Woman or women? Many people don’t know the difference. You can try this on your friends – you’ll be astonished. Many people, it seems, have never written the word “woman” in their whole lives. Every female is a “women.” So here’s an experiment for you: Ask them to write a sentence that you dictate (not [...]

Source: arcamax.com via Jean on Pinterest   Is it lose or loose? Do you know the difference? Lois’s friend does: In the second panel, lose is spelled correctly. Hooray! Many people confuse lose and loose. Here’s a good trick: Loose rhymes with moose and goose. The word lose has only one “o.” To learn how to avoid additional [...]

Source: arcamax.com via Jean on Pinterest   Curtis is young, so we’ll forgive him for the mistake in the first panel. But adults – especially people who work in the media – should know that the preferred past tense of stink is “stank.” Curtis should have said, “It stank!” For more examples of common writing [...]

Way to go! (Who’s – the other spelling – means “who is.” Think of that apostrophe like a little “i.”) Source: writewithjean.com via Jean on Pinterest   (Still confused about whether to use whose or who’s? Click here.)

Source: grammatically.blogspot.com via Jean on Pinterest   I love this cartoon! Where would you put the apostrophe? I hope you’d place it between the t and the s, and that you know that it’s means it is. If you were playing this game at a wild-and-crazy party for English teachers,  you could also place the [...]

Source: arcamax.com via Jean on Pinterest   I must have been having a bad day yesterday, at least as far as grammar is concerned. My first impulse when I read Hi and Lois was to change Who to Whom in the first panel. Wrong! Here’s a trick when you’re trying to decided whether it’s who [...]

Source: arcamax.com via Jean on Pinterest   Look at the third panel. “Set” is plural the first time (“One set are snobs”) and singular the second time (“the other set eats”). Which is correct? In the US, collective nouns like set are usually singular (“One set is,” “the other set eats”) unless there’s a disagreement [...]

Source: Uploaded by user via Jean on Pinterest   I love this message! Please adopt a pet – you’ll never regret it. A gentle suggestion, however: Use who, not that, for people. This could be improved if it read:  People who say “money can’t buy you happiness” have never paid an adoption fee. (To learn more [...]

Source: gocomics.com via Jean on Pinterest   Good for Opal! “Website” and “Lo and behold” probably need no explanation. But what about the lie or lay problem that troubles so many writers? The most important thing to know is that you LAY something (“Lay the box there, please”). LIE is something you do yourself (“Maybe [...]

Source: gocomics.com via Jean on Pinterest   Opal’s explanation to her grandson isn’t quite right. “Funner” is substandard, and she’s right to correct Nelson, but saying that “funner” isn’t a word is wrong. Any combination of sounds with a consistent meaning is a word, even if we don’t like it. (Ever hear a child talk [...]