The real problem with swearing? No, it’s not what you might be thinking. Recently, I posted a fun meme that had a “swear” jar and a “talking about my dog” jar for coins, reflecting an old idea that when we…
April 2020: Describe Your Life
April 2020: What words describe your life? Over the past few years, starting with this article, I’ve written a few more on using language to our benefit, trying to help us all remember that we hold many of the keys…
Uncover Your Smothered Verbs!
Uncover your smothered verbs! Why? Because you’ll shorten and sharpen your writing, and your readers will get more out of the experience. So what’s a smothered verb, you ask? It’s a verb that we changed into a noun, a word…
Instinctive and Instinctual
While the words instinctive and instinctual share a common bond, they’re also subtly different when used accurately. That said, many writers do use them as they see fit, even if the word isn’t the right one, probably because so few…
Vocabularies and Tough Words
In this era of mankind, we have extensive vocabularies with some tough words, no matter our language. Obviously early humans didn’t have words for things, at least not words they uttered out loud to exchange an idea with another human.…
Homophones: Principal and Principle
I was talking on LinkedIn recently with Tom Dietzler, who wondered if I could help with two words — homophones — that he kept getting mixed up. Of course, he’s in great company; a lot of writers confuse these two.…
The Curse of the Announcer
The curse of the announcer seems to be everywhere! Part of sports talk. Part of our inner conversations. Everywhere! I love watching sports — even some sports that some sports fans don’t think are actually sports. I love watching pro…
Can Words Really Hurt Us?
Years ago, I realized that words can really hurt us. Like many, I had grown up hearing the old adage: “sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me!” Then I realized how untrue that saying…
Ease Up on the Jargonese, Please!
Years ago, one of my daughters got a job in an industry she wasn’t familiar with. After a couple of weeks of learning the ropes, she showed me her paper notebook (this was in the late ’90s, I think, before…
More Cross Words from a Cruciverbalist*
Yup, it’s back — the Wednesday Words compilation of words in crossword puzzles that I had to look up once I figured out the answers. There’s nothing quite so humbling as realizing that I can put the correct letters…
More “Cross” Words
Longtime readers of my posts know that I love words, and I love crossword puzzles. But I have to say, sometimes I wonder how or why a certain word got used in one of the puzzles. Sometimes I’ve never seen…
Wednesday Words & Woes: Words That DO Exist
It is way too hot to think heavy thoughts here in the northeast part of the U.S. We are sweltering under extremely high temps and humidity. So for today’s post, I pulled a page out of my American Grammar long…
Jinks – Karat
Once again here is an edition of Tuesday Tricksters! I keep publishing these because I know how hard it can be to remember all the variations of words that sound alike (or nearly so), but aren’t spelled the same and…
A Four-Letter Word I Want You to Use!
I was at 4th Monday Networking yesterday, and a man used a four-letter word I wasn’t expecting. I was surprised – shocked, actually – and I told him so. We were discussing how his firm helps companies with customer satisfaction…
Are You Using These 5 “Words” That Don’t Exist?
Funny how things go around, isn’t it? If we see or hear something enough times — particularly if we see it on any of the social media sites — we believe it. We think it’s true. The right way to…
Oh! Oh! Oh!
Many readers know I love doing crossword puzzles, and I’m usually pretty good at them. I read extensively (always have), and I can guess a lot of words, especially with a few letters filled in. BUT. Sometimes I have to…
More Crossword Puzzle Words
As many of you know, I enjoy crossword puzzles; they keep my vocabulary sharp and up to date. But sometimes, even after I’ve filled in all the letters, I don’t recognize the word! I’ve been reading since I was about…
American Grammar Checkup: Pronunciation
So, today’s lesson isn’t exactly about grammar; it’s more about our wacky and weird English language. If nothing else, it should be a reminder of how difficult it is to learn English, no matter which country or system you follow.…
Wednesday’s Words & Woes
There are enough weird things going on the world that no one needs to make anything up. All we need to do is snap a picture of what we see. For instance . . . And then there’s this .…
Moribund Metaphors & Wretched Redundancies
The words and phrases below are all courtesy of The Dimwit’s Dictionary (free download), which I’ve had in the paperback edition since 1994, the year it was written. There have been a couple of updates, but you know what? This…
Using Hyphens
Good morning, dear readers! Here’s another installment of my Monday grammar checkup posts, this one on using hyphens in compound (multi-word) adjectives, those that come right in front of a noun and modify / describe it. I often see this…
Courtesy and Customer Service
In my last post , I wrote about recently giving a refresher program on manners to some men in a long-term drug rehab. While we talked about a wide range of ways to use good manners, but this particular one…
Spunky Old Broads Indeed!
Did you know that February is “Spunky Old Broads” month? I sure didn’t, but according to Claire LeSage, it is! And when I read her short piece, I laughed. I loved the vision I had of her mother, and all…
Irregular Plurals Prove a Point
Have you ever heard someone say, “Why doesn’t she just learn to speak English!”? Every time I hear or read that, I’m tempted to ask that person how easy they think it would be to learn another language if they…
When is it “Then”?
Surprisingly, I am not the only one on the Internet trying to set things straight in terms of American grammar and usage. And as I have written before, it’s terribly easy to mistake one word for another in English!. In…
English is a “Confuzzling” Language!
I am always amazed that anyone can learn English — with all its nuances, regionalisms, and jargon — especially considering how many words have multiple meanings. In this wonderfully silly cartoon, the focus is on “make” and “go,” each of…
The “Meaning” of Words
Have you ever noticed how much humor is rooted in culture and understanding of the local language? A word that means one thing to person A might mean something completely different to person B. An expression that might horrify one…
Dr. Seuss Did What?
NERD (n. Slang) 1. A foolish, inept, or unattractive person. 2. A person who is single-minded or accomplished in scientific or technical pursuits but is felt to be socially inept. I stumbled across a posting on Twitter from the Dictionary.com…
Money Down the Drain
OK, I know I’m a crank, but my crankiness has a purpose. Right now I’m banging my head against a wall — figuratively, although it may get literal — because I just read the first three paragraphs of a post…
Two Wolves and the 2015 Superbowl
Tonight, as I watched the Super Bowl nail-biter with bated breath, I also was posting on Facebook, in the general arena and in a local sports-oriented group. The sports group fell quickly into two main camps: one thinking the Pats…
No Apostrophes in Plurals!
I see this time and time again: someone takes an ordinary word and adds an apostrophe and s, thinking the word is now plural. NO. That’s not the way we do it. In English, we create regular plurals of words…
In New England, We Are Hunkering Down!
Anyone who has watched TV in the last week — especially yesterday or today — knows that there is a monster storm heading up the Atlantic coast, from D.C. to Maine. We are about to get slammed with as much…
Lie, Lay, Lain — These Words Are Such a Pain!
These verbs are the toughest words in the English language to master, probably because they are so much alike. And the forms sometimes show up in one of the other verbs . . . so how are we to know?…
One Word That Can Kill Your Productivity
Funny. When we were kids, most of us heard and maybe said, “Sticks and stones will break my bones, but words will never hurt me.” You remember that, right? Then we grew up, and most of us learned that words…