Let's talk about apostrophes. Specifically, let's talk about apostrophes used to replace numbers or letters. Sometimes these come in the form of contractions like don't, can't and won't. Other times we replace numbers: I was born in the ’80s. The above is correct, but too often we see mistakes like these: I was born in the ‘80s. INCORRECT [...]
A “cue” refers to either a signal or a billiards stick, whereas a “queue” is a line. Nick jumped right on cue when he saw the spider. Cue the music; the parade is starting. Having received the order, the baker put another chocolate cake in the queue. I’m dying to see this movie, so I’m [...]
Don't lie to yourself. This grammar rule can sometimes be so confusing it makes you want to lay the rule book down and walk away or just lie down altogether. First, let's forget about the lying to yourself part. "To lie," as in to tell an untruth, is its own separate meaning that's pretty clear-cut. [...]
When two or more subjects are joined with the word “and,” use a plural verb. But when one subject is the main focus and a second subject is just tagging along, use a singular verb. You’ll know when a subject is tagging along, because it will be set off in commas. For instance: Plural subject: [...]
Something different or special is in the text you're writing — so important or different that it warrants a little flash. Maybe it's a newspaper name or an article or song title. Should you: A. Underline it? B. Italicize it? Wait, isn't that the same thing as underlining? C. Put quotation marks around it? [...]
It's a one letter difference, but sometimes that's all it takes to make a cringe-worthy grammar mistake. But fear not, we're here to not only give you an active voice, but an accurate one as well. Flesh out: The phrase "flesh out" means to give something substance or make it nearly complete. Example: I think [...]
We're living in a fast-paced world, and we tend to jam a lot of things together. We even make up words like hangry, J-Lo and whatev. Words that begin with prefixes — take, for example, "redo" — are the result of us getting our point across faster. After all, it's faster to say "redo" than [...]
Is media always the plural of medium? If it were only that simple. But you don't need a medium to ask the now-dead person who invented these rules. We just need to remember a few simple definitions: Media (mass communications): newspapers, radio, TV, internet, etc. Often we use media as a mass noun that [...]
So many options. So tempting to type a hyphen, hit the space bar, type another word and see your hyphen magically turn into an en dash. No one will notice ... But an en dash just isn't an em dash, is it? It's shorter. Em dash: — En dash: – Hyphen (for size): - Historically, the [...]
You see it both ways so often that its inconsistency has become consistent, but it still gets under your skin. Should an em dash (—) have spaces before and after it, or should it touch the words it separates? First, what is an em dash? An em dash can be used in pairs to encompass [...]
