Over the years, I’ve seen a lot of “most common grammar mistakes” lists on the internet. And, over the years, I’ve learned they’re almost always wrong. That is, in every published list of the grammar ...
The clearest instance I know of a discovery in English grammar that should have called for revision of certain traditional doctrines—though instead it was just ignored—is the radically improved ...
PREPOSITIONS form a pretty exclusive club. Unlike nouns and verbs, of which there are squillions each, Wikipedia lists over a hundred modern one-word prepositions, a few two-word ("next to") and three ...
Late last month, Merriam-Webster shared the news on Instagram that it’s OK to end a sentence with a preposition. Hats off to them, sincerely. But it is hard to convey how bizarre, to an almost comical ...
In this episode we will focus on the use of word form groups such as noun, verb and preposition phrases. Then, we will look at some words that can be used as both nouns and verbs, and learn how to ...
One of the most interesting questions I’ve gotten recently was from a colleague who had come across the phrase “one of the living writers who really matter.” The use of “matter” instead of “matters” ...