Friday, June 30, 2017
Guest-written Grammar Girl episode: Weird Words
Want to learn about some strange English words such as higgledy-piggledy? Check out this recent episode written by yours truly!
Friday, February 10, 2017
Thursday, February 2, 2017
New Grammar Girl Episode!
Curious about the origins of the words we use for the twelve months of the year? Check out my new episode for Grammar Girl!
Sunday, September 18, 2016
Criminal Sentence 678: Stickler Mourns Death of Body
As a mother, I am always sad when I hear of a child dying. Likewise, as a grammarian, I am always aware of errors.
From today's newspaper (about the anniversry of a flood that swept away 12 people in Utah):
"The body of one boy, 6-year-old Tyson Black, was never found and is presumed dead."
After reflecting on the sadness of this sentence, we can turn to its grammar.
Let's take away some of the sentence so we can more clearly see the problem; we are left with "The body ... was never found and is presumed dead."
Here, the subject is "body." First, it was never found. Very sad. Very correct. Second, the body "is presumed dead." Sorry, but bodies used in this sense are always non-alive. To fix this, we just need to add one word: "he" and a comma before the "and."
"The body of one boy, 6-year-old Tyson Black, was never found, and he is presumed dead."
Very sad. Very correct.
From today's newspaper (about the anniversry of a flood that swept away 12 people in Utah):
"The body of one boy, 6-year-old Tyson Black, was never found and is presumed dead."
After reflecting on the sadness of this sentence, we can turn to its grammar.
Let's take away some of the sentence so we can more clearly see the problem; we are left with "The body ... was never found and is presumed dead."
Here, the subject is "body." First, it was never found. Very sad. Very correct. Second, the body "is presumed dead." Sorry, but bodies used in this sense are always non-alive. To fix this, we just need to add one word: "he" and a comma before the "and."
"The body of one boy, 6-year-old Tyson Black, was never found, and he is presumed dead."
Very sad. Very correct.
Saturday, August 27, 2016
Monday, August 8, 2016
Criminal Sentence 677: The Thread Police
The Phoenix area is home to a serial shooter, who has killed seven people. I hope they catch him pronto! This criminal sentence comes from an article about this criminal:
"The thread police say links the nine incidents to one another is forensics."
When I first read this sentence I asked myself what the thread police are.
It turns out that this sentence needs a strategically placed "that":
"The thread that police say links the nine incidents to one another is forensics."
Even better would be to eliminate the "to be" verb and more wordiness:
"Police say that forensics links the nine incidents."
By the way, I wondered whether "forensics" is singular or plural. When the word refers to the discipline of forensics, it is singular.
"The thread police say links the nine incidents to one another is forensics."
When I first read this sentence I asked myself what the thread police are.
It turns out that this sentence needs a strategically placed "that":
"The thread that police say links the nine incidents to one another is forensics."
Even better would be to eliminate the "to be" verb and more wordiness:
"Police say that forensics links the nine incidents."
By the way, I wondered whether "forensics" is singular or plural. When the word refers to the discipline of forensics, it is singular.
Friday, August 5, 2016
Criminal Sentence 676: Don't Be an "Ass"!
Happy Friday! I was looking at descriptions of new movies and came across this gem on the IMDb app about the film "How to Be Yours":
"Two people driven by their professional ambitions fall in love and are forced to reassess their goals ass they encounter the trials of a serious relationship."
The movie got a 7.2 rating, but I'll give that sentence a 10 for its entertainment value!
"Two people driven by their professional ambitions fall in love and are forced to reassess their goals ass they encounter the trials of a serious relationship."
The movie got a 7.2 rating, but I'll give that sentence a 10 for its entertainment value!
Friday, July 15, 2016
New Grammar Girl episode
Here's a link to my latest guest-written episode, which my teenage son helped research:
http://www.quickanddirtytips.com/education/grammar/7-surprising-places-we-got-phrases-about-food
http://www.quickanddirtytips.com/education/grammar/7-surprising-places-we-got-phrases-about-food
Tuesday, June 28, 2016
Criminal Sentence 675: This "Will Significantly Effect" You
Hello. I know it's been a while. The first sentence in an important newspaper story lured me from the kitchen table to the home office. (Yes, I am still in my pajamas.)
Here is the offender:
"Monday's U.S. Supreme Court ruling in a high-profile Texas abortion case will significantly effect how Arizona regulates abortion providers."
This article's lead grabbed my interest, but not in a good way. Politics aside, ugh! As this post's title suggests, there is a significant misspelling here: "effect" should be "affect." This error is pretty basic. If you Google "affect vs. efffect" you get 145 million hits, including a great explanation by my friend Grammar Girl.
For the most part, "effect" acts as a noun, as in "The effect of that blue eyeshadow is frightening." Most of the time when you need to use a verb, as in the offending sentence, you should use "affect" with an "a": "Will bad spelling affect my reputation?"
Yes, it will!
Here is the offender:
"Monday's U.S. Supreme Court ruling in a high-profile Texas abortion case will significantly effect how Arizona regulates abortion providers."
This article's lead grabbed my interest, but not in a good way. Politics aside, ugh! As this post's title suggests, there is a significant misspelling here: "effect" should be "affect." This error is pretty basic. If you Google "affect vs. efffect" you get 145 million hits, including a great explanation by my friend Grammar Girl.
