Read that title again. It is a complete, grammatically-correct English sentence. Do you understand it? How about these (all, like the title sentence, originally found here or here? • The prime number few. • The florist sent the flowers was pleased. • Fat people eat accumulates. • When Fred eats …
Parallelism may sound fancy, but on a basic level, it’s just the use of grammatically similar constructions for all items in a series. Sentences that follow the rules of parallelism are typically considered more logical and easier to read. Here is a sentence that lacks parallelism: Emus like eating bugs, …
If your knot concentrating, a common affect is that its to easy too right a sentence like this won. Read that sentence out loud. It sounds perfectly fine. But on the page, it’s pretty messed up. (Did you catch all the errors? There are eight.) This is because it’s full …
English grammar can be tricky. If you grew up in an English-speaking country, you may remember diagramming sentences in school, agonizing over past participles and adverbial clauses. However, chances are that your grammar classes only went over a teeny tiny proportion of the rules that govern English. Does that scare …
“Throw up into your typewriter every morning. Clean up every noon.” – Raymond Chandler While this quotation is perhaps a bit graphic, it captures a truth about the writing process. Writing – the process of drafting – involves the production of the verbal version of vomit: a large amount of …
Many Western intellectuals of the eighteenth century highly valued Latin and logic. Attempts to codify a prescribed English grammar often attempted to use the rules of Latin and of mathematical logic. Here are a few examples of grammar rules and where they came from: Double Negatives 1. Don’t use a …
Linguistic Anxiety At the dawn of the Early Modern era, English had multiple dialects and no one dominant form. While language is always changing, it appears that English was changing especially rapidly during the fifteenth century. In this linguistic landscape, printing was established in England. It was at this time …
What’s the deal with the Oxford Comma? When do I use a semicolon? Is there ever a reason to use a dash? We’ve taken a look at some of the most confusing punctuation topics in order to help you make sense of them. Read below for your guide to all …
1. Language Log: Written by several highly accomplished linguists, Language Log tracks the evolution of language and our understanding of it. It occasionally gets a bit technical, but it includes lots of delicious brain candy for word websites. 2. Online-Utility: This site has a lot of cool features, but one …
As you may know, there are multiple ideas about what constitutes grammar. In general, it refers to the rules that govern how a language is used. John McIntyre, writing about language for The Baltimore Sun, once categorized rules for the usage of English as follows: The Rules 1. Unnoticed rules. …
