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What’s a Grammatical Case and Why Should I Care?
Grammatical case describes the relationship of a noun or pronoun to other words in the sentence. I’ll be talking just a little bit about this now because we’ll need this vocabulary later on. The...
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Spelling Saved my Computer
Don’t you hate it when you’re merrily working away on your PC, and suddenly something crashes? The reboot and the error report dialogue can be a real headache. This happened to me recently, although I...
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Aye, me. Is it “I” or “me”?
There is certainly quite a bit of confusion over the use of “I” and “me.” So many people have so frequently used one or the other and been corrected without explanation that they’ve started to believe...
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On Being Selfish
Last week, I talked briefly on the topic of “I” vs. “me.” Now I’d like to turn slightly and discuss another topic of some importance: “myself.” Any pronoun that ends with “-self” or any word prefixed...
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Of “its,”“it’s,” and (ugh) “its’.”
In this installment, we take a look at it’s and its and attempt, once and for all, to kill its’ with fire. When I introduced possessives a little while ago, I only touched upon the general instance of...
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Could, Would, Should
Complete these phrases: I could ___ done it, I would ___ done it, I should ___ done it. The correct word to insert into each of the three blanks is “have.” “Done” comes from the verb “to do.” Its past...
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Multiple Counts of Possession
Earlier, I touched upon possessive nouns and discussed possessive pronouns. But wait! There’s more! We still need to deal with plural possessive nouns. It’s not difficult, but many people get confused...
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Just an Aside
One thing I frequently see in all types of writing is the failure to fully set off an aside (usually by forgetting to end it). There are a few ways to set off an aside, including commas and...
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Dashes and Hyphens: What’s the Difference?
There are subtle but important differences between dashes and hyphens. I’d like to address this issue here. Because their functions are quite different, and because neither have spaces between them and...
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Indefinite Hiatus
Alas, I find myself in an unfortunate position yet again. After trading in one blog for another in the hopes of being able to better maintain a blog on a different topic, I’m now taking on a handful of...
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