Grammar Girl Quick and Dirty Tips for Better Writing

How Gendered Languages Are Changing. Jugopop.

This week we take a fascinating look at how highly gendered languages are dealing with the drive to become more inclusive. Plus, we look at the differences between "simple" and "simplistic" and "backward" and "backwards."

A Riotous Good Time with Ellen Jovin of the Grammar Table

The delightful Ellen Jovin of the Grammar Table (you may have seen her sitting on the street answering grammar questions in your city) joined me to talk about her new book, "Rebel with a Clause," what possessed her to set ...

Why Nobody Says 'You're Welcome' Anymore. Whose. Chimichanga.

Surprising Words Related to 'Freedom.' Double Subjects. Foop.

For Independence Day, we look at the word "freedom" and the surprising words that came from the same roots. Plus, we look at odd sentences with double subjects and when you should (and shouldn't) use them.

The Many Meanings of 'Father.' How Watergate Changed English. Punim

"Father" as a word shows how we humans love to extend our metaphors. Did you know it was only relatively recently that priests were referred to as "father," for example? And then, for the 50th anniversary of the Watergate scandal, ...

Are Wisdom Teeth Smart? Capitalizing Degree Names. Sussies 2

This week, we look at what makes wisdom teeth so smart, how to properly write the name of your degree, and what's up with the "sussies" familect?

How Spellers Tackle the 'Dreaded Schwa'

You'll never view spellers in the bee asking questions the same way again after you learn about the schwa from Brian Sietsema, an associate pronouncer for the Scripps National Spelling Bee.

Tomi Adeyemi: The Writing Life and Her New Writing Course.

With her book "Children of Blood and Bone" spending 120 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list, Tomi Adeyemi knows what it takes to write a great book. Listen in on my conversation with this charming writer about her ...

If earth looks like a blue marble, why is Earth Day associated with the color green? Also, 'funnest.'

The famous NASA "blue marble" image could have influenced people to make blue the color of environmentalism and Earth Day, but green won the day. In honor of the special day, we look at how the meaning of "green" has ...

I Cannot Tell a Lie (but I Can Mislead)! And Sometimes People Do It With Percentages.

We look at the linguistic difference between lying and misleading, and then because people often lie with numbers, we look at the difference between "percent" and "percentage" and how to use them. | SPONSORS: https://masterworks.io/about/disclosure and https://bit.ly/ggondemand with the code ...

Why Tired People Talk About Being 'Out of Spoons.' Why Nouns Are More Complicated Than You May Think.

A few months ago, I started to notice people talking about spoons in a weird way, so I investigated and found that people are using an interesting concept called "spoon theory." Also this week, we look at why nouns are ...

The Oxford Comma. And Should You Start a Sentence with 'And'?

Have you ever wondered why it's called the "Oxford comma"? We have the answer to that and many more questions you may have about this controversial punctuation mark. Plus, we'll also talk about why it's fine to start a sentence ...

Why Do We Cringe at 'Pepper and Salt'? Why 'Square' Is Uncool. Quickquish.

"Sticks and stones." "Bride and groom." "Heads or tails." Some word pairs almost always appear in a specific order, and linguists have been investigating why for decades. Plus, after last week's segment about square meals, a listener asked why it's ...

Are People Using 'Commiserate' Wrong? The Origin of (the Word) 'Influenza.' Hersband.

How the "Witch of Wall Street" relates to the word "commiserate." Plus, the interesting origin of "influenza" and other disease names. | Subscribe to the newsletter for regular updates. |Watch my LinkedIn Learning writing course. |Peeve Wars card game. |Grammar ...

Tips for Learning a New Language: The Fluent Show

Kerstin Cable, host of "The Fluent Show" shares her tips and enthusiasm for learning new languages. We talked about what to do if you're stalled learning a language, what the good things and bad things are about language learning apps ...

'Strollout,' 'Insurrection,' 'Yassify,' and Other Words of the Year for 2021

"Strollout," "insurrection," "yassify," "hard pants" and other words of the year for 2021. | Subscribe to the newsletter for regular updates. |Watch my LinkedIn Learning writing course. |Peeve Wars card game. |Grammar Girl books. |HOST: Mignon Fogarty |VOICEMAIL: 833-214-GIRL (833-214-4475) ...

Questions, Questions, So Many Questions!

I have a big metaphorical pile of questions from listeners in which the answers are too short to be a whole podcast segment, so today, I'm going to string them together and do a bunch of quick hits. We'll talk ...

How Lori Rader-Day Wrote a Historical Novel About War Evacuees in Agatha Christie's Vacation Home

Accomplished mystery writer Lori Rader-Day was drawn to the story of children who were evacuated to Agatha Christie's vacation home during WWII, but having never written a historical novel before, she faced challenges. We talk about what she learned along ...

Shibboleth. Greeting Card Grammar. Bunkaree.

Does your group use shibboleths? Plus, I'll help you avoid common embarrassing greeting card mistakes. | Subscribe to the newsletter for regular updates. http://www.quickanddirtytips.com/subscribe | Watch my LinkedIn Learning writing course. https://j.mp/3oooKmK | Peeve Wars card game. http://www.thegamecrafter.com/games/grammar-girl-s-peeve-wars | Grammar ...

Penultimate. Veni, Vidi, Vici. Smidge.

In this week's podcast, we discuss why you should never call your girlfriend your penultimate friend. Plus, we have fun and fascinating facts about Caesar and some of the phrases he gave us, such as "veni, vidi, vici" and "crossing ...

Editing an Anthology: 'Wild Tongues Can't Be Tamed'

Today, I talked with Saraciea Fennell, who works in publishing, is behind the Bronx Book Festival, and is also the editor of a new anthology, "Wild Tongues Can't Be Tamed," featuring essays from an all-star line-up of Latinx writers. We ...

Using Present Tense in a Story About the Past. Beck and Call. Tie-Dye Trees.

Have you noticed people switching to the present tense when they're telling stories? It actually has a name: It's called the "historical present tense." This is the article we mentioned if you want to read more about the historical present ...

The Hedonometer and Your Feelings. What Does 'Schnozz' Mean?

Researchers and companies are harnessing computers to identify the emotions behind our written words. While sentiment analysis is far from perfect, it manages to distill meaning from huge amounts of data — and could one day even monitor mental health. ...

The Power of Very Specific Words, with Joel Schwartzberg

The author of "The Language of Leadership," Joel Schwartzberg, explains how you can make small tweaks to your language to make a big difference in your influence. Subscribe to the newsletter for regular updates. Watch my LinkedIn Learning writing course. ...

Why and When 'Very Unique' Is Wrong. Capitalizing 'Delta Variant' (or Not). Happy to You.

Instead of grinding your teeth about "very unique," pat yourself on the back for recognizing a widespread case of lexical broadening. Plus, we talk about why some people capitalize "Delta variant" and some don't. Subscribe to the newsletter for regular ...