Tag Archives: language

Complement/Compliment

As a verb, to complement is to complete or to supplement. The wine complemented the meal. As a noun, complement is something that completes something else. The addition of the B6 vitamin to my morning routine now gives me a … Continue reading

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Is It Amount, or Is It Number?

The number of times that I’ve seen these words confused is more than I can count—and that’s actually the point of the amount/number topic. Number refers to things that can be counted as individuals. Amount refers to a mass quantity, … Continue reading

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The “C” in Arctic Stands for Cold!

While the blast of bitterly cold Canadian air will be the major weather story across the country for the next several days, I thought that it was a good time to correct a common pronunciation (and possibly spelling) error. The … Continue reading

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Quarter of a Century of Sports Cliches

One of my favorite chapters in the book I wrote (Is having a favorite chapter in my own book against author etiquette?) is the one on sports cliches since we’ve been talking about sports (fans, media, and athletes) for much … Continue reading

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Stationary versus Stationery

There are certain lessons—and when I say lessons, of course, I mean grammar lessons—that we always remember having been taught, and this is one of them for me. I still recall my elementary-school teacher explaining the difference between stationary, which … Continue reading

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Pangs or Pains?

This is as close to fast-food week as we’re ever going to get here at languageandgrammar.com. Not only did I recently talk about the Chick-Fil-A Bowl, but now I’m talking about a topic that’s been featured in a recent McDonald’s … Continue reading

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The Wheels of the Barrow Go ‘Round and ‘Round

When transporting mounds of soil from one side of a garden to the other, the best way to do that is with a wheelbarrow. It’s understandable that many of us say the incorrect wheelbarrel since barrel is a word, and … Continue reading

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Alls Is a Grammar Error

I heard someone on television (one of my favorite resources for grammar errors) use the grammar error alls, as in Alls I know is…. It’s not an error that I hear often, but it has been around for a very … Continue reading

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You Can Quote Me on That

While British English allows for period placement outside quotation marks, in American English, the period goes inside the quotation marks. He referred to the people being wrestled to the ground and the shoes flying in mid-air as a “disagreement.” Paul … Continue reading

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It’s Supposedly, Not Supposably

What does supposably mean? Is it supposed to mean in a supposed way? How about able to be supposed? No, I don’t suppose; those don’t make sense. In reality, supposably is a non-word that is mistakenly used for the correct … Continue reading

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