Tag Archives: sentence structure

-ization station

Posted on April 26, 2012 by

lesson: learning the meaning of the suffix –ization Realization. Industrialization. Immobilization. We use words ending in the suffix -ization so frequently that many native English speakers might not know what –ization even means and how adding it changes the meaning … Continue reading →

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Ouch! That comma splices!

Posted on January 13, 2012 by

Lesson: how to correctly join independent clauses Take a look at this sentence. The Martians want to look their best, they wear their green jumpsuits. There is something wrong here. (And it’s not that the Martians think jumpsuits are high … Continue reading →

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“If I were you” and other subjunctive stumpers

Posted on November 21, 2011 by

Lesson: using were in the past subjunctive mood Subjunctive is difficult even for most native English speakers, mainly because it’s not a tense; it’s a mood. Past, present, future—those are tenses. We use them to tell what happened at a … Continue reading →

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who vs. whom

Posted on November 15, 2011 by

A few weeks ago, I was listening to an episode of my very favorite podcast, A Way With Words. (Seriously, if you’re a word nerd, you need to check this out.) A woman called in to the show to share … Continue reading →

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Simply dashing part one: the em dash

Posted on August 23, 2011 by

Welcome to part one of a three-part series about horizontal fun in the punctuation department: the em dash, the en dash, and the hyphen. Through this series, you’ll learn the difference between these marks and when to use which one. … Continue reading →

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All Together Now

Posted on August 7, 2011 by

Lesson: using “altogether” and “all together” correctly altogether: completely, entirely; with everything considered all together: all at the same time Here is yet another common spelling/grammar mistake. We have two words that are almost spelled the same, and their meanings … Continue reading →

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Confusing Plurals: Data, Criteria, and Media

Posted on July 21, 2011 by

There is a veritable hotbed of controversy (among people who care about these sorts of things) (ahem, dorks) regarding whether the words data, criteria, and media should be treated as plural nouns or as mass nouns. (Mass nouns are nouns … Continue reading →

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Speaking Yodish

Posted on May 4, 2011 by

May the fourth be with you! May fourth is widely regarded (among nerds like me) as being Star Wars Day. Get it? May the fourth . . . may the force? Yeah, these are the kind of puns a certain … Continue reading →

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A guide to mass nouns

Posted on April 25, 2011 by

Making plural nouns in English can be confusing. Sometimes you add an “es.” Sometimes it’s just an “s.” Sometimes you add “ies.” And other times you add “en.” Then once you’ve memorized all these rules, mass nouns enter the fray. … Continue reading →

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Like, is this the return of Valspeak?

Posted on April 6, 2011 by

There are reasons not to rant about Rebecca Black’s viral video and song “Friday.” For one, she’s only twelve years old, and having your debut single named the worst song ever is a heck of a way to start those … Continue reading →

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