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Category: Grammar

Commonly Confused Words: Is It “Difficult” or “Hard”?

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…


“5” or “Five”: When Should You Spell Out Numbers?

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…


Commonly Confused Words: “Into” vs. “In to”

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…


When Should You Spell Out an Acronym?

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…


Backronyms: FAKE Acronyms

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…


12 Pitfalls to AVOID With Subject-Verb Agreement

Subject-verb agreement is easy enough on the surface: Singular subjects need singular verbs, and plural subjects need plural verbs. But things can get a little bit tricky when you start talking about multiple subjects, collective nouns, interference from predicate nouns, Read more…


Subjects and Verbs MUST Agree . . . but What Does That Mean?

Subjects and verbs are some of the most important elements in a sentence. If I’m being honest, they’re probably THE most important parts of a sentence—after all, you need both of them to even form the sentence in the first Read more…


39 NEW Words That Were Recently Added to the Dictionary

Dictionaries are constantly changing! As people invent new words and change old ones, dictionaries add and update entries. If a new kind of technology is invented, its name needs to go in the dictionary. When new slang words pop up, Read more…


These Are the LONGEST English Words in the Dictionary

Want to impress your friends with some ridiculously and perhaps unnecessarily long words? This is the list for you! The 190,000-Letter Word Number of Letters: 189,819 Definition: Yep, there’s a word out there that’s almost 190,000 letters long. Technically speaking, Read more…


What Is an Adverb?

Adverbs are the more complicated cousin of adjectives. Whereas adjectives serve a fairly straightforward purpose—they limit or describe a noun—adverbs have a more diverse range of functions. Their primary purpose is to modify verbs, but they can also modify adjectives, Read more…