May 14, 2018

10 Grammar Issues You Shouldn't Worry About

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If you're trying to use good grammar, you have enough to worry about already. You don't have time to sweat over can't-go-wrong choices like whether to use "a" or "an" before "historic," "healthy" vs. "healthful," whether to use the serial comma, or whether to put periods in abbreviations like "U.S." Here's my recent column highlighting 10 otherwise-stressful grammar issues you can scratch off your list of things to worry about.

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May 7, 2018

Asked or Said?

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Readers Bill and Julie noticed a language trend that's rubbing them the wrong way.

"One of our pet peeves is the evolving usage of 'said' instead of 'asked' immediately preceding the utterance of a question." Here's an example they offered: "He said, 'Where are you going?'"

"We are hearing this more and more often in everyday conversations involving questions, in TV advertisements and on social media," Bill and Julie wrote.

"Do you have any idea why? Is it because 'said' is easier to pronounce than the tongue twister 'asked'? We were taught one shouldn't say a question. A question should always be asked," they added.

 It's an interesting observation, and it touches on an important subject for writers: speech tags. Here are some tips from my recent column.

 

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April 30, 2018

What's with 'Woah'?

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Like a lot of little girls, I was obsessed with horses. I found a trove of horse stories in my school library and dived head first into Old Bones the Wonder Horse by Mildred Mastin Pace and The Golden Mare  by William Corbin.

By the time I was 9, I'd seen the word "whoa" in print so many times, it was unfathomable that anyone might spell this horse command differently. Then, about a year ago, I noticed a stranger on social media responding to a news story with "woah."

"Woah"? Really?

Not long after, I saw this spelling again. Then, just a few days before this writing, I saw a tweet from Atlantic magazine editor David Frum responding to a news item with (get this): "whoah."

I assumed that the inability to spell "whoa" was a new phenomenon. It was definitely new to me. Had I come across "woah" or "whoah" in the past, I would have noticed. I'm sure of it.

But a little grown-up research shows that these spellings are not new. Far from it.

Here's my column on all these spellings and which you should choose.

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April 23, 2018

Whoa, There. What's with 'Woah' and 'Whoah'?

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Like a lot of little girls, I was obsessed with horses. I found a trove of horse stories in my school library and dived head first into "Old Bones the Wonder Horse" by Mildred Mastin Pace and "The Golden Mare" by William Corbin.

By the time I was 9, I'd seen the word "whoa" in print so many times, it was unfathomable that anyone might spell this horse command differently. Then, about a year ago, I noticed a stranger on social media responding to a news story with "woah."

"Woah"? Really?

Not long after, I saw this spelling again. Then, just a few days before this writing, I saw a tweet from Atlantic magazine editor David Frum responding to a news item with (get this): "whoah.

Here's my recent column on how to spell it correctly. 

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April 16, 2018

Hard-learned Grammar Lessons

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You learn something new every day.

In most professions, that's a good thing. But for copy editors, it's a kick in the pants. It means there's something you should have learned years ago but didn't. It means that, even as you were getting paid to catch errors, you were blind to some. It hurts.

For editors — or anyone who wants to use the language well — humility is key. You have to know when to look up stuff, even if it's stuff you've already looked up a hundred times. And you have to accept that after years or even decades on the job, you can still get sucker-punched by your own ignorance.

Yes, I'm talking about myself.

Here's a column I wrote recently about the discoveries that still sting, including bouillon vs. bullion, compose vs. comprise, and how to spell embarrass.

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April 9, 2018

Spat, Slayed, Lain: Tricky Past Tense Forms

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Regular verbs form their past tenses and past participles according to simple formula: just add “ed.” Today I walk. Yesterday I walked. In the past I have walked.  Irregular verbs follow no pattern at all. Today I eat. Yesterday I ate. In the past I have eaten. They’re easy to find in the dictionary. The past tense and past participle are listed right after the entry word, in that order.

But knowing where to look for answers is just half the battle. You also have to know when to look for answers.

Certain words require extra vigilance. You need to be on the lookout for them because they can trip you up when you're not paying attention.

With that in mind, here’s a column a wrote highlighting seven verbs  whose past participles require extra care.

 

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April 2, 2018

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Last night, Joe dreamt of Mary. Or would it be better to say that he dreamed of her? More important: How can you know for sure?

Past participles confuse a lot of people. Take it from someone whose Boston-area in-laws opt for forms like "I should have ate" and "I could have went." When we need a verb form to go after "have," we reach for the one that sounds best. And what sounds best is whatever we're most accustomed to hearing.

Most of the time, that works out great. In any aspect of language, the most natural-sounding, most popular form is correct about 99% of the time. But the other 1% of the time, things can get ugly.

Even more important than getting past participles "right" is knowing how to make good choices. Here's a quick overview of past participles and how to look them up.

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March 26, 2018

So Many Spelling Errors, So Little Time

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"As manager of the restaurant, Milton likes to keep the staff appraised."

"The cocktail will be rimmed with a blend of exclusive Mexican-salts, and garnished with a fresh-cut lime and spiral-cut jalapeno, skewered by a mini beach umbrella, and complimented by rose pedals."

"A uniformed chauffer who will serve you champagne in crystal flukes from a silver tray."

These are just a few of the error-riddled sentences that made it into my most recent column. Here's how to never make these errors yourself.

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March 19, 2018

Is 'Whom' Dead?

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"Who Cyril Ramaphosa should fire."

That was a recent headline for an Economist magazine article about the new South African president. But one of the biggest questions it raised had nothing to do with global politics. Why not "whom"?

The magazine's editors didn't wait for others to ask it.

"Some readers might have wondered whether someone should fire our proofreaders," they wrote in a follow-up. "Shouldn't that be 'Whom Cyril Ramaphosa should fire'?"

I look at their answer in this recent column.

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March 12, 2018

Even More Word Choice Errors

Keeping the staff "appraised." A cocktail "complimented" by a garnish. That garnish? Rose "pedals."

I seem to be stumbling into a lot of errors in my reading lately, both in the stuff I'm paid to edit and in stuff I'm reading that, presumably, someone has already edited. As always, these commonly confused terms are all great opportunities for the rest of us who want to avoid errors. Here's my recent column covering some of these.

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