WORD RAGE: How to stop worrying and learn to love your language
TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION
1, ENGLISH BELONGS TO EVERYBODY
“Colloquial” Does Not Equal “Ignorant”
Why So Much Anger Over Usage?
What To Do About Non-standard Usage
Non-standard English and the New Tribalism
2. A LITTLE GRAMMAR GOES A LONG WAY
Parts of Speech
Parts of the Sentence
Prepositions for the Perplexed
Indefinite Article with Initialisms
Neither…Or?
Comparison of Adjectives
All Pronoun Cases Are Created Equal
Who or Whom?
The “In-between” Trap with Whom
Myself Is Not a Subject Word
Which is Not for People
Which and That To Introduce Clauses
Irregular Verb Errors Damage Credibility
Run and Drink
Learn the Irregular Verbs
Delayed Subject with There
Misuse of Didn’t with Would
Past/Passed
Parallel Construction
3. WORD CHOICE MATTERS
Political Correctness
The Language Police
Putting on Airs or Expressing One’s Thoughts?
Don’t Blame the Americans for This One!
Hypocorisma
Female or Woman?
Gendered Pronouns
A Diploma is not a Degree
Is It Slander or Is It Libel?
30 Word Pairs To Get Straight
4. LANGUAGE BIGOTS ARE A BORE
Yes, Ma’am
That Annoying New Verb “Disrespect”
Running Toward/Towards the House
While/Whilst, Among/Amongst
Beginning a Sentence with And or But
“A Historic” and “An Historic”
Hopefully, My Dear
Stadia and Aquaria
Cannot vs “Can Not”
Nothing Wrong with “Went Missing”
5. USAGE ISN’T ALWAYS LOGICAL
Idiom
Due Diligence and Eavesdropping
Free Rein
Caring Less
Graduating From High School and College
First Come, First Served
Brave New World
Wayside and “Waste Side”
“Dear Sir” and Other Business Conventions
This Sink Needs Fixed
6. ENGLISH SPELLING IS NOT FOR SISSIES
Spelling and Pronunciation
Writing and Pronunciation
Mispronunciation = Misspelling
Waxing Judgmental about Judgment
Don’t They Have Spellcheck?
“Mic” Rhymes with “Bic”
I Before E, Except After C
7. PUNCTUATION.IS.FUN.
The Serial Comma is OK with Me
Question Marks with Quotation Marks
Comma Before But
One or Two Spaces After a Period?
Comma After Introductory Phrases
Forming Plurals with Apostrophe-S
Pike’s Peak or Pikes Peak?
Commas with Adjectives
Top Ten Punctuation Errors
8. WORDS AND USAGE ARE MORTAL
CE vs AD
I Hate Kids
Lay/Lie
Less/Fewer and Number/Amount
“Free Gift” and Other Pleonasms
The Quasi-Adjective Couple
Uninterested vs Disinterested
“Excited For”
Which Literally Do You Mean?
CONCLUSION
