The hype that coronavirus has received is intense, and so has the attendant fear. When it was first reported in Wuhan, China in December last year, it did not cause much concern. Indeed, there was no ...

That’s what a user on an English language message board wanted to know a while back. And if you’ve never thought about this issue before, prepare for some brain pain. As you know, subjects and verbs ...

Last week, we started discussing the differences between a phrase, clause and a sentence. We defined a phrase as a group of words without a subject and a predicate, though standing together to form a ...

I’ll have to admit -- I don’t know much about “Star Wars.” Somehow I missed the window to watch them during my formative years. Although I have glasses, write about grammar and prefer staying inside, ...

You know those laminated copies of my columns you keep in a fake can of peas hidden under the floorboard of your pantry? What's so unexpected about the sentence is that "fell" turns out to be the ...

brendan-c on flickr John ate a slice of pepperoni pizza, and drank a bottle of beer. If that sentence doesn't make you involuntarily scowl, then you do not have a proper understanding of commas. Yet ...

The début of our new series on language in all its facets: grammar, syntax, vocabulary, spelling, usage, and punctuation. In this episode, Mary Norris talks about commas. at the New Yorker, sometimes ...