March 10, 2026

The Generic Pronoun 'One'

"One," as in "One must work hard to get ahead," is called a generic pronoun and, though it's sounding more outdated every day, it's still useful in a lot of cases. Here's how it works.

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March 2, 2026

In To vs. Into

"Into" isn't necessarily interchangeable with "in to," and the same is true for "onto" and "on to." Here's the full story.

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February 23, 2026

Can 'Over' Mean 'More Than'?

There's a popular belief that it's wrong to say "amounts over $50" or "children over 12." But there's no need to use "more than" or "less than" when "over" and "under" sound good to you."

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February 16, 2026

Everything You Need to Know About Dashes

Dashes are very helpful when used correctly. Here's how.

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February 9, 2026

Apostrophe Traps

Apostrophes are hard. But these common pitfalls make them even harder. Here are the trickiest situations for apostrophe use.

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February 2, 2026

Why You Should Never Hyphenate -ly Adverbs

Hyphens show when two words are working together to modify a third: a one-way street. But when the first word is an adverb ending in -ly, no hyphen is needed because the relationship between the first two words is already clear: a happily married couple.

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February 2, 2026

'Each' is usually singular, but not always

“Each” is a weird word. Sometimes it’s definitely singular: “Each is able to decide for himself.” But other times, things aren’t so clear: “A number of families will participate and each have their own priorities.”

In the first example, “each” is paired with “is” — a singular verb suggesting that the pronoun itself is singular. But in the second example, we have the plural verb form “have” suggesting that this instance of “each” is plural.

So what’s the deal? Well, there’s no rule saying when you should treat “each” as singular or plural in every instance. But there are some patterns you can take your cue from.

When “each” is the whole subject, it’s usually singular, as in “Each is able to decide.” But when it’s followed by “of,” you have to go with your gut. That’s because the noun that follows “of” is always plural: “each of them,” “each of my cats,” “each of the senators,” and so on. That casts a strong flavor of the plural onto the whole the noun phrase. “Each of them are equipped to step in and help” sounds no worse than “Each of them is equipped to step in and help.”

So in these cases, you can usually conjugate your verb in whatever way sounds most natural to you.

But when in doubt, treat “each” as singular. That’s usually the safest bet. And when you consider that a lot of people out there are under the misperception that “each” is exclusively singular, it makes this choice all the safer.

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January 26, 2026

Apostrophe Abuse

Apostrophes are hard. But learning them this worth the effort. Here's how to avoid the most common apostrophe mistakes.

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January 20, 2026

'Palm Off' vs. 'Pawn Off'

If you're talking about being sneaky to deceive someone, "palm off" is the better term. "Pawn off" means to get rid of something but usually without deceiving someone to do it.

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January 12, 2026

Can You Start a Sentence with 'Hopefully' or 'More Importantly'?

People who think adverbs only modify actions argue that "hopefully" and "importantly" can't begin a sentence. But in fact, adverbs can also modify whole sentences, which is why these two sentence adverbs work just fine.

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