Author Archives: languageandgrammar
Across, Acrosst, Acrossed
When you have gone from one side of a street to the other side, you have gone across the street—–not acrossed the street, acrosst the street, or acrost the street. I’m not sure how people who use this non-word are … Continue reading
Ball Security Issues
By Paul Yeager, author of Literally, the Best Language Book Ever and Weather Whys: Facts, Myths, and Oddities Twice today, during two different football games, I heard an announcer say about a player who fumbles often: “He has ball-security issues.” Twice! If you … Continue reading
Random Capitalization
By Paul Yeager, author of Literally, the Best Language Book Ever and Weather Whys: Facts, Myths, and Oddities I’m not someone who sends a lot of text messages, but I’ve sent enough to understand the need to use short-cuts and … Continue reading
Confused Word Pairs: Orient, Encase
By Paul Yeager, author of Literally, the Best Language Book Ever and Weather Whys: Facts, Myths, and Oddities Here’s something I wrote in AIS Writing Tips that I thought would work well here. Viewer Mail (Circa 1984): Confusing Word Pairs … Continue reading
Communicating with Tact, Confusing Word Pairs, and More
By Paul Yeager, author of Literally, the Best Language Book Ever and Weather Whys: Facts, Myths, and Oddities Just a quick reminder: This is not the only place where I post my language ramblings. Feel free to check out AIS … Continue reading
How to Write Good
By Paul Yeager, author of Literally, the Best Language Book Ever and Weather Whys: Facts, Myths, and Oddities A friend sent this along recently, and it’s worth a look (and maybe a laugh).
Proof that Dictionaries Are Not Source for Proper Grammar: “Thx” Now in Dictionary
By Paul Yeager, author of Literally, the Best Language Book Ever and Weather Whys: Facts, Myths, and Oddities We at languageandgrammar.com have taken some criticism for saying things like “Dictionaries are a source of common usage, not necessarily correct grammar” … Continue reading
Descriptivism Versus Prescriptivism
By Paul Yeager, author of Literally, the Best Language Book Ever and Weather Whys: Facts, Myths, and Oddities This sounds more like the wars the erupt between descriptivists and prescriptivists to me: 4 Copy Editors Killed In Ongoing AP Style, … Continue reading
Subjunctive as a Way of Life!
By Paul Yeager, author of Literally, the Best Language Book Ever and Weather Whys: Facts, Myths, and Oddities We’ve written about the subjunctive a couple of times (Subjunctive Uses Were, Not Was and I Wish I Was Wrong, But I’m … Continue reading
Managing Expectations
Managing expectations is one of the business terms that is effectively a trendy way of saying something in an indirect manner. I thought of the term today when the general manager the team with the longest consecutive streak of losing … Continue reading


