February 19, 2024

'Try And' vs 'Try To'

Some people say "try and" is always wrong. But it's actually OK.

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February 12, 2024

Apostrophes Wrongly Used in Plurals

One mai tai plus another mai tai does not make two mai tai's. It's two mai tais. Here's how to keep those errant apostrophes out of plurals.

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February 5, 2024

Compose and Comprise

In most editing styles, comprise means to contain. Compose means to make up. So, if you're following these styles, the whole comprises the parts, and the parts compose the whole.

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January 29, 2024

Lesser-known Adverbs

Most of us are taught that adverbs are words that usually end in -ly and that modify actions, as in Kate runs quickly, or modify adjectives or adverbs, as in Kate is truly incredibly fast.

But these manner adverbs constitute just one type of adverb. Adverbs include words that don’t end in -ly at all and don’t modify actions. Instead they answer the questions “when? and “where?”—words like “soon” and “tomorrow”—or they link the idea in once sentence to a previous sentence—words like “therefore” and “however.”

Here's the full story.

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January 22, 2024

Lay and Lie

Lay is a transitive verb, meaning it takes an object: Lay the book on the table.

Lie is intransitive, meaning no object: I lie here staring at the ceiling.

It's the past tense and past participle forms the get confusing. They are:

lie/lay/lain

lay/laid/laid

If you forget those, you can always check a dictionary.

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January 15, 2024

Intrusive 'Of'

A sentence like "Joe is not that big of a sports fan" doesn't need the "of." In fact, that preposition serves no real purpose there.

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January 8, 2024

None Is vs. None Are

Some people believe "none" is always singular. Not so. Sometimes it's intended as a plural and can take a plural verb like "are."

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January 2, 2024

Affect vs. Effect

Affect is a verb and effect is a noun — usually. In rare cases, the opposite can be true. Here's how to get both right every time.

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December 26, 2023

Subject-complement Agreement

All the spectators turned their heads? Or all the spectators turned their head? Making complements agree with subjects isn't always easy — or logical.

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December 18, 2023

The Couple Is or The Couple Are?

With collective nouns, sometimes whatever sounds best, is best.

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