Here is a new Grammar Guide quiz. Almost all of the 10 sentences involve word usage challenges. I have one… Read more »
Posts By: Pam Nelson
Let's learn about pronouns: Grammar Guide quiz No. 55
The latest Grammar Guide quiz involves pronouns. Some explanations in this quiz include grammatical terms such as "nominative case" and… Read more »
Don't expect the lexicographers to referee
Columnist Barry Saunders finds fault with the word ginormous and wishes editors would not allow such coinages into the pages… Read more »
Tricky word choices: A Grammar Guide Quiz (No. 54)
The latest Grammar Guide quiz involves commonly confused words — as you might have guessed, one of my favorite copy… Read more »
Word nerd reading: Untranslatable expressions
I saw this feature in the March issue of Reader's Digest: Eight expressions that ought to exist in our native… Read more »
The disappearing regional dialect: Raleigh
A story in The News & Observer's Sunday edition might be interesting to language buffs and fans of regional accents…. Read more »
Kayaker vs. canoeist: agent nouns and suffixes
A reader asks this interesting question: Two items in the news yesterday made me wonder, and I hope you have… Read more »
Confused words: The RAVEN flies again
I've run across two sentences recently that confused affect and effect in a similar way: While the university doesn’t yet… Read more »
Confused words: Two words of disinclination
This sentence from a blog post illustrates a pair of commonly confused words. Read the sentence and see whether you… Read more »
Quick grammar lesson: Prepositions and pronouns
This sentence from a TV Squad question-and-answer with the author of a book about "American Idol" made me cringe and… Read more »