A horrific accident occurred in my part of the country recently. A truck carrying logs shed its load as it approached a bridge occupied by a group of construction workers. Men were trapped under logs, bleeding from their injuries, writhing in the pain of broken bones; several were killed. First responders rushed about, tending the … Read more
A reader asks why there is no comma after the introductory phrase in the following sentence from one of my recent posts: At a recent writers’ conference I heard a successful self-published author say, “Readers are not looking for great writing; they’re looking for a great story.” I formerly put a comma after every introductory … Read more
Some adjectives with two forms often create doubt in native speakers. Take for example these uses of the words wood and wooden: You’ll want to budget about $4/square foot for a wood deck… Building a wooden deck over a concrete one 68 Wooden Deck Design Ideas Expansive wood deck with low wood railing using diagonal … Read more
The aphorism “English words don’t end in u,” is frequently invoked by spelling teachers as an aid in spelling such common words as, blue, clue, cue, due, flue, glue, hue, and true. The silent final e also rescues the following words from the onus of ending in u: construe, continue, ensue, imbue, and issue. The … Read more
When I heard someone on NPR say that someone “couldn’t hold a tune,” in the sense of “couldn’t carry a tune,” I assumed it was an isolated misuse of the more common expression. Then I did a Google search for “hold a tune” and got more than half a million hits. Here are a few: … Read more
The Chicago Manual of Style warns careful writers to avoid confusing the words oration and peroration: A peroration, strictly speaking, is the conclusion of an oration (speech). Careful writers avoid using peroration to refer to a rousing speech or text. In its rhetorical sense, a peroration is the concluding part of a speech intended to … Read more
Participle is a grammatical term I fling about quite often. A recent reader’s comment made me realize that not everyone is completely clear about what the word means. Instead of trying to cover both participles in one post, I’ll focus on the “past participle” in this one and save the “present participle” for another time. … Read more
Like the rabbit Thumper in Bambi, I was brought up on the admonition, “if you can’t say nuthin’ nice, don’t say nuthin’ at all.” How times have changed! Not only has insult come to pervade public discourse, the Web abounds with insult generators to assist the invective-challenged. For instance, creative types who want to add … Read more
A reader from Brazil asks for clarification on the expressions “by the way” and “as a matter of fact,” having heard that they are interchangeable expressions to be used when a person wants to change the subject of a conversation. by the way As one of its earliest meanings, the expression “by the way” had … Read more
When I came across a reference to a “birthing chair” in a historical novel by Barbara Youree, I wanted to know more about it, so I did a Web search and found this: Today, the idea of giving birth while sitting upright in a wooden chair may seem torturous. But long before delivery rooms, stirrups, … Read more
I received an email from a reader who is a scopist. The reader suspected that the title might be unfamiliar to me and kindly explained it: scopist/notereader for a court reporter. I was grateful because I’d never heard the word scopist before. Naturally I wanted to know more, so I looked the word up in … Read more
A reader who works with legal transcription has the following question: There seems to be a trend towards having the prefixes and suffixes separate from the modified noun instead of being attached or hyphenated. What is proper? Some examples are non negotiable, post surgery, post doctorate, age wise. The examples given present a variety of forms, … Read more