I regret that I did not make a note of where I saw this, but it did make me gasp: …inspire harrying tales that will either make you gasp for air or make you sit there and shake your head. Whenever I encounter the alteration of an established expression, I do a Google search to … Read more
When I read the following sentence the other day, I had an immediate “Oh No!” reaction to the use of civil: “At the end, I was feeling happy because I did my civil duty,” I’ve always believed that voting is a civic duty. It’s what we do in order to live in a civil society. … Read more
Here’s a fab app for keeping track of your lab info docs, vocab lists, and rehab meds. English speakers have been lopping syllables off words for centuries. And thank goodness for that when it comes to such mouthfuls as taximeter-cabriolet and streptococcus. I’d much rather call a cab or a taxi and talk about avoiding … Read more
Maeve, how about no sooner had she than, or no sooner had she when. I’m always confused about that. Judging from frequent questions about this usage on various internet grammar sites, it’s a concern shared by many writers. Interestingly, when I tried to find online examples of no sooner…when, I found only one: She just … Read more
Knowing when to hyphenate a word and when to write it as two words or as a compound is a difficult concept for me to master. According to OWL (Purdue’s Online Writing Lab) guidelines, two or more words that serve as a single adjective before a noun, are hyphenated: one-way street well-known author chocolate-covered peanuts … Read more
Both words have numerous definitions in the OED, but in ordinary usage, both assume and presume mean “suppose.” I suppose you are going to the beach this summer. I assume you are going to the beach this summer I presume you are going to the beach this summer. H.W. Fowler’s opinion was that in using … Read more
The votes are in and the winners announced for the Second DWT Short Story Competition. Congratulations to winner Violet Toler and runner-up Easton Miller. Your stories pleased many readers. Contests are rough on writers. If we enter and don’t win, it’s very hard to shake the feeling that our writing isn’t any good. Possibly it … Read more
Until I saw the word “fangled” used humorously in a couple of blogs, I’d never given any thought to the elements of newfangled. Can something be “oldfangled,” or just plain “fangled”? Come to find out, the “fangled” part of newfangled is a fossil from Old English. For those of you unfamiliar with the word, the … Read more
If I were to make a list of the 10 greatest inventions of human history, index cards would be right there along with the alphabet and the stuff you put on the back of your pet’s neck to kill fleas. I don’t know how I’d get along with out them. Not counting their other household … Read more
The Short Story Competition 2 has finally come to an end. The voting session last week was pretty interesting, with different stories taking the lead in different days, and in the end Orange Bubble Power won. Congratulations to Violet Toler! Both Violet and Easton Miller, the runner up, will get a free license to the … Read more
Here’s a question from Alfonso Rodriguez from Lima, Peru: Would you be so kind as to tell me what is the correct way to write down an address when the building has no number, I think there is an abbreviation form. If any of you readers outside the U.S. know of an abbreviation that designates … Read more