Author: Mignon Fogarty
Mignon Fogarty
Mignon Fogarty is the founder of Quick and Dirty Tips and the author of seven books on language, including the New York Times bestseller "Grammar Girl's Quick and Dirty Tips for Better Writing." She is an inductee in the Podcasting Hall of Fame, and the show is a five-time winner of Best Education Podcast in the Podcast Awards. She has appeared as a guest expert on the Oprah Winfrey Show and the Today Show. Her popular LinkedIn Learning courses help people write better to communicate better. Find her on Mastodon.
Many people have asked whether the correct term is “duct tape” or “duck tape” or if maybe both exist and there’s a difference. The especially sticky and especially strong tape that helps you MacGyver your way through life is known today as “duct tape.” But the name has a long and confusing history. ‘Duck Tape’ It was invented by a division of Johnson & Johnson in the 1940s and used by American soldiers in World War II, reportedly “for everything from repairing broken windows to making temporary bandages,” and soldiers called it “duck tape.” ‘Duct Tape’ After the war, it…
Have you ever wondered why you see “gray” spelled two different ways? “Grey” is the preferred spelling in British English, but “gray” is more common in American English. Who Was Earl Grey? I’m American, but I enjoy Earl Grey tea, named after Charles Grey, 2nd Earl of Grey, the British prime minister from 1830 to 1834. Earl Grey tea is flavored with oil from the bergamot orange and is believed to have been introduced to England in the 1820s. I regularly look at my tea box, so I was confused about the spelling until I came up with the following memory…
Yael, who left a nice review on Apple podcasts, asked a question I get asked a lot. “I get that these tips are quick, but how are they dirty? Has that been explained in a past episode? I have been listening for the past year and have never had that question answered.” Thanks, Yael. I’ve explained it in interviews, but I don’t think I’ve ever explained it in the podcast. Here’s the story: When I was growing up, my mom would always use the phrase “quick and dirty” for something that was just the essentials. For example, she might say,…
What follows is a lightly edited transcript of a Stitcher Premium bonus podcast. Grammar Girl: Grammar Girl here. I'm Mignon Fogarty. If you're like me, you love “Schoolhouse Rock!” and if you don't know what it is, you're going to love it soon. I'm here today with Holly Hutchings, one of my former students who now works in radio, and she is helping me put together this episode on “Schoolhouse Rock!”—actually she did most of the work. When I approached Holly about this episode, she didn't know what “Schoolhouse Rock!” was, which made me want to do it even more. Do…
A listener named Carrie asked, "What’s the difference between ‘facetious,’ ‘sarcastic,’ and ‘sardonic'?" "Facetious," "sarcastic," and "sardonic" all have similar meanings, and in practice, many people use them interchangeably, but I’m sure enterprising teenagers, comedians, and political commentators can find uses for all three kinds of comments. The roots of the words may help you remember which is which. Facetious "Facetious" comes from a Latin word that means "jest." A facetious comment is a joking comment—often an inappropriate joking comment. Think of a jester or joker making a funny face at you, and remember the first part of "facetious" is…
This a Stitcher Premium exclusive Grammar Girl podcast episode. Want to hear it? Head to Click to check for reference and use code GRAMMAR to sign up for your free trial and get access to all archived ad-free episodes, bonus episodes, and more. Colors are such fundamental, tangible things that it’s hard to imagine not having names for them, but the number of words for colors varies widely by language and for many, many years, English got by without a lot of the color names we take for granted today. In nearly all languages, the first colors to get names are black…
Recently, readers wrote in to question why I capitalized “the” as part of the newspaper name in the sentence “Yesterday I read The New York Times.” For example, Jim T. wrote, “According to the Chicago Manual of Style 8.170, ‘When newspapers and periodicals are mentioned in text, an initial “the,” even if part of the official title is lowercased (unless it begins a sentence).'” Jim is right about Chicago, but how to treat articles such as “the” in publication names is a style choice. For example, although Chicago recommends lowercasing the word “the” in names of newspapers, journals, and magazines…
“Cipher” comes from an Arabic word that means “zero, empty, or nothing.” The Arabic numerals (1, 2, 3, and so on) are also called ciphers, and a person can cipher a math problem, which means to work it out. A cipher can also be a sign or symbol, such as the royal cipher adopted by a monarch, or it can describe characters that have no inherent meaning, but instead have a hidden meaning, such as a code written in a nonsense alphabet. Here’s a beautiful example from Alberto Manguel’s book “A History of Reading”: At one magical instant in your…
Today’s topic is “lay” versus “lie.” How to Remember the Difference Between ‘Lay’ and ‘Lie’ Here are four ways to remember the difference: “Lay” vs. “Lie” in Present Tense Think “Lay it on me” “Lay” vs. “Lie” in Past Tense How to Conjugate “Lay” and “Lie” 1. ‘Lay’ Versus ‘Lie’ in the Present Tense First, we’ll do the easy part, which is the present tense. If you exclude the meaning “to tell an untruth” and just focus on the setting/reclining meaning of “lay” and “lie,” then the important distinction is that “lay” requires a direct object and “lie” does not. So you…
The “mis-“ prefix and the “dis-“ prefix can both negate things in a lot of ways, and they have taken on different meanings in “misinformation” and “disinformation.” ‘Misinformation’ The "mis-" prefix can mean “wrong,” “mistaken,” “badly,” or just negate the meaning that follows. Misinformation is information that is incorrect, but the word is meant to carry a connotation that the bad advice was given without malice. Here’s an example from the novel “Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell": “Besides,” said Mr Norrell, “I really have no desire to write reviews of other people's books. Modern publications upon magic are the…