Paul Yeager's weather book
Paul Yeager's language book
Tag Archives: language
Can’t Hardly or Can Hardly: I Can Hardly Stand It
In Shakespeare’s time, double negatives such as can’t hardly were common, but in current standard usage (and by current, I don’t mean that I just made it up this week!), double negatives are substandard grammar. Hardly means scarcely or barely, … Continue reading
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Tagged can hardly, can't hardly, English, grammar, grammar error, language, writing
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Is it Beside or Besides the Point?
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
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Tagged beside, beside the point, besides, English, grammar errors, language, writing
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Are You Well, or Are You Good?
If you’re healthy, are you well or good? If you’re happy, are you well or good? If you score a lot of touchdowns in football without getting a black eye or a broken leg, are you playing good or well? … Continue reading
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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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
Random Capitalization
By Paul Yeager, author of Literally, the Best Language Book Ever and Weather Whys: Facts, Myths, and Oddities I’m not someone who sends a lot of text messages, but I’ve sent enough to understand the need to use short-cuts and … Continue reading
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Tagged grammar, language, random capitalization, writing
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Communicating with Tact, Confusing Word Pairs, and More
By Paul Yeager, author of Literally, the Best Language Book Ever and Weather Whys: Facts, Myths, and Oddities Just a quick reminder: This is not the only place where I post my language ramblings. Feel free to check out AIS … Continue reading
How to Write Good
By Paul Yeager, author of Literally, the Best Language Book Ever and Weather Whys: Facts, Myths, and Oddities A friend sent this along recently, and it’s worth a look (and maybe a laugh).
Posted in grammar, humor, language, writing
Tagged grammar, humor, language, language humor, writing
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Proof that Dictionaries Are Not Source for Proper Grammar: “Thx” Now in Dictionary
By Paul Yeager, author of Literally, the Best Language Book Ever and Weather Whys: Facts, Myths, and Oddities We at languageandgrammar.com have taken some criticism for saying things like “Dictionaries are a source of common usage, not necessarily correct grammar” … Continue reading
Posted in grammar, language, writing
Tagged descriptivism, grammar, language, oxford dictionary, prescriptivism, thx, writing
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Everything Language and Grammar 