In this week’s installment of “Slang This!,” Grant and Martha are joined by June Casagrande, author of Mortal Syntax: 101 Language Choices That Will Get you Clobbered by the Grammar Snobs — Even If You’re Right. June...
When Barack Obama intoned, “I do not underestimate the enormity of the task ahead,” some grammar sticklers recoiled. Pointing to the word’s roots, they insist that enormity means not “large,” but “out of the...
A new resident of Pittsburgh is startled by some of the dialect there, like yinz instead of “you” for the second person plural, and nebby for “nosy.” What’s up with that? For a wonderful site about the dialect of that...
Quiz Guy John Chaneski presents a puzzle called “Blank the Blank” or “Verb the Noun,” about three-word phrases with a “the” in the middle. It’s harder than you might think, so play along and see if you can...
spag n.— «Spelling and grammar, or Spag if we’re being teacherly, are high on the list of things people complain about to the Readers’ Editor.» —“‘Spag’ can happen to anyone” by Siobhain Butterworth Toronto...
Ahoy, mateys, and welcome aboard another newsletter from A Way with Words! We are delighted to welcome our new listeners from KTOO in Juneau, Alaska, and WCAI, in Cape Cod, Massachusetts. The smell of leather-bound books and printer's ink is...