From Grammar Girl: One reason capitalization matters is that a word’s meaning can change depending on whether it’s uppercase or lowercase. “See those three domiciles over there? Well, I live in the white house.” That’s quite different from, “I live in the White House [capital W, capital H].” That White House is where the president… Continue reading When should you capitalize words?
Month: August 2009
Verbs sandwiched between singular and plural nouns
From Grammar Girl: As we all learned in school, a singular subject agrees with a singular verb, and a plural subject agrees with a plural verb. Sometimes, though, other parts of the sentence get in the way and confuse you. Here’s an example of the kind of sentence we’re talking about: “The star attractions at… Continue reading Verbs sandwiched between singular and plural nouns
Poll: Do you say “phone” or “call”?
When you’re going to contact someone on the telephone, which of the following do you use? I will phone Jill. I will call Jill. Please comment below which you use (or if you use something else entirely), and let me know where you live.
All-Purpose Pronoun
Found at the New York Times: Traditionalists, of course, find nothing wrong with using he to refer to an anybody or an everybody, male or female. After all, hasn’t he been used for both sexes since time immemorial? Well, no, as a matter of fact, it hasn’t. It’s a relatively recent usage, as these things go. And it wasn’t… Continue reading All-Purpose Pronoun