#Grammar exploration for today.
While reviewing a document at work I encountered this phrase: "do's and don'ts"
The pedant in me wants this to be either "dos and don'ts" or "do's and don't's".
I'm not the only one this bothers. According to this well-researched page, all three are considered acceptable to different constituencies:
https://www.vocabulary.com/articles/wc/dos-and-donts-or-dos-and-donts/
I will therefore resist the urge to mark up the document with a correction for this phrase. 
Grammar annoyance from the past couple of days: worse vs. worst.
Worse [the comparative form of bad] is used to compare two things that are both bad/low quality.
“This event is worse than the last one.”
Worst [the superlative form of bad] is used to describe something that’s of the lowest possible quality.
“That was the worst event I’ve ever attended!”
Read recently: “It only got worst when the event was over.” 
Correct: “It only got worse when the event was over.”
because they are quite nice and memes on top of memes. Turns out my grasp of English grammar isn't the best so we made two hats one with correct grammar and one without. See via the link in the Bio #Hats #Meme #Grammar #Style #Hat #Corduroy #Pōneke #Aotearoa #Wellington #NewZealand #Style #Fashion #StreetwearIs it just me or is there like no research in #LFG on disjunct #adverbials? I found an MPhil thesis on the typology and placement possibilities of #adverbs in English (https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:d808caba-2c2c-4b84-8ec3-f62d78c67ab3), but that explicitly excludes comma-intonated adverbials like sentence adverbials and other disjuncts. A subsequent paper on disjuncts specifically is referenced (Cobb 2006), but it was apparently never published.
Good writer's know when colons don't belong. #grammar #writing #writingcommunity #amwriting
After the boat race, one of my rowing coaches was saying on our WhatsApp how much he hates Oxford, but doesn’t know why. People started listing things:
“Marmalade”
“Brogues”
“Bags”
We should make a list, I said. “Marmalade, brogues, and bags”
Nothing. Not a single reaction.
Pearls before bloody swine. I ask you.
This piece makes the good point that "suspicion of the em dash also speaks to our mounting paranoia over automated communication" — we know there are people passing off AI crap as their own writing, and we want to be able to spot it. But the em dash "cannot be a reliable metric of AI reliance for the simple reason that it is a case of the software mimicking *human* writing patterns."
h/t @raganwald
https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-features/chatgpt-hypen-em-dash-ai-writing-1235314945/
Your attention please. Verbing nouns and nouning verbs is common practice, but this should be extended. Your task for this week, class, is to verb a different adjective every day.
I refered to Wren & Martin for #grammar and norman lewis for #vocabulary and when wrtiegoid mode tells me that i use weasel words , my faith on teaching and #textbook hits a new low
PC tooketh - book reading time , paper writing time
PC giveth - LSP for #markdown
I know it’s called “the future tense” but I wish the tense part could be a bit less overbearing…
#grammar #philosophy #tension #future
The term “bakari” can be used in several different ways to emphasize and define the limit of a range. Check out your options in this week's Bilingual piece. https://www.japantimes.co.jp/life/2025/04/11/language/osaka-expo-grammar-bakari/?utm_medium=Social&utm_source=mastodon #life #language #nihongo #voacbulary #grammar #jlptn1 #jlptn2 #jlptn3 #2025osakaexpo
https://www.alojapan.com/1243390/ive-only-just-come-back-from-osaka-but-im-ready-to-hit-the-expo/ I’ve only just come back from Osaka, but I’m ready to hit the Expo #2025OsakaExpo #grammar #JlptN1 #JLPTN2 #JLPTN3 #nihongo #Osaka #OsakaTopics #voacbulary #大阪 #大阪府 You’ve probably noticed a lot of chatter about 大阪 (Ōsaka, Osaka) this week. 大阪・関西万博が4月13日に開幕するからです (Ōsaka Kansai banpaku ga shi-gatsu jūsan-nichi ni kaimaku suru kara desu, That’s because the Osaka-Kansai Expo will open on April 13). Osaka held Japan’s first World Expo in 1970, an…
Journalists must remain vigilant and rigorous in the face of a second Trump Administration. To help them do so, we are releasing an updated version of Strunk and White’s “Elements of Style” with some timely new examples. Please refer to it when writing and reporting, for as long as that’s still allowed, and sign up for our humor newsletter at the link in our bio for more painfully relevant satire. #humor #journalism #grammar #comedy
Wer dachte, dass philosophisch-anthropologische Sprachtheorien tot seien, hatte völlig recht ‒ bis jetzt.
Save the date: 13.10.2025!
Deutsche Grammatik instruktiv. Eine philosophisch-anthropologische Einführung
In a surprisingly insightful summary of a "DX Leadership Panel", I saw this nugget:
> People see that the survey matters and gets actioned on.
"gets actioned on" is some pretty nauseating corporate grammar. Where do people come up with this shit?
From: blenderdumbass . org
People often point out various grammatical errors in texts people write. As if having better attention to words makes the argument presented more or less valid. So I suppose I'm gonna rant about this.
Read or listen: https://blenderdumbass.org/articles/stupid_correct_english
Random English language advice:
The phrase "My laptop was stolen a few weeks ago." and the phrase "I had my laptop stolen a few weeks ago." do not mean the same thing.
The second version implies that you were somehow involved in causing the act to occur, which is probably not what you intended to say.
Summary: Don't use "I had" (or variations of it) as a substitute for "was".
If there are any grammar nerds, especially lovers of punctation, out there, you will enjoy this 1' 11" YouTube video by Elle Cordova as the Oxford comma. Very clever, witty, and funny.
Originally via Metafilter.
I'll go ahead and say it. Predictive typing is as advanced as just throwing spaghetti at a wall and seeing what sticks.
The typo in "hour” is mine. The suggestion to complete the sentence with "horseshoe” is Microsoft Outlook’s.
Even worse, I have "Check spelling as you type” and “Check grammar as you type" both turned on.
