March 30, 2020

Everything You Need to Know About the Serial Comma

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The serial comma, also called the Oxford comma, is the comma before the "and" in a series, as in "red, white, and blue." Some writers are very, very devoted to it. But it's optional. Here's how to decide whether it's for you.

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March 23, 2020

Subject-Object and Subject-Complement Agreement

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When we think of grammatical agreement, we usually think of how subjects should agree with verbs. But it's also important to make sure subjects agree with objects and complements, too. Here's what you need to know.

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March 16, 2020

The Couple Is or the Couple Are?

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Sometimes it's not clear whether collective nouns like "couple" take a singular or plural verb. In most cases, your ear is your best guide.

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March 9, 2020

Couple Who or Couple That?

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Relative pronouns like "who" and "that" should reflect the thing they refer to when possible, but it's not necessarily an error when they don't. Here's what you need to know about relative pronoun-antecedent agreement.

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March 2, 2020

Apostrophe Refresher

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If you want to appear well-educated, apostrophes are important. Here's a refresher.

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February 24, 2020

Can Anyone Really 'Know' Hyphenation?

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No one really knows how to hyphenate in every situation. But you can still use hyphens well. Here's how.

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February 17, 2020

Whom

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It's better to not use "whom" at all than to use it wrong. Here's how to use it right.

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February 10, 2020

Can you start a sentence with 'and,' 'but' or 'so'?

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A lot of people think a conjunction like "and," "but" or "so" can't properly start a sentence. It's just not true. But you might want to ditch the "and" anyway.

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February 3, 2020

Lay and Lie

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Have you gotten rusty on lay and lie? Here's your refresher.

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January 27, 2020

Subject-Verb Agreement With Linking Verbs

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Making verbs agree in number with subjects is sometimes easy. Other times not so much. Linking verbs are a case in point. Here's what you need to know.

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