Recent Posts
- 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… - Saying These 7 Words Out Loud Will Make You Smile
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… - How To Write Number Ranges
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… - “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… - Accept vs. Except: What’s the Difference?
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… - Which Is Correct: Swam or Swum?
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… - 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… - “Mrs.” vs “Ms.” vs “Miss”: What’s the Difference?
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… - 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… - 10 of the Most-Searched Words in the Dictionary
I use the dictionary a LOT. When I type “m” into the search bar, my computer automatically fills in “merriam-webster.com.” Most of the time, the words I’m searching are ones that I haven’t heard before or rarely use, but there 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… - What Is a Preposition?
“Preposition” is one of those grammar words that seems to be thrown around a lot but never actually clearly explained. Sometimes people seem to (incorrectly) use it as the catch-all: When all the other words in a sentence have been Read more… - 6 Essential Grammar Words You Should Know
Noun Definition Basically, a noun is a person, place, or thing. The “thing” category also covers animals, qualities (like “kindness”), and ideas (like “justice”). This is the largest category of words in English. What Do Nouns Do? In a sentence, Read more… - “May” vs. “Might”: What’s the Difference?
May and might are pretty similar words: they both have to do with possibility and probability. However, these words have their differences. So what ARE those differences, and when do you need to be careful to not mix up the Read more… - “Compose” and “Comprise”: What’s the Difference?
There are plenty of English words that get mixed up all the time, like lay and lie, ensure and insure, compliment and complement, etc. Now, it’s time to talk about compose and comprise! Both compose and comprise have to do Read more…