January 28, 2025
We’re back with another “commonly confused words” pairing! We’ve covered further and farther, that and which, compliment and complement, affect and effect, and a whole lot more. Now, it’s time to dig into much and many. If you’ve already mastered Read more…
After the whole insure vs. ensure vs. assure debacle, I started to question every similar word pairing out there. What about who vs. whom? That vs. which? Affect vs. effect?? There are a lot of word pairings with meanings that Read more…
If you’ve ever wondered what the difference is between ensure and insure, you’re definitely not alone. And to make things even more confusing, we can also throw in assure, which has a similar sound and meaning. WHY do we need Read more…
January 21, 2025
Acronyms are words formed from the first letter or letters of each word in a compound term. Technically, an acronym must be pronounced as a single word; when you say each letter individually, it’s an initialism. For the purposes of Read more…
Is redundonym a made-up word? The spell-check feature on my computer certainly seems to think so. But it’s a perfectly good word to describe redundant acronyms, plus it’s just super fun to say out loud (it bounces down your tongue Read more…
Is it “a LED display” or “an LED display”? And would you say “a URL” or “an URL”? Choosing between a or an is one of those grammatical things that native English speakers might have an instinct for, but it’s Read more…
January 7, 2025
Commas have many, MANY uses, from separating elements in a series to setting off introductory phrases to separating a speaker from their quotation to surrounding nonrestrictive clauses and so much more. But there are definitely some times when you should Read more…
January 6, 2025
Punctuation marks don’t just exist to end sentences. They have a whole range of jobs, like introducing quotations, marking transitions mid-sentence, and connecting compound words. Another one of their many jobs is to REPLACE missing letters or words, and this Read more…
You know, I really wish there were just one hard-and-fast set of grammar rules that everyone agreed on and followed all the time. That’d make things much easier for writers, editors, students, and anyone learning English as a second language. Read more…
January 2, 2025
I’m a textbook introvert who reads a lot and doesn’t like to talk very much. Consequently, I have frequently learned a new word, pronounced it a certain way in my head, and then later learned (sometimes in embarrassing ways) that Read more…