Tag Archives: grammar errors

Verb Moods: Indicative, Imperative, Subjunctive. What Mood Are You In?

Posted on March 11, 2019 by languageandgrammar

Verbs can have one of three moods: indicative, imperative, or subjunctive. The indicative mood only includes verbs in sentences that are either statements (declarative sentences) or questions (interrogative sentences). It is unfortunate that more people do not live their lives … Continue reading →

Posted in grammar, language, writing | Tagged English, grammar errors, imperative, indicative, language, subjunctive, verb moods, writing | Comments Off

Overspoke

Posted on March 9, 2019 by languageandgrammar

I’m not sure what overspoke is supposed to mean. When you overeat, it means that you’ve eaten too much. When you oversleep, it means that you’ve slept too much and missed, for example, an appointment. So does overspoke mean that … Continue reading →

Posted in grammar, language, writing | Tagged English, grammar errors, overspeak, overspoke, Tucker Carlson | Comments Off

Plural of Mother-In-Law: It’s the Mothers, Not the Laws!

Posted on March 9, 2019 by languageandgrammar

A faithful reader sent a comment about how hyphenated plural nouns such as mother-in-laws and sister-in-laws drives her crazy. She said that hearing this grammar error sounds like fingernails on a chalkboard, and since we all know how that can … Continue reading →

Posted in language | Tagged English, grammar errors, hyphenated nouns, language, mother-in-laws, mothers-in-law, writing | 4 Comments

Conditional Tense: What Would Have Been

Posted on March 7, 2019 by languageandgrammar

A reader sent me something from a newspaper and said that it sounded incorrect but that she couldn’t quite explain why. The sentence in the newspaper was If the house would have been newer, it would have been demolished. I … Continue reading →

Posted in grammar, language, writing | Tagged conditional perfect, English, grammar errors, language, past perfect with conditional, writing | Comments Off

And Yet, But Yet: Pick a Coordinating Conjunction, Any Coordinating Conjunction

Posted on March 6, 2019 by languageandgrammar

When using but and yet as coordinating conjunctions, you can only use one at a time (otherwise, you’re creating a redundancy for the category of the redundancy category :)). Use either but or yet when conveying two ideas that are … Continue reading →

Posted in grammar | Tagged and yet, but yet, coordinating conjunctions, grammar errors, Shakespeare, writing | Comments Off

Is it Beside or Besides the Point?

Posted on March 6, 2019 by languageandgrammar

Beside/besides seems to fall into the same grammar error category as toward/towards, forward/forwards, and backward/backwards. Many people aren’t sure when to use the one with the -s. Beside means by the side of or next to. He sat in the … Continue reading →

Posted in grammar, language, writing | Tagged beside, beside the point, besides, English, grammar errors, language, writing | Comments Off

Rid Yourself of Hisself, Theirself, Ourself, Theirselves, and Oneselves

Posted on March 3, 2019 by languageandgrammar

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 | 1 Comment

Starprise Entership?

Posted on November 16, 2011 by languageandgrammar

By Paul Yeager, author of Literally, the Best Language Book Ever and Weather Whys: Facts, Myths, and Oddities We all make mistakes, but when they’re public and funny, we’re talking about perfect blog material. The above image of the famous … Continue reading →

Posted in grammar, humor, language | Tagged english fail blog, grammar errors, humorous mistakes, language mistakes | Leave a comment

Another Impact

Posted on April 29, 2011 by languageandgrammar

Although I’ve written about impact before, it bears repeating, especially since more and more people seem to be getting addicted to its use as a verb that means to affect. Impact is a noun that denotes forcible contact or a … Continue reading →

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Limited Access

Posted on March 17, 2010 by languageandgrammar

Yes, access should be limited. What I’m talking about, of course, is limiting the word access to being used as a noun and avoiding its use as a verb. Access has, in recent decades, become one of the many victims … Continue reading →

Posted in language | Tagged access, get access to, grammar errors, noun vs verb | Comments Off