See this at: pbs.org| Added on 01/08/07

On the other hand, no one is required to like all or any particular changes. It is, in the great Anglo-American tradition, our God-given right to have...

See this at: boston.com| Added on 01/04/07

So, it should have been ''Whom are you calling working class?" Not in this universe. ''Beginning a question with whom in contemporary standard English would not just be unusual, it would be bizarre," says linguist Geoffrey Pullum, coauthor of the... See more

So, it should have been ''Whom are you calling working class?" Not in this universe. ''Beginning a question with whom in contemporary standard English would not just be unusual, it would be bizarre," says linguist Geoffrey Pullum, coauthor of the Cambridge Grammar of the English Language. ''Insisting on whom, as some people still do when writing for print, is more and more looking like an affectation," says Pullum, who's currently a fellow at the Radcliffe Institute in Cambridge. You may still say, if you like, ''Whom are you calling a pedant?" (You know the answer.) But it would have been ridiculous to use whom in our headline, which is a variation on a well-known and well-aged expression. (Characters in Sinclair Lewis, Edna Ferber, and George Bernard Shaw, among others, say things like ''Who are you calling a child?") Use a different headline, then? Avoidance is the first refuge of the grammatically insecure, but it seems feeble to dump a good headline because of a bad rule. James... See less

See this at: cjr.org| Added on 06/01/06

A reader was kind enough to write to applaud our sermon on "unique" ("The One and Only," CJR, March/April 1997), but he also had a complaint. On the same page of the magazine, he noted, an article said, "And their success will depend largely on... See more

A reader was kind enough to write to applaud our sermon on "unique" ("The One and Only," CJR, March/April 1997), but he also had a complaint. On the same page of the magazine, he noted, an article said, "And their success will depend largely on cooperation — between the media and the court and, especially, BETWEEN members of the press" (reader's emphasis added). "Since 'members' is plural," the note asked, "should it not read 'among members of the press' "? Probably not. The rule that calls for "among" when more than two things are being discussed is a rule of thumb, and a rough one at that. In any group, the members may relate to each other in a block or, as seems more likely in the reader's example, individually — A to B, A to C, B to A, and so on. So "between members of the press" makes more sense. "Between" was also wanted in this passage from a newspaper report: "The F.B.I.'s refusal of the White House's request was a vivid example of the tensions among the White House, the... See less

See this at: englishplus.com| Added on 04/11/06

With many browsers, you may click on a letter on the above grid to reach the letter quickly. If the grid does not work with your browser, simply scroll down to the grammatical term that you want or click on the text letter below.

With many browsers, you may click on a letter on the above grid to reach the letter quickly. If the grid does not work with your browser, simply scroll down to the grammatical term that you want or click on the text letter below. See less

See this at: randomhouse.com| Added on 04/11/06

alice@mediaone.net writes: Please give some information about "awhile" vs. "a while." Is it always one word, always two words, or does it all depend on how you use it? Sigh. This is going to be another tough one. The forms a while and awhile are not... See more

alice@mediaone.net writes: Please give some information about "awhile" vs. "a while." Is it always one word, always two words, or does it all depend on how you use it? Sigh. This is going to be another tough one. The forms a while and awhile are not the same, and the choice depends on how you use them. There is a "standard" rule that many usage commentators cite, but the rule is often not followed and it is not always possible to tell when it should be applied. The simple explanation is that the single word awhile is an adverb meaning 'for a short time': "We drove awhile, and then stopped for a rest." The form a while is a noun phrase: "A while ago, I was living in Paris." The usage that's most often criticized is the use of the single word awhile where the noun phrase a while is thought to be correct, particularly the use of awhile after a preposition: "I'll stay for awhile." Traditional rules require that the object of a preposition be a noun or noun phrase, thus "I'll stay for a... See less

See this at: randomhouse.com| Added on 04/11/06

Daily explanation about new words, word origins, slang expressions, etc. from Jesse Sheidlower, a senior editor in Random House's Reference Division. Send in your etymology questions or browse the word archive.

Daily explanation about new words, word origins, slang expressions, etc. from Jesse Sheidlower, a senior editor in Random House's Reference Division. Send in your etymology questions or browse the word archive. See less

See this at: linguist.de| Added on 03/16/06

It is common knowledge that the American variety of English is very conservative in comparison to the British one. The first English settlers that survived in America (Crystal, 1988: 223) came in 1607 to what is now Virginia. They were followed by... See more

It is common knowledge that the American variety of English is very conservative in comparison to the British one. The first English settlers that survived in America (Crystal, 1988: 223) came in 1607 to what is now Virginia. They were followed by the famous Pilgrim Fathers, who founded New England in 1620. In the beginning, English people provided the overwhelming majority in the colonies. They coined the language of the East Coast, where the immigrants lived in the first centuries. Up to 1790 two thirds of the population in the United States of that time were of English descendance. In the following years, two important changes took place. The treck to the West began, and there grew to come more immigrants from other European countries. The larger group remained to be anglophone, the Irish being the majority of newcomers now (it was in that time that Irish was replaced by English in Ireland as well, caused among other things by the great famine). Besides, the number of people coming... See less

See this at: yourdictionary.com| Added on 03/09/06

One of the puzzles of the English language that has irritated us for longer than you might expect is the use of "an" before "historical" but not before "history," while "an" is used by some before both "hysterical" and "hysteria." To understand the... See more

One of the puzzles of the English language that has irritated us for longer than you might expect is the use of "an" before "historical" but not before "history," while "an" is used by some before both "hysterical" and "hysteria." To understand the issue here, we need to understand the nature of the sound [h] in the English language and its relation to the letter "h"—remember, letters and sounds do not always correlate in English. Despite the torment endured by English speakers learning the spelling system of their native language (see 'The Chaos'), we often fail to distinguish the spelling system from the sound system (phonology) of English. In this essay, I will be speaking of the English sound system, not spelling. We already know some disparities: the [h] is not pronounced in "honor" nor before [w] in many dialects, so that "which" [hwich] is pronounced [wich], the same as "witch." Did you get the system? Double quotes marks letters while square brackets denote sounds. [h] is a... See less

See this at: en.wikipedia.org| Added on 01/09/06

* American English is the form of English used by people in the United States and, as a lingua franca or second language, by people in many parts of the world. American English does not include Canadian English; although Canadian pronunciation and... See more

* American English is the form of English used by people in the United States and, as a lingua franca or second language, by people in many parts of the world. American English does not include Canadian English; although Canadian pronunciation and vocabulary is very similar to that of the United States, Canadian spelling often takes the Commonwealth form. Regions and countries that tend to use American English in teaching and publishing include much of Eastern Europe (including Russia), the Far East (especially Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, and the Philippines; although largely excluding the former British colonies of Hong Kong and Singapore), the Americas (excluding other former British colonies such as Canada, Jamaica, and the Bahamas) and, in Africa, Liberia, and Namibia. The World Bank, and the Organization of American States, among other organizations, also use American English. * Commonwealth English is the form of English used across the United Kingdom and most of its former... See less