Author: Mignon Fogarty
Oh, English. There are so many different kinds of errors that sometimes it seems overwhelming, but today, we’re going to talk about errors you can laugh at—errors like thinking Creedence Clearwater Revival sang There’s a bathroom on the right instead of There’s a bad moon on the rise and saying something is a little fit bunny instead of a little bit funny. (1) Sponsor: This podcast is brought to you by the book, Grimacia. A Nice Town. But Painted Brown, the story of a girl named Sabrina who lives in a town that has no imagination. Sabrina is smart and knows…
Every once in a while, I get questions about word pairs such as “wood” and “wooden” or “wool” and “woolen.” Sometimes it’s a commenter insisting that you can’t wear a wool sweater—that you can only wear a woolen sweater—and sometimes it’s just someone wondering whether he should write about a wood bench or a wooden bench. One reason for the confusion is that although we have adjectives in English, we can also use nouns as adjectives. When we do so, they’re called attributive nouns. When Do Nouns Act Like Adjectives? Some nouns often act like adjectives, some only do it…
Last week Dale Seiler on Twitter sent me a screenshot of a Garmin ad that had a strange and unnecessary comma in the middle of the tagline. It reads “Today’s record, is tomorrow’s motivation,” and that comma violates one of the hard-and-fast comma rules: never put a comma between a subject and its verb.* Commas: Are There Firm Rules or Just Guidelines? Commas have a lot of different uses, and that’s part of what makes them confusing. Another thing that makes them confusing is that some things are hard-and-fast rules—like don’t put a comma between a subject and a verb—and…
Sponsor: Audible.com is the Internet’s leading provider of audiobooks with more than 100,000 downloadable titles across all types of literature, including fiction, non-fiction and periodicals. For a free audiobook of your choice, go to this link. I’m often asked questions about what pronoun you should use when you’re writing about a company or a group such as a board of directors. Is it a company who makes jelly beans or is it a company that makes jelly beans, and was it the board of directors who voted against puce jelly beans or the board of directors that voted against puce jelly…
People sometimes ask me about the difference between a colon and a dash since they can both be used to introduce the next part of a sentence. So today we’re going to talk about how a dash is different from a colon, and also when you can use a comma in their place. Dashes and Drama Although they also have other uses, dashes and colons can both be used to introduce the next part of a sentence, and the difference between the two marks is subtle. A dash is a stronger and more informal mark than a colon. Think of…
Patrick C. asked,”When discussing a Constitutional Amendment, is it instead a ‘constitutional amendment’?” “Constitutional” is lowercase because it is an adjective, but sometimes “constitution” should be capitalized. When you’re using “constitution” descriptively, it’s also lowercase: The chess club needed a new constitution. We should look that up in our constitution. In the U.S., when you’re referring to the specific founding document we refer to as the Constitution, it is capitalized: George Washington’s name is the first signature on the Constitution. We can’t wait to see the original Constitution when we visit the National Archives. To directly answer Patrick’s question, he should write…
Barbara wants to know how to deal with “you” when it’s part of a compound subject or the compound object of a preposition. Should she say, “You and John are invited to the party” or “John and you are invited to the party”? Barbara should say, “You and John are invited” because all pronouns (except “I” and “me”) normally come before the noun in compounds: Compound subject: You and Squiggly should give up chocolate. Compound subject: She and Bob worked out on the treadmill. Compound object: Aardvark sent you and Juan two broccoli recipes. Compound object: Geoff gave him and Lisa a…
Ron M. wrote, “The phenomenon of using the word ‘verse’ instead of ‘versus’ seems relatively recent, but to this 56 year old’s ears, it’s driving me nuts. I first started hearing this about 15 years ago when my sons were interested in Wrestlemania. They and their friends would be talking about who was wrestling who and would use the word ‘verse.’ I would gently correct them and tell them the correct word is ‘versus’ … Latin for ‘against.’ It seems like suddenly this mis-usage is rampant. I’m actually hearing professional sportscaster making this error!” Jackie also provided an example. She…
When you end a sentence with an abbreviation, you don’t need an extra period. Apple Computer, Inc. became Apple, Inc.. (wrong) Apple Computer, Inc. became Apple, Inc. (right) The period that ends the abbreviation also ends the sentence. Think of it as an environmentally friendly rule—one dot of ink serves two purposes. Even though such sentences are correct, they can confuse readers who may not realize you’ve ended the sentence. It’s best to write out the abbreviated word if it falls at the end of a sentence or to rewrite the sentence so the abbreviation doesn’t come at the end. The story…
Today’s topic is sentence fragments. I often imagine that listeners are writing long things such as articles, essays, and books; but I was recently reminded that some people make their living writing shorter things like headlines and ad copy, and that keeping things short is hard work. “I didn’t have time to write a short letter, so I wrote a long one instead,” is a famous quotation—attributed to many people including Mark Twain and Blaise Pascal—that resonates with many people who write for a living. Unfortunately, when writers focus too much on brevity, sometimes they leave out important words and…