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When asked what the most common punctuation error of all is in American English, I don’t have to think hard. The "winning" mistake is the misuse of the apostrophe, especially with its/it’s. First, let’s get rid of a myth: There is no such thing as its’. Why? Because its’ would be meaningless. If its' existed, …

Here are some tricks of the editing trade that will make your writing look more polished instantly. Trick #1: Use concrete rather than vague language. Example of vague language: The weather was of an extreme nature. Example of concrete language: Thunderstorms tore open the sky, bringing a deluge of rain. Which sentence would make you …

Today's social media began taking shape in the early 2000s with platforms such as MySpace and LinkedIn. It has since expanded into influential applications such as Facebook, Instagram, X (formerly Twitter), TikTok, YouTube, and Snapchat. Text messaging likewise gained popularity in the early 2000s and peaked in usage between 2006 and 2010. It then broadened …

We recently discussed how nouns can be made into verbs, a practice referred to as verbing: e.g., Why don't you friend me on Facebook? Within its dynamic fluidity, English also often uses verbs as nouns or turns verbs into them, a process known as nominalization. Examples Let's go for a walk. What an epic fail. …

A fixed grammar lets us communicate with a clear, ordered structure we can all understand. Functioning as a GPS for directing our thoughts and ideas, it provides accurate markers and routes for moving our mind's content into intelligible expressions. While language is organized to unify understanding, it also can bend and flex to expand intentions …

The English we speak in the U.S. today represents centuries of influence, change, and inheritance. We can see this, for example, in how American English has been used in the 2020s as compared with during the 1820s. We can also readily recognize differentiating factors such as how our word choices differ from those in other …

With joy and inspiration we celebrate another year of grammatical discovery and discussion with you. In 2024, our ATGV (All-Terrain Grammar Vehicle) crossed far and wide into more diverse territory ranging from assonance and alliteration to diphthongs and sibilance. The vehicle we share in pursuit of written precision and eloquence will travel farther in 2025 …

Language is the system we use to speak, write, and sign (manually) to express ourselves within our social groups. Distinctive to our species, it gives us a powerful means to inform, play, imagine, persuade, and release (e.g., our feelings). While a specific number can vary, many estimates suggest that English includes more than one million …

We use nouns in American English to identify persons, places, things, states of being, and qualities. Our noun references might also be specific or nonspecific. Examples I saw the car. (specific) I saw the BMW four-door sedan. (specific) I saw a car. (nonspecific) In the first sentence, we explain we saw a particular car. It …

Most of us are likely aware of the give and take of spoken and written language. We give extra license for looseness when speaking; we take that license back to ensure and protect proper form when writing (or at least that should be our aim). Like a thriving rooftop cocktail party at sunset, American English …