August 29, 2025
I’ve always been taught that hard should only be used as a physical trait. A table is “hard”; a task is not. So imagine my surprise when I scrolled down on Merriam-Webster and found the following definition for hard: “difficult Read more…
August 1, 2025
Kerfuffle Definition A kerfuffle is “a disturbance or commotion typically caused by a dispute or conflict.” Where Did It Come From? Apparently, “fuffle” is a word all on its own! It’s an old Scottish verb meaning “to throw into disarray” Read more…
July 18, 2025
When you’re naming a number range (as in “pages 6–12” or “about 350–400 people attended”), does it matter how you write it? If you’ve been studying the English language for a little while, you won’t be shocked to hear that Read more…
July 11, 2025
The debate of “numerals vs. spelled-out numbers” is a common one, and the correct answer will depend on a few things: What kind of content are you writing? What do the numbers represent? Where are the numbers located within your Read more…
June 26, 2025
Accept and except sound almost exactly the same when you say them out loud, but they’re actually totally different words. They don’t mean the same thing at all, and mixing them up in your writing is a pretty big mistake. Read more…
If you went to the neighborhood pool yesterday and today you’re telling your friend about it, would you say, “I swam” or “I swum”? Swim is an irregular verb; if it were regular, the past tense would simply be swimmed. Read more…
June 20, 2025
You might be looking at that title and thinking, “Wait a second . . . aren’t those the same word?” And your confusion is totally understandable. The only difference is one little space—how much does that space actually matter? It Read more…
May 23, 2025
Titles like “Mrs.,” “Ms.,” “Miss,” and “Mr.” are called courtesy titles, and they’re used before someone’s name to show respect to that person. “Mr.” is, of course, the only masculine title on that list, leaving not one, not two, but Read more…
May 15, 2025
When you use an acronym in your writing, do you need to spell out what it stands for every time? Wouldn’t that kind of defeat the purpose of using the acronym in the first place? Some acronyms are very well-known, Read more…
May 8, 2025
We’ve talked about a lot of acronym things on here, including the difference between acronyms and initialisms, what a redundonym is, how to pluralize acronyms, whether an acronym needs periods, and whether “a” or “an” comes before an acronym. But Read more…