revisions.txt: language improvements

Signed-off-by: Michael J Gruber <git@drmicha.warpmail.net>
Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>

Author: Michael J Gruber

Documentation/revisions.txt

@@ -2,20 +2,20 @@ SPECIFYING REVISIONS
 --------------------
 
 A revision parameter '<rev>' typically, but not necessarily, names a
-commit object.  They use what is called an 'extended SHA1'
+commit object.  It uses what is called an 'extended SHA1'
 syntax.  Here are various ways to spell object names.  The
-ones listed near the end of this list are to name trees and
+ones listed near the end of this list name trees and
 blobs contained in a commit.
 
 '<sha1>', e.g. 'dae86e1950b1277e545cee180551750029cfe735', 'dae86e'::
   The full SHA1 object name (40-byte hexadecimal string), or
-  a substring of such that is unique within the repository.
+  a leading substring that is unique within the repository.
   E.g. dae86e1950b1277e545cee180551750029cfe735 and dae86e both
-  name the same commit object if there are no other object in
+  name the same commit object if there is no other object in
   your repository whose object name starts with dae86e.
 
 '<describeOutput>', e.g. 'v1.7.4.2-679-g3bee7fb'::
-  An output from `git describe`; i.e. a closest tag, optionally
+  Output from `git describe`; i.e. a closest tag, optionally
   followed by a dash and a number of commits, followed by a dash, a
   'g', and an abbreviated object name.
 
@@ -27,30 +27,30 @@ blobs contained in a commit.
   When ambiguous, a '<name>' is disambiguated by taking the
   first match in the following rules:
 
-  . if '$GIT_DIR/<name>' exists, that is what you mean (this is usually
+  . If '$GIT_DIR/<name>' exists, that is what you mean (this is usually
     useful only for 'HEAD', 'FETCH_HEAD', 'ORIG_HEAD', 'MERGE_HEAD'
     and 'CHERRY_PICK_HEAD');
 
-  . otherwise, 'refs/<name>' if exists;
+  . otherwise, 'refs/<name>' if it exists;
 
-  . otherwise, 'refs/tags/<refname>' if exists;
+  . otherwise, 'refs/tags/<refname>' if it exists;
 
-  . otherwise, 'refs/heads/<name>' if exists;
+  . otherwise, 'refs/heads/<name>' if it exists;
 
-  . otherwise, 'refs/remotes/<name>' if exists;
+  . otherwise, 'refs/remotes/<name>' if it exists;
 
-  . otherwise, 'refs/remotes/<name>/HEAD' if exists.
+  . otherwise, 'refs/remotes/<name>/HEAD' if it exists.
 +
-'HEAD' names the commit your changes in the working tree is based on.
-'FETCH_HEAD' records the branch you fetched from a remote repository
+'HEAD' names the commit on which you based the changes in the working tree.
+'FETCH_HEAD' records the branch which you fetched from a remote repository
 with your last `git fetch` invocation.
-'ORIG_HEAD' is created by commands that moves your 'HEAD' in a drastic
+'ORIG_HEAD' is created by commands that move your 'HEAD' in a drastic
 way, to record the position of the 'HEAD' before their operation, so that
-you can change the tip of the branch back to the state before you ran
-them easily.
-'MERGE_HEAD' records the commit(s) you are merging into your branch
+you can easily change the tip of the branch back to the state before you ran
+them.
+'MERGE_HEAD' records the commit(s) which you are merging into your branch
 when you run `git merge`.
-'CHERRY_PICK_HEAD' records the commit you are cherry-picking
+'CHERRY_PICK_HEAD' records the commit which you are cherry-picking
 when you run `git cherry-pick`.
 +
 Note that any of the 'refs/*' cases above may come either from
@@ -60,7 +60,7 @@ the '$GIT_DIR/refs' directory or from the '$GIT_DIR/packed-refs' file.
   A ref followed by the suffix '@' with a date specification
   enclosed in a brace
   pair (e.g. '\{yesterday\}', '\{1 month 2 weeks 3 days 1 hour 1
-  second ago\}' or '\{1979-02-26 18:30:00\}') to specify the value
+  second ago\}' or '\{1979-02-26 18:30:00\}') specifies the value
   of the ref at a prior point in time.  This suffix may only be
   used immediately following a ref name and the ref must have an
   existing log ('$GIT_DIR/logs/<ref>'). Note that this looks up the state
@@ -70,7 +70,7 @@ the '$GIT_DIR/refs' directory or from the '$GIT_DIR/packed-refs' file.
 
 '<refname>@\{<n>\}', e.g. 'master@\{1\}'::
   A ref followed by the suffix '@' with an ordinal specification
-  enclosed in a brace pair (e.g. '\{1\}', '\{15\}') to specify
+  enclosed in a brace pair (e.g. '\{1\}', '\{15\}') specifies
   the n-th prior value of that ref.  For example 'master@\{1\}'
   is the immediate prior value of 'master' while 'master@\{5\}'
   is the 5th prior value of 'master'. This suffix may only be used
@@ -79,16 +79,16 @@ the '$GIT_DIR/refs' directory or from the '$GIT_DIR/packed-refs' file.
 
