Tag Archives: language

The L-Word

Posted on September 10, 2009 by languageandgrammar

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 →

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Envy Versus Support

Posted on September 7, 2009 by languageandgrammar

When given a choice between something positive or negative, always pick the positive. That’s the case in  life and in language, and most negative words and emotions are closely related to positive words and emotions. For instance, why be envious … Continue reading →

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Getty Images Looses Grip on Grammar

Posted on August 18, 2009 by languageandgrammar

Everyone makes mistakes (it’s not like the blog entries here, especially mine, are perfect), so we don’t often play the game of gotcha when we see a mistake; however, there is so much confusion between lose and loose that I … Continue reading →

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Getting Emotional

Posted on August 10, 2009 by languageandgrammar

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 →

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Special Encore Presentation

Posted on August 7, 2009 by languageandgrammar

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 →

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Keep ’em Coming

Posted on August 3, 2009 by languageandgrammar

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 →

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Sci-Fi Marketing

Posted on July 24, 2009 by languageandgrammar

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 →

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Tsunami is a Thrilling Prospect?

Posted on July 15, 2009 by languageandgrammar

Anytime I hear Quicksilver President and CEO Bob McNight say “A tsunami in surfing is a thrilling prospect, but the tsunami in business is terrifying” in an advertisement, I am shocked that something so stupid and insensitive is used as … Continue reading →

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Comfort-Coated Goodness

Posted on July 9, 2009 by languageandgrammar

I doubt that many people who started on the career path of marketing ever dreamed of the day when they would need to promote a laxative, and it’s not exactly the type of product that’s easy to market. We know … Continue reading →

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More Language Pet Peeves

Posted on July 5, 2009 by languageandgrammar

I always like to say that everyone has at least one pet peeve, and based on the number of comments that we’ve received on the Your Pet Peeves page, I’m obviously right! We’ve decided to occasionally highlight some of your … Continue reading →

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