Passive Voice and Active Voice
Those of us whose word-processing software includes a grammar checker have probably encountered the green squiggly line of doom wagging an accusatory finger at a...
Verb Errors: Can Hardly vs. Can’t Hardly; Suppose To vs. Supposed To; Use To vs. Used to; Could Care Less vs. Couldn’t Care Less
In this article we examine four common verb errors. Can you spot the problem phrase in each of these sentences? We can’t hardly wait for...
Possessives and Attributive Nouns: When Do We Need an Apostrophe (and Where?)
If the dearth of apostrophes in text messages, emails, and social media posts is any indication, we may be witnessing their demise. But since such...
Three Tricky Singular Indefinite Pronouns: “Neither,” “Either,” and “Each”
In a different post, we discuss using singular personal pronouns to refer to singular indefinite pronouns (e.g., anyone, everyone, someone) and pointed out ways to do so...
Using the Articles “A” and “An”
One subscriber wrote to ask how to determine whether to use a or an in front of a noun. Like many of us, he had...