June 9, 2025

Aggravate and Irritate

"I was so aggravated by the neighbor's loud music." A lot of people believe that "aggravate" means only to make worse and that, if you're talking about being annoyed, you must use "irritate." That's not true, but if you want to play it safe you can stick to those meanings.

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June 2, 2025

The Many Kinds of Pronouns

Personal pronouns — I, you, he, we, they, etc. — are just one type of pronoun. Possessive pronouns like "my," reflexive pronouns like "myself," relative pronouns like "which" and indefinite pronouns like "anyone" are just a few examples of the different types of pronouns. Here's the full rundown.

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May 26, 2025

Every Day vs. Everyday

"Everyday" is an adjective that usually comes before a noun: everyday values. "Every day" is a noun phrase: every day is a new beginning.

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May 19, 2025

I Could Care Less?

When people say that they couldn't care less, they mean that they care so little it would be impossible to care any less than they do. Logically, then, "could care less" would mean the opposite. However, it's been gaining acceptability for decades.

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May 12, 2025

Could've vs. Could of

Could've is pronounced just like could of. But don't confuse them. You always want the contraction of could and have. Never use of.

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May 5, 2025

Unclear Antecedents

Brad crashed his car into the donut shop and totally destroyed it.

Did Brad destroy the donut shop or his car? The pronoun "it" could refer to either. Here's how to avoid the problem of unclear antecedents.

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April 28, 2025

Hoi Polloi

"Hoi polloi" doesn't mean "hoity-toity." And it has a long, contentious history involving whether you can use "the" in front of it. Short answer: yes, you can.

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April 21, 2025

Verb vs. Gerund vs. Modifier

Which part of speech is the word “running”?

1. It’s a verb
2. It’s a noun, that is, a gerund
3. It’s an adjective
4. All of the above

Once you know how -ing words work, you know it's all the above. Here's the full story..

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April 14, 2025

Subject-verb Agreement

It's usually pretty easy to make your verbs agree with your subjects. But some sentences throw you a curve ball.

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April 7, 2025

Decimate

Some people insist that the word "decimate" can't be used to mean "wipe out" or "destroy" because it's rooted in a Roman word that meant to kill one in 10 soldiers. But the definition of "decimate" is no longer that specific.

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