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Avoiding Faulty Comparisons
A faulty comparison is among a host of other issues that can affect the clarity of our writing: elsewhere in this archive, for example, we...

Using the Possessive Case before a Gerund
Before we can use the possessive case before a gerund, we first have to recognize whether we are dealing with a gerund (which functions like a...

Commas between Adjectives: How to Recognize Coordinate Adjectives
The comma is perhaps the trickiest mark of punctuation to teach and to learn, largely because we seem to have multiple exceptions for every rule....

How to Make Last Names Plural
With quite a few big holidays looming, many people are gearing up to send holiday greeting cards, so this is the perfect time to remind...

“Less” or “Fewer”
Other articles on this site address confusing word pairs, including effect and affect, sit and set, lay and lie, and bad and badly. Here we...

“Which” or “That”? (And Punctuating All Relative Clauses)
Have you ever been stuck trying to decide whether to use which or that? While both pronouns can be used in other constructions, the confusion...


Hyphens, Em Dashes, and En Dashes: When to Use Them and How to Type Them
The hyphen, the em dash, and the en dash are all horizontal marks of varying lengths. Each functions differently from the others. Below we define...


Inserting Characters and Symbols That Aren’t on Computer or Smart Phone Keyboards
Our word processing software and enhanced keyboards can work magic, especially in regard to inserting characters and symbols that aren’t on our Roman alphabet keyboards....


“Lie” or “Lay”?
This website addresses a number of confusing word pairs, including effect and affect, sit and set, and bad and badly, just to name a few. But...


Starting Sentences with “And” or “But”
One of our subscribers wrote to ask about starting sentences with and or but. She wondered whether it is considered grammatically correct to do so....



“Which” or “That”? (And Punctuating All Relative Clauses)
Have you ever been stuck trying to decide whether to use which or that? While both pronouns can be used in other constructions, the confusion...


When Should We Hyphenate Compound Words?
When two words come together to create a single new idea that expresses meaning different from that of either of the individual words, the result...

