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.
My cousin Pam, who's a teacher, sent me a link to an amazing YouTube video, called the Lost Generation which was created for an AARP contest. What makes the poem so interesting is that it makes sense forward and backward but means opposite things. For example here are the last three lines read forward. My generation is apathetic and lethargic It is foolish to presume that There is hope. Pretty negative, right? But when you read it starting at the end and working toward the beginning, it means something very positive. There is hope. It is foolish to presume that…
A reader named Dennis K. asked whether you always put periods after abbreviations or whether it’s different depending on which letters from the word are used in the abbreviation. Someone told him that abbreviations should only use a period if it doesn’t end with the last letter of the original word, but he’d never heard that before, so he was wondering if it is right. Putting periods after abbreviations (or not) is a little-known difference between British English and American English. In American English, we always put a period after an abbreviation; it doesn’t matter whether the abbreviation is the…
A reader named JC asked when he needs a comma before the word because. He wondered about this exchange: What did you like about camp? I liked swimming and hiking because they were fun. Does he need a comma before because they were fun? The short answer is no. It’s unusual to put a comma before because. You only do it when you need the comma to prevent confusion because your sentence could have two meanings. The Chicago Manual of Style has an excellent entry on this topic in its Q&A section online. It gives the example He didn’t run…
Fall officially starts Tuesday, September 22, this year in North America, but Starbucks doesn’t care; the Pumpkin Spice Latte—a hallmark of fall—has been available for weeks. All the excitement online got me thinking about seasons and why this one seems to have two names: fall and autumn. And just to make it more confusing, the first day of fall is also called the autumnal equinox. On the first day of fall (and spring actually), day and night are the same length, and the word “equinox” comes from the same root as the word “equal,” showing that in this 24-hour period, day and night are…
Michael S. asked: “It’s accepted to say, ‘to hold moneys for payment in trust.’ I presume ‘moneys’ is plural; I’ve also seen it spelled ‘monies.’ Does this mean, then, that the singular would be ‘a money’?” Ha! Well, it’s an interesting question, Michael. The singular word “money” is always a mass noun, like “water” or “furniture.” I need some money. I need some water. I need some furniture. You’d never say “a money.” But the word does have two acceptable plurals: “moneys” and “monies.” The “-ies” spelling always looks like it should be pronounced “monies” to me because it looks…
Although we often capitalize a country or city name when it’s part of a food name, that’s not always the case, and it’s typically not the case with french fries. Most sources say to keep it lowercase. The reasoning given by the AP Stylebook writers is that french describes the style of cut and doesn’t refer directly to the country. The Chicago Manual of Style also recommends keeping french lowercase because french isn’t being used to literally refer to the country. They give swiss cheese as another example—it’s lowercase because it’s not made in Switzerland. It’s named after a cheese called Emmental,…
? Wrong Word affect/effect, lay/lie, sit/set, who/whom, toward/towards, etc. ? Vague Pronoun Reference Confusing: Bob annoyed Larry, but that didn’t stop him from asking for a meeting. Clear: Bob annoyed Larry, but that didn’t stop Larry from asking for a meeting. More about vague pronouns. ? Lack of Pronoun-Antecedent Agreement Frequently Disparaged: Everyone withdrew their money. Uncontroversial: Everyone withdrew his or her money. Uncontroversial: People withdrew their money. More about they and their as gender-neutral pronouns. ? Missing or Unnecessary Capitalization Capitalize proper nouns: The names of things, such as the Golden Gate Bridge. Lowercase common nouns: Descriptions, such as that famous bridge.…
Commas are a workhorse punctuation mark. They’re like the people you ride with on the subway every day, the delivery guy who comes by your office, and the parents of your children’s classmates — you see them so often that you think you know them just from sheer exposure. Rarely does a paragraph go by in which you don’t encounter a comma. But like those familiar strangers, commas are complex. You might get a sense of them from casual observation, but to truly know them, you have to dig deeper. Let’s get to know the comma a little better. The…
Blue=one person has heard the phrase “cash money.” Red=one person has not heard the phrase “cash money.” I first heard the phrase cash money after I moved to Reno, Nevada, and I thought it might be a casino thing because I always heard it during drawings when I would go to a certain casino for lunch. The announcer had a lot of time to fill, so he’d go on and on saying things like “Who wants to win the cash money?” and “We’re giving away cash money every three minutes,” and so on. It sounded odd to me because…
You’re probably seeing the word “canceled” a lot right now, but should it be spelled with one L or two? Well, it depends on where you live. “Canceled” with one L is more common in American English, and “cancelled” with two L’s is more common in British English, but these aren’t hard-and-fast rules either. A Google Ngram search of published books shows that both spellings are in use in both countries. Is it ‘canceled’ or ‘cancelled’? The AP Stylebook, used by many American news outlets, recommends “canceled” with one L. “Cancelled” with two L’s is clearly the dominant form in British English, which my Canadian and Australian friends…