by Nancy Tuten | Mar 8, 2024
In most declarative English sentences, the subject precedes the verb. But when a sentence starts with either here or there, the order is often reversed, and we are tempted to use a singular verb when we need a plural one. Can you spot the agreement error in each of...
by Nancy Tuten | Jun 29, 2022
Editors at Merriam-Webster (M-W) caused quite a stir when they tweeted on September 17, 2019, that the nonbinary pronoun they had been added to the dictionary. Their tweet addresses a question I still hear frequently, even three years later: can they (or them or...
by Nancy Tuten | Sep 23, 2021
When we think of conjunctions, most of us think of single words: and, but, therefore, although, and the rest of the coordinating, adverbial, and subordinating conjunctions. But when conjunctions work in pairs, we call them correlatives because they link two...
by Nancy Tuten | Sep 10, 2021
Elsewhere on this site, we discuss the importance of parallel structure in vertical (bulleted) lists. But two or more parts of a sentence, clause, or phrase should be grammatically parallel even without bullets (or numbers or letters). This article focuses on parallel...
by Nancy Tuten | Aug 10, 2021
Careful writers ensure that items in a list are parallel with one another in both meaning and form. That is, all items must be both logically and grammatically similar; when they are, the information is more coherent and easier to absorb. Today, we’re looking...
by Nancy Tuten | May 19, 2021
My first exposure to the phrase “myth rules” was the use of that expression in Edgar H. Schuster’s 2003 book (which I highly recommend), Breaking the Rules: Liberating Writers through Innovative Grammar Instruction. But long before I discovered Schuster’s list of...