For the most part, "effect" acts as a noun, as in "The effect of that blue eyeshadow is frightening." Most of the time when you need to use a verb, as in the offending sentence, you should use "affect" with an "a": "Will bad spelling affect my reputation?"
Yes, it will!
Sunday, December 13, 2015
Friday, December 4, 2015
Saturday, November 28, 2015
Tuesday, November 24, 2015
Criminal Sentence 674: Let's Visit Dairy Island!
A chuckle-inducing sentence from an online blog:
"Don't stray from the dairy isle."
Don't worry. I won't jump on a boat and sail to that island. Instead, I'll go to the dairy aisle!
"Don't stray from the dairy isle."
Don't worry. I won't jump on a boat and sail to that island. Instead, I'll go to the dairy aisle!
Sunday, September 6, 2015
Criminal Sentence 673: How big of chunks?
A quote from someone in yesterday's newspaper, in an article about workers trying to stabilize a giant rock that is poised to fall:
"We don't know how big of chunks are going to fall."
That's a big chunk of strangeness in my opinion. I understand what the person meant, but that does sound very odd, doesn't it?
He probably should have said something like this:
"We don't know the size of the chunks that are going to fall."
I realize that regular joes don't always speak grammatically. Perhaps I can let it slide in conversation, but nobody should write a sentence like that.
The construction "how [adjective] of..." works with singular nouns, as in "How crazy of a person are you?" But as we can see here, it doesn't work with plural nouns. I don't really know why. Any theories?
"We don't know how big of chunks are going to fall."
That's a big chunk of strangeness in my opinion. I understand what the person meant, but that does sound very odd, doesn't it?
He probably should have said something like this:
"We don't know the size of the chunks that are going to fall."
I realize that regular joes don't always speak grammatically. Perhaps I can let it slide in conversation, but nobody should write a sentence like that.
The construction "how [adjective] of..." works with singular nouns, as in "How crazy of a person are you?" But as we can see here, it doesn't work with plural nouns. I don't really know why. Any theories?
Monday, August 10, 2015
Criminal Sentence 672: Em Dash Doozy
From today's newspaper:
"Apple is one of--if not the--largest holding by many individual investors, says SigFig."
In this sentence, the words between the em dashes (the --) are being emphasized, or at least they would be if the punctuation were correct. If you stick something in the middle of a sentence for emphasis, you need to be able to remove the em dashes and everything between them (the removal test), and the sentence needs to still make sense. Let's see what happens when we do this with our sentence:
"Apple is one of largest holding by many individual investors, says SigFig."
That's not right. In fact, it's downright criminal!
Let's fix it:
"Apple is one of the largest--if not the largest--holdings by many individual investors, says SigFig."
We had to repeat a word, but the new sentence is better. If we do the removal test, we end up with a coherent sentence:
"Apple is one of the largest holdings by many individual investors, says SigFig."
Of course, the sentence would probably sound better if we remove the passive "by" construction, but I'll hold off on complaining about that.
"Apple is one of--if not the--largest holding by many individual investors, says SigFig."
In this sentence, the words between the em dashes (the --) are being emphasized, or at least they would be if the punctuation were correct. If you stick something in the middle of a sentence for emphasis, you need to be able to remove the em dashes and everything between them (the removal test), and the sentence needs to still make sense. Let's see what happens when we do this with our sentence:
"Apple is one of largest holding by many individual investors, says SigFig."
That's not right. In fact, it's downright criminal!
Let's fix it:
"Apple is one of the largest--if not the largest--holdings by many individual investors, says SigFig."
We had to repeat a word, but the new sentence is better. If we do the removal test, we end up with a coherent sentence:
"Apple is one of the largest holdings by many individual investors, says SigFig."
Of course, the sentence would probably sound better if we remove the passive "by" construction, but I'll hold off on complaining about that.
Friday, August 7, 2015
Monday, July 20, 2015
New Grammar Girl episode!
This is all about last names (though I made a bonehead error, saying that last names are sometimes called Christian names). Despite that bozo moment, I think you'll find the episode informative.
Thursday, July 9, 2015
Criminal Sentence 671: The Curious Case of the Missing L
Wednesday, June 24, 2015
Criminal Sentence 670: This Time, a Criminal Editor
From today's newspaper, in a column explaining the jet stream:
"They are created by temperature contrasts which create pressure difference. Those contrasts create pressure differences and those pressure differences create winds."
Sounds a bit repetitive, huh? Well, it's clear that the writer's original sentence was the first one and then the copyeditor fixed it to be the second sentence (changing passive voice to active voice, and removing the "which"). However, the editor forgot to delete the original sentence. Oops!
As an editor, I edit original sentences like this one all the time. It's an editor's job to improve the text, not introduce errors, however. I try my best to reread what I've just edited, especially in a heavily edited piece.
This Criminal Sentence is a good reminder for me to do just that, and non-editors should reread their work, too!
"They are created by temperature contrasts which create pressure difference. Those contrasts create pressure differences and those pressure differences create winds."
Sounds a bit repetitive, huh? Well, it's clear that the writer's original sentence was the first one and then the copyeditor fixed it to be the second sentence (changing passive voice to active voice, and removing the "which"). However, the editor forgot to delete the original sentence. Oops!
As an editor, I edit original sentences like this one all the time. It's an editor's job to improve the text, not introduce errors, however. I try my best to reread what I've just edited, especially in a heavily edited piece.
This Criminal Sentence is a good reminder for me to do just that, and non-editors should reread their work, too!
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