Alumni, Alumnus, Alumnae, and Alumna
As the spring graduation season comes to a close here in the United States, now is a good time to talk about the words we...
Home In On or Hone In On: Which Is Logical?
The words home and hone sound so much alike that we can hardly blame people for confusing them and saying hone in on when they...
Nominalization and Vague, Wordy Sentences
When it comes to writing, less is often better. Writers can avail themselves of several strategies for more succinct writing, and avoiding nominalization—forming a noun...
It’s or Its? They’re or Their? You’re or Your? Who’s or Whose?
In the past we’ve discussed the confusion surrounding plurals and possessives (should we write “Happy holidays from the Smith’s” or “the Smiths”?). Making that distinction...
“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...
