Paul Yeager's weather book
Paul Yeager's language book
Tag Archives: English
Bring versus Take
Bring and take are easily confused because their meanings are so similar, but the difference is in the perspective. Bring is done toward you, the speaker, as in the song Bring Me Some Water. Anything transported to you is brought … Continue reading
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Tagged bring or take, English, grammar error, language, writing
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Rid Yourself of Hisself, Theirself, Ourself, Theirselves, and Oneselves
I’ve already written about the correct use of reflexive pronouns in This Redundancy Is Self-Evident, but several people still wanted confirmation on the use of words such as hisself. The indefinite pronouns are myself, ourselves, yourself, yourselves, herself, himself, themselves, … Continue reading
Posted in grammar
Tagged English, grammar errors, herself, himself, hisself, indefinite pronouns, itself, myself, oneself, oneselves, ourself, ourselves, theirself, theirselves, themselves, writing, yourself, yourselves
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Dived or Dove: Let’s Dive Right In
Ok, here’s the deal. Dive is a regular verb, and a regular verb makes its past tense form by adding –ed to the end (or just –d if there’s already an –e at the end of the word). The past … Continue reading
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Tagged conjugation, dived or dove, English, grammar error, irregular verb, language, regular verb, writing
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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
Myself Cannot Be the Subject of a Sentence
Do not use myself as the subject of a sentence. Myself and the other -self words—himself, herself, ourselves, etc.—are reflexives, and reflexives cannot be used as subjects. Nominatives should be used as subjects. The nominatives are I, we, he, she, … Continue reading
Language Game
Can you name the most commonly used words in English? Clicking on the link above will take you to a sporcle.com page that contains a word game that tests your knowledge of common English words. Good luck. –Paul
Posted in grammar, language, writing
Tagged English, language, language game, most common english words, writing
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What a Waste
While reading an Internet article on politics, I reluctantly ventured into the comments section. Have you ever noticed that many of the commenters can’t spell? This time, it was waist versus waste. The comment writer advised others not to waist … Continue reading
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Tagged English, grammar errors, spelling errors, waste versus waist, writing
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Change Out the Football
I recently heard an esteemed celebrity football announcer say during one of the Sunday games that the referee was going to change out the football. Change out? What does it mean to change out? Is it more important to change … Continue reading
Posted in language
Tagged change it out, English, grammar errors, language
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Hitherto and Tautologies
I recently wrote an article about an art exhibit for a local newspaper. Having been both an editor and a copy editor for many years (and those of you who are editors, copy editors, and proofreaders know what I’m talking … Continue reading
Posted in grammar, language, writing
Tagged English, grammar errors, hitherto, language, tautology, writing
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Adverse Versus Averse
Averse, related to the word aversion, means opposed and should be applied only to people because it is a feeling. It comes after a form of the verb to be and has the word to after it. He was averse … Continue reading
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