Author: Mignon Fogarty
Mignon Fogarty
Mignon Fogarty is the founder of Quick and Dirty Tips and the author of seven books on language, including the New York Times bestseller "Grammar Girl's Quick and Dirty Tips for Better Writing." She is an inductee in the Podcasting Hall of Fame, and the show is a five-time winner of Best Education Podcast in the Podcast Awards. She has appeared as a guest expert on the Oprah Winfrey Show and the Today Show. Her popular LinkedIn Learning courses help people write better to communicate better. Find her on Mastodon.
Blue=one person has heard the phrase “cash money.” Red=one person has not heard the phrase “cash money.” I first heard the phrase cash money after I moved to Reno, Nevada, and I thought it might be a casino thing because I always heard it during drawings when I would go to a certain casino for lunch. The announcer had a lot of time to fill, so he’d go on and on saying things like “Who wants to win the cash money?” and “We’re giving away cash money every three minutes,” and so on. It sounded odd to me because…
You’re probably seeing the word “canceled” a lot right now, but should it be spelled with one L or two? Well, it depends on where you live. “Canceled” with one L is more common in American English, and “cancelled” with two L’s is more common in British English, but these aren’t hard-and-fast rules either. A Google Ngram search of published books shows that both spellings are in use in both countries. Is it ‘canceled’ or ‘cancelled’? The AP Stylebook, used by many American news outlets, recommends “canceled” with one L. “Cancelled” with two L’s is clearly the dominant form in British English, which my Canadian and Australian friends…
Today’s topic is units of measure—those words and symbols that come after numbers. Put a Space Between Numbers and Units of Measure This first point may seem self-evident: you put a space between the number and the unit of measure. Even though it seems obvious, I’m telling you because I’ve seen people do it wrong, and there are also exceptions to the rule. For example, if you want to say you threw a ball 100 feet, there is a space between the number 100 and the whole word feet. Obvious, right? But what if you use the abbreviation ft. instead…
First, let’s get one thing straight: you are on TENTERhooks, not TENDERhooks. To be on tenterhooks is to be filled with painful or anxious anticipation or suspense, such as when you’re waiting for the result of an important medical test. Where We Get the Word ‘Tenterhooks’ To figure out what a tenterhook is, we have to know that long ago manufacturers kept freshly milled woolen cloth from shrinking while it dried by stretching it on a wooden frame called a tenter. It comes from the Latin word tentus, which means “to stretch.” The word ‘tenterhooks’ comes from the metal…
Quotations can bring your writing to life — the reader imagines someone saying the words?but quotations are also vexing to format. Not only do you have to follow different rules depending on what other punctuation marks you mix with your quotation marks, but people in different countries also follow different rules, so you may see quotation marks handled differently in high-quality publications from different countries. Quotation Marks with Semicolons, Colons, and Dashes First, let’s review the easy (but rare) stuff: semicolons, colons, and dashes always go outside quotation marks: Bob snorted and said, “I don’t believe in zombies”— right before…
A listener named Kat says her holiday joy is crushed every time she hears the Christmas carol “Joy to the World.” She asks: Why do we sing “Joy to the world, the Lord is come,” rather than “Joy to the world, the Lord has come”? Not wanting Kat to face the holidays with grammar consternation, I went on a quest to figure out what’s going on with these lyrics. Archaic English It actually turned out to be a pretty tough question, but I eventually discovered that the phrase the Lord is come uses an archaic form of English that was…
I’m going to tackle this in parts. “Into” versus “in” “Into” versus “in to” Sample sentences “Into” Versus “In” When you use in, you’re indicating position. Her phone was in her pocket. When you use into in a sentence, you’re indicating movement; an action is happening. She stuffed her phone into her backpack. “Into” Versus “In to” Into is a preposition that has many definitions, but they all generally relate to direction and motion. On the other hand, in by itself can be an adverb, preposition, adjective, or noun. To by itself is a preposition or an adverb or part…
If you watched the children’s program Sesame Street growing up, you probably recognized the little bit I sang earlier. “Phenomenon, do do do do do.” Well, it turns out, I was remembering it wrong. In my memory, they were saying “phenomena,” but when I watched the clip on YouTube while I was working on this article, I realized they were saying a nonsense word: “manamanah.” Still, whenever I heard the word “phenomena,” I think of that Sesame Street skit, and I’m nearly certain I’ve heard other people refer to it too. And if you need a good laugh, the video…
Many people were taught that they shouldn’t end a sentence with a preposition. Today, however, most language experts don’t abide by this “rule”—it’s often called a myth. (Read more at Ending a Sentence with a Preposition.) However, after I posted the article about ending sentences with prepositions, I was surprised by how many people asked if it is OK to start a sentence with a preposition. I’ve never heard a rule forbidding that practice. Prepositional Phrases at the Beginning of a Sentence Prepositional phrases at the beginning of sentences are common and grammatically correct. Consider these examples: On the other…
Oh, English. There are so many different kinds of errors that sometimes it seems overwhelming, but today, we’re going to talk about errors you can laugh at—errors like thinking Creedence Clearwater Revival sang There’s a bathroom on the right instead of There’s a bad moon on the rise and saying something is a little fit bunny instead of a little bit funny. (1) Sponsor: This podcast is brought to you by the book, Grimacia. A Nice Town. But Painted Brown, the story of a girl named Sabrina who lives in a town that has no imagination. Sabrina is smart and knows…