Paul Yeager's weather book
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Category Archives: language
Intellectually Advanced
Football is not a complicated game. It’s a game of territory, where brute strength is often more important than finesse. It’s a game for big, strong men, not the soft-spoken, pensive type. That’s why it’s surprising to me that the … Continue reading
Posted in language, writing
Tagged inflated language, intellectually, intellectually advanced, language, writing
1 Comment
What Did the Pot Call the Kettle?
I’ve said it before, and I’m sure that I’ll say it again: We all make mistakes, so we at languageandgrammar.com don’t usually play the gotcha game when we see a mistake; however, there are instances when language and grammar mistakes … Continue reading
The L-Word
If you’ve read the blog much (or Literally, the Best Language Book Ever), you know that we favor direct, honest communication over indirect, insincere, trendy, or over-inflated communication, so I was thrilled when I heard President Obama use the rarely … Continue reading
Posted in language, politics
Tagged correct use of lie, health care reform, language, obama speech on health care, politcs, President Obama, writing
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Getting Emotional
Humans are, by their nature, emotional beings, and the emotions we exhibit are numerous. Why is it then that we use the word emotional as a synonym for crying in many instances? A person who cries is described as someone … Continue reading
Special Encore Presentation
I love the special encore presentations when I see them on television. Not because I love yet another lame re-run but because I enjoy seeing television executives trying to make their lame re-runs seem like a special event. Inflated language … Continue reading
Posted in language, writing
Tagged inflated language, language, special encore presentations, television re-runs, writing
1 Comment
Conjunctive Adverbs—-or Adverbial Conjunctions
A sign is hanging up at work: Empty the trash, then line the basket with a new bag. I saw the forecast for my local area: Rain will end this morning, then it will be partly sunny this afternoon. Both … Continue reading
Posted in grammar, language, writing
Tagged adverbial conjunctions, conjunctive adverbs, English, grammar errors, punctuation with then, writing
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Keep ’em Coming
This is another installment of your pet peeves, which are pet peeves that you posted on our Pet Peeves page. Some of them might be redundancies, but I doubt they’re as redundant as the previous sentence. Keep ’em coming–we love … Continue reading
Posted in grammar, language, writing
Tagged grammar, grammar errors, language, pet peeves, writing
3 Comments
Comma with Because
I often see writers and editors putting a comma before the word because, for example, This won’t surprise anyone who has known her for a long time, because she has always espoused both liberal and conservative perspectives. The problem with … Continue reading
Posted in grammar, language, writing
Tagged comma use, dependent clause, grammar errors, punctuation, writing
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Are You Killing the Apostrophe?
Years ago, I came across a column on the demise of the apostrophe, called Are You Killing the Apostrophe. It makes no sense to me to discard a perfectly good and useful mark of punctuation simply because some people don’t … Continue reading
Sci-Fi Marketing
While flipping through the television stations recently, I noticed that the Sci Fi Channel is now the SyFy Channel, and not knowing what SyFy was, I did a little research (Sci Fi Becomes SyFy). As it turns out, Sci Fi … Continue reading
Posted in language
Tagged language, marketing, pop culture, Sci Fi channel, SyFy Channel, telvision
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Everything Language and Grammar 