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 address the confusion that can arise when we have to decide whether to use less or fewer. We need to look no farther than the...
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 passive verb. But what is the passive voice, and why is it considered undesirable? (If you learn better by...
Word confusion and language-related lost causes are no strangers to this site. We have explored the lost distinction between the words nauseous and nauseating, the often-lost letter d in the phrases “used to” and “supposed to,” and lost awareness about the definition...
The corona-virus disease pandemic, which started late in 2019 (thus the name COVID-19), has given rise to increased use of a few confusing phrases and grammatical constructions. Do we have, for example, less cases than yesterday or fewer? Do we say that the number of...
Using transitions to improve clarity and logical flow is essential, whether we are meticulously drafting a legal brief or lengthy proposal or dashing off a short email or tweet. In either case, transitions enable a reader to follow the writer’s train of thought as...
Whenever our writing includes a list, the items in that list need to be parallel with one another. That is, all of the items in a list must be the same, both logically and grammatically. Logically Parallel Lists First, the items in a list must be parallel in meaning....
