Comma before AND (and Other Coordinating Conjunctions)

Comma before AND (and Other Coordinating Conjunctions)

If the number of page visits is a reliable indicator, this topic—using a comma before and—is on the minds of many people. The third most oft-visited on this site, this page garnered close to 10,000 hits in the past thirty days. (The most popular page—with twice as...
Neither, Either, and Each: Three Tricky Indefinite Pronouns

Neither, Either, and Each: Three Tricky Indefinite Pronouns

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 without reinforcing the gender binary. This article focuses on making verbs agree with the...
Nauseous, Nauseated, or Nauseating?

Nauseous, Nauseated, or Nauseating?

If you feel as though your most recent meal may soon make a re-appearance, would you say, “I feel nauseous”? If so, it might be helpful to know the “rest of the story” about nauseous, nauseated, and nauseating. Consider the use of nauseous or nauseated in each of...
Nauseous, Nauseated, or Nauseating?

Capitalizing Words in the Titles of Publications

Elsewhere on this site we have addressed two other issues involving capitalization: knowing when to capitalize people’s positions and job titles and recognizing when a noun is common, not proper, and therefore should not be capitalized. This article focuses on knowing...