Paul Yeager's weather book
Paul Yeager's language book
Tag Archives: writing
Lose versus Loose: Let’s Lose This Spelling Error
A couple of readers sent me e-mail to ask that I write about the difference between loose and lose. It seems that I’m not the only person to have seen these two spelling errors. When talking about something that is … Continue reading
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Tagged English, grammar, lose or loose, spelling error, verb lose, writing
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Subjunctive Uses I Wish I Were, Not I Wish I Was
When describing something that is contrary to what is true, you cannot use the regular past tense of the verb to be. You must, instead, use the subjunctive. The subjunctive is necessary in many situations, but I’ll discuss two of … Continue reading
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Tagged grammar, I wish I was, I wish I were, subjunctive, subjunctive and to be, was or were, was versus were, writing
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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
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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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Dragged or Drug: Look What the Cat Dragged In
I was horrified to see that an online dictionary is now even mentioning the word drug as a non-standard past tense conjugation of the word drag instead of what it is, which is substandard. I haven’t checked to see whether … Continue reading
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Tagged dictionaries, dragged vs drug, grammar, grammar error, past tense of drag, 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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Everything Language and Grammar 