 '@\{<n>\}', e.g. '@\{1\}'::
   You can use the '@' construct with an empty ref part to get at a
-  reflog of the current branch. For example, if you are on the
-  branch 'blabla', then '@\{1\}' means the same as 'blabla@\{1\}'.
+  reflog entry of the current branch. For example, if you are on
+  branch 'blabla' then '@\{1\}' means the same as 'blabla@\{1\}'.
 
 '@\{-<n>\}', e.g. '@\{-1\}'::
-  The special construct '@\{-<n>\}' means the <n>th branch checked out
+  The construct '@\{-<n>\}' means the <n>th branch checked out
   before the current one.
 
 '<refname>@\{upstream\}', e.g. 'master@\{upstream\}', '@\{u\}'::
   The suffix '@\{upstream\}' to a ref (short form '<refname>@\{u\}') refers to
-  the branch the ref is set to build on top of.  Missing ref defaults
+  the branch the ref is set to build on top of.  A missing ref defaults
   to the current branch.
 
 '<rev>{caret}', e.g. 'HEAD{caret}, v1.5.1{caret}0'::
@@ -102,9 +102,9 @@ the '$GIT_DIR/refs' directory or from the '$GIT_DIR/packed-refs' file.
 '<rev>{tilde}<n>', e.g. 'master{tilde}3'::
   A suffix '{tilde}<n>' to a revision parameter means the commit
   object that is the <n>th generation grand-parent of the named
-  commit object, following only the first parent.  I.e. '<rev>{tilde}3' is
+  commit object, following only the first parents.  I.e. '<rev>{tilde}3' is
   equivalent to '<rev>{caret}{caret}{caret}' which is equivalent to
-  '<rev>{caret}1{caret}1{caret}1'.  See below for a illustration of
+  '<rev>{caret}1{caret}1{caret}1'.  See below for an illustration of
   the usage of this form.
 
 '<rev>{caret}\{<type>\}', e.g. 'v0.99.8{caret}\{commit\}'::
@@ -113,7 +113,7 @@ the '$GIT_DIR/refs' directory or from the '$GIT_DIR/packed-refs' file.
   could be a tag, and dereference the tag recursively until an
   object of that type is found or the object cannot be
   dereferenced anymore (in which case, barf).  '<rev>{caret}0'
-  introduced earlier is a short-hand for '<rev>{caret}\{commit\}'.
+  is a short-hand for '<rev>{caret}\{commit\}'.
 
 '<rev>{caret}\{\}', e.g. 'v0.99.8{caret}\{\}'::
   A suffix '{caret}' followed by an empty brace pair
@@ -124,7 +124,7 @@ the '$GIT_DIR/refs' directory or from the '$GIT_DIR/packed-refs' file.
 '<rev>{caret}\{/<text>\}', e.g. 'HEAD^{/fix nasty bug}'::
   A suffix '{caret}' to a revision parameter, followed by a brace
   pair that contains a text led by a slash,
-  is the same as ':/fix nasty bug' syntax below except that
+  is the same as the ':/fix nasty bug' syntax below except that
   it returns the youngest matching commit which is reachable from
   the '<rev>' before '{caret}'.
 
@@ -133,8 +133,8 @@ the '$GIT_DIR/refs' directory or from the '$GIT_DIR/packed-refs' file.
   a commit whose commit message matches the specified regular expression.
   This name returns the youngest matching commit which is
   reachable from any ref.  If the commit message starts with a
-  '!', you have to repeat that;  the special sequence ':/!',
-  followed by something else than '!' is reserved for now.
+  '!' you have to repeat that;  the special sequence ':/!',
+  followed by something else than '!', is reserved for now.
   The regular expression can match any part of the commit message. To
   match messages starting with a string, one can use e.g. ':/^foo'.
 
@@ -145,19 +145,19 @@ the '$GIT_DIR/refs' directory or from the '$GIT_DIR/packed-refs' file.
   ':path' (with an empty part before the colon)
   is a special case of the syntax described next: content
   recorded in the index at the given path.
-  A path starting with './' or '../' is relative to current working directory.
-  The given path will be converted to be relative to working tree's root directory.
+  A path starting with './' or '../' is relative to the current working directory.
+  The given path will be converted to be relative to the working tree's root directory.
   This is most useful to address a blob or tree from a commit or tree that has
-  the same tree structure with the working tree.
+  the same tree structure as the working tree.
 
 ':<n>:<path>', e.g. ':0:README', ':README'::
   A colon, optionally followed by a stage number (0 to 3) and a
   colon, followed by a path, names a blob object in the
-  index at the given path. Missing stage number (and the colon
+  index at the given path. A missing stage number (and the colon
   that follows it) names a stage 0 entry. During a merge, stage
   1 is the common ancestor, stage 2 is the target branch's version
   (typically the current branch), and stage 3 is the version from
-  the branch being merged.
+  the branch which is being merged.
 
 Here is an illustration, by Jon Loeliger.  Both commit nodes B
 and C are parents of commit node A.  Parent commits are ordered