Gesamtlänge aller Episoden: 14 days 23 hours 37 minutes
BAND NAMES: When referring to a rock band, do I use the single form "is" or "are"? Does the band name dictate the usage? WOMAN OR FEMALE? The question of word choice is rising again—Is Hilary Clinton the first "female" presidential nominee from a major party or the first "woman" nominee? SPONSOR http://audible.com/gg PODCAST AWARDS: You can vote every day through June 12. http://podcastawards.com AMAZON AFFILIATE CODE http://quickanddirtytips...
HOW TO MAKE RBI PLURAL: Baseball season has started, so it’s a good time to answer questions from listeners who have asked how to make an abbreviation such as "RBI" plural. PRINCIPAL OR PRINCIPLE? Today we’re going to recall that the principal is indeed your “pal,” but we’ll also see that a principal can be so much more. In this episode we’ll talk about the various ways to use “principle”—that’s “p-l-e”—and “principal”—that’s “p-a-l.” RUN OF THE MILL...
ARE YOU INTERURBAN? When you split your time between the East Coast and the West Coast, you can call yourself “bicoastal.” What about when you’re splitting your time between two cities, like a listener named Jeff, who splits his time between New York City and Boston? VONNEGUT'S FAMOUS SEMICOLON QUOTATION. I couldn’t imagine that any talented writer would so universally dismiss an entire punctuation mark...
COMMENCEMENT: Last week a professor in my department asked me why we call a graduation ceremony “commencement” when the event marks the end of college. “To commence” means “to begin,” not end, so it seems like an odd name for the ceremony. DELETE 'IT': Want a timeless, painless tip that quickly helps you clarify your writing? Look for it. What William Cobbett said two centuries ago still rings true: “The word it is the greatest troubler that I know of in language...
Celsius Versus Centigrade: Anders Celsius was a Swedish astronomer who invented a thermometer based on the boiling point and freezing point of water. We know a slightly improved version of his thermometer by the Celsius name and by the word "centigrade." This centigrade thermometer was named in honor of Celsius in 1948 at the ninth International Conference of Weights and Measures...
Away Versus Home? A listener named Alan wrote, “When using the word versus, does it make a difference as to what is placed before and what is placed after? For example: Roe versus Wade or Red Sox versus Yankees. In other words, by rule is one the challenger, and the other the challenged?” How to Make Product Names Plural: Two Silicon Valley guys were talking on Twitter about whether they should say they have two iPad Pros or two iPads Pro...
Last week, ESPN fired Curt Schilling because of offensive remarks he made on social media, and in his follow-up statement, Schilling referred to the brouhaha, but he misspelled the word as brew ha ha, like the name of a beerfest in my hometown. (Follow along on the website: http://j.mp/brouhaha-origin) Merriam-Webster added "athleisure" to the unabridged dictionary, but the editors had been watching the word for a while before they decided to add it...
Carrie from New Orleans asked me to help her understand whether she should say "I wish I were more perceptive" or "I wish I was more perceptive." It's a great question because it's something that a lot of people don't know. (Follow along on the website: http://j...
FOLLOW ALONG ON THE WEBSITE Titled or Entitled? http://j.mp/titled-entitled AP Style Updates http://j.mp/APstyle2016 Into Thin Air http://j.mp/into-thin-air SPONSORS http://IglooSoftware.com/grammargirl http://casper.com//gg and use the code GG AMAZON AFFILIATE CODE http://quickanddirtytips.com/amazon E-BOOK: GRAMMAR GIRL'S QUICK AND DIRTY TIPS FOR BETTER WRITING On sale for $2.99 through April: Kindle: http://amzn.to/1RRJDAe Nook: http://bit...
FOLLOW ALONG ON THE WEBSITE Pronouncing Pulitzer: http://j.mp/227C9M1 Navajo Codes: http://j.mp/1S3FXIA SPONSORS http://verbling.com (Discount Code: grammargirl) http://audible.com/gg AMAZON AFFILIATE CODE http://quickanddirtytips.com/amazon E-BOOK: GRAMMAR GIRL'S QUICK AND DIRTY TIPS FOR BETTER WRITING Kindle: http://amzn.to/1RRJDAe Nook: http://bit.ly/1qmUsBi FOLLOW GRAMMAR GIRL Twitter: http://twitter.com/grammargirl Facebook: http://facebook.com/grammargirl Snapchat: http://snapchat...