According to what or what - how is it right

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

How to say so that you are not called illiterate.

More than 200 years ago it was correct to write and speak like this: according to a contract, according to an order, according to a court decision. But already in the 19th century, the genitive case in such phrases was considered clerical and was used mainly in official business speech.

Now the genitive case is prohibited. The preposition is used according to the words in the dative case: according to the letter, according to the contract, according to the opinion. This is recorded in Rosenthal's dictionary "Management in Russian".

Moreover, the norm is also relevant for the official business style. So, if you see in laws, orders or reports according to what, you should know: you have a mistake.

By the way, in Rosenthal's dictionary there is another option: according to which, but it is less common.

Examples of

• “My thought, coordinated with the beats of my heart, was completely clear, and my heart beat in accordance with all the music of silence” (Mikhail Prishvin. Ginseng).
• "After that, special commissions, according to the order, went to all the wine cellars, breaking bottles with axes or blowing up these cellars with dynamite" (John Read. Ten Days That Shook the World).
• "The Scots fought according to ancient traditions" (Diana Gabaldon. Dragonfly in amber).