I am in complete sympathy with Ellen Jovin and her confounding prickly participles and commas, (”Confounding commas, prickly participles,” Ideas, July 24). It seems as though hardly anyone has command ...

English was not my best subject in school. Compared to science, social studies and math, the study of our native tongue lagged far behind. Learning how the parts of speech interacted, when to use ...

“LET’S talk properly.” Tom Sherrington had little reason to think that his blog post, so titled, would cause controversy. A British consultant and former head teacher, he had called on educators to ...

Regarding Joan Webber’s recent letter on participles and commas, wherein she claims that people misuse “existential,” she is plainly mistaken (”Prickly participles? Speaking proper English is ...

One of the things that prompted me to write The Lexicographer’s Dilemma was a series of questions, all variations on a theme, I received by E-mail. My on-line Guide to Grammar and Style means a lot of ...