns; don't use hopefully to mean I hope...for centuries many educated speakers and writers have ignored both the grammarians and their rules...And some rules belong to that category of rules observed by some well-educated people, and ignored by others equally well-educated. （语法学家强加于那些受过良好教育的作家的规则。不过，不少受过良好教育的作家通常都选择无视掉语法学家和他们创造的规则。）
We must reject as folklore any rule that is regularly ignored by otherwise careful, educated, and intelligent writers of first-rate prose. If reputable writers do not avoid ending their sentences with prepositions, then regardless of what some grammarians or editors would say, a preposition at the end of a sentence is not an error of usage. （我们必须拒绝所谓的民间的规则，因为它们被那些一流文章的作者所忽视，而这些作者是谨慎的，受过良好教育的，聪明的写作者。）
On the basis of this principle what do the best writers not occasionally or mistakenly do, but regularly do we can recognize four kinds of "rules" of usage. （基于那些最优秀的作家，我们可以识别出四类英语使用的所谓规则：）
Real Rules
Optional Rules
Special Formality
Precision
