Mangled Monday

So, let’s think … So many writing misconceptions abound, which one should I address today? How about split infinitives? That one’s always fun.
In grammatical-speak, an infinitive is the most basic form of a verb. To be. To run. To cry. To write.
The traditional idea is that they should never be separated. You never say, “To [...]

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Most of you should know what an adjective is, but what about a Compound-Adjective?
This is an adjective created when two or more adjectives modify the same noun.

Blue-gray paint
Absent-minded professor
Semi-solid food
Sweet-and-Sour pork

The idea is that the hyphen will help to avoid confusion. Otherwise, that tasty dish on the menu might confuse someone who’d never been [...]

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Sadly, it’s true. There are still people who get confused about when to use “your” and when to use “you’re.”
This one is really simple.

If you want to say, “You are,” you write “you’re.” It’s a contraction of the two words.

If you mean to denote possession, you want “your.” Your house. Your coloring book. Your [...]

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Which of these words confuse you?
Bath/Bathe:

Bath: To soak in water. (”After a long day, all I want is a nice, hot bath.”)
Bathe: The verb used when bathing. (”The dog was so filthy, it took me an hour to bathe him.”

Discreet/Discrete:

Discreet: Tactfully unobtrusive. (”The doctor was very discreet while passing on the news.”)
Discrete: Separate. (”Whether to [...]

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Last week, we discussed the Nominitive case for pronouns (I, he, they, etc.), so this week, naturally, we’re going to discuss the Objective Case: me, you, him, her, us, them, it, whom.
Objective pronouns are used for direct objects of a sentence.

Give her the key.
Harry told them no.

Objective pronouns are used for indirect objects.

Martha gave [...]

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Gillian left a comment on yesterday’s post asking for help knowing when to use the nominative case in a sentence. If the jargon is already making you say, “What?” it’s knowing the difference between saying, “You and I” and “You and me.” In fact, the sentence that caught her eye yesterday was “And then there’s [...]

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Remember, back in school, when your teacher taught you never to start a sentence with a conjunction (and, but, or)?
You’ll be pleased to know that, while it’s true that this is something you should avoid, it’s no longer a mandatory hard-and-fast rule. The important thing is that you not do it all the time. If [...]

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Remember commas? Is it just me, or does there seem to be widespread confusion about when and where to use these handy little punctuation marks? Originally, they started out indicating where to take a breath when reading aloud, but now are used for so much more. Ultimately, though, they indicate a natural break in a [...]

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Ouch! There go those contractions again!
We’ve covered it’s and its. We’ve covered there/their/they’re. We’ve even talked about the uses of the apostrophe. But still, everywhere I go on the internet, contractions are being misused and causing pain to those of us who know better. (I swear, you’d think that nobody read this blog [...]

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