by Maeve Maddox | Feb 27, 2017 | English Usage
People who use English as a marketing tool really should learn to avoid the most common usage errors. One of the most common mistakes is to interchange the noun advice and the verb advise. The error is so common that it is frequently described on hundreds of sites...
by Maeve Maddox | Feb 19, 2017 | Words
I just read the following in a meme on Facebook: I’m fairly certain that the person who put the first r in February also decided how to spell Wednesday Contrary to what the joke implies, spellings aren’t invented by individuals, and not all English...
by Maeve Maddox | Feb 17, 2017 | English Usage
This morning the following caption appeared in a Democrat-Gazette article about a bank robbery: Springdale police are searching for this man whom they say robbed an Arvest Bank branch Thursday. The error with whom in this caption is common in sentences that contain a...
by Maeve Maddox | Feb 9, 2017 | Words
A Google search for “devossed” in quotation marks brings up only 521 hits on February 9, 2017, but my spidey sense tells me this word is destined to achieve greater numbers in the following weeks and months. The Urban Dictionary has already posted an...
by Maeve Maddox | Feb 6, 2017 | Public Affairs
Dear Real Press (as opposed to the “So-called Press), Please stop reporting tweets. Report only what is delivered from the White House through official government channels such as press briefings. Please stop squandering so much time and space on barefaced...
