Grammar Friday: runcible

We were reading Storytime Favorites (1947) and came across this verse: “They dined on mince and slices of quince, Which they ate with a runcible spoon” and I just had to look that up. From dictionary.reference.com runcible 1871, a nonsense word coined by Edward Lear; used especially in runcible spoon “spoon with three short tines [...]

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Grammar Friday: residents or residence

I usually point out errors in my Grammar Friday entries, but I’m pretty sure this “error” is intentional. I spotted this in our local Nickel ads this week in the “Pets” section: FOUND: Red & white chicken killer, taking up residents in my barn, on Sagebrush Road, our town; call 555-123-1234 Ha ha.

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Grammar Friday: Podium

Anyone who didn’t sleep through high school English class, much less attended college level journalism classes, should not misuse the word podium. And yet, here in yahoo news: “In recent weeks, President Obama has stepped out from behind the podium and taken his message on the economy to backyards around the country.” From Dictionary.com: po·di·um  [...]

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Grammar Friday: feed

Here’s a yahoo news story that just made me cringe because by using a word incorrectly the author implies children are animals. Over and over again. Is Picky Eating an Early Sign of Autism? From the very first paragraph: New research on the finicky eating habits of children with autism finds that while autistic children [...]

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grammar Friday: snarky

This is just a fun post because I like learning things and maybe you do too! For some reason I thought the word snarky was a recent word — probably because I had never heard it before, you know how that goes, we all think we are the first generation to think of something. I [...]

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Grammar Friday: How did this one even happen?

I am all for using spell check but it can’t catch everything. How did this headline at yahoo news even make it to headline status? “Apple co-founder Wozniak shirks off Prius glitch” From Dictionary.com shirk   [shurk] –verb (used with object) 1. to evade (work, duty, responsibility, etc.). –verb (used without object) 2. to evade work, [...]

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Grammar Friday: Misused Phrases: Stock in Trade

Sometimes these things just jump out at me and I am on a mission to see if the grammar is correct. From a story in Yahoo Finance: “In China, he seems to see the excesses, to the third and fourth power, that he’s been tilting against all these decades,” said Jim Grant, a longtime friend [...]

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Grammar Friday: apostrophe s

Boy, I wish I owned a camera phone, because I saw a sign in the drug aisle at Albertson’s grocery store (I’m looking at you, Kennewick, WA) that proclaimed it the aisle of “Incontinents.” Imagine being the pharmacy worker behind the counter looking out everyday and being slapped in the face with that garble. No [...]

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grammar Friday: hyphens

Today’s installment on proper grammar involves hyphens and when to use them. Fowler’s, The King’s English, has this to say about hyphens: “Hyphens are regrettable necessities, and to be done without when they reasonably may.” I had to give a little chuckle while reading this internet story, because the hyphen was used so obviously incorrectly: [...]

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grammar Friday: verbiage

Doing this grammar thing is fun because I double check lots of things and find out rules I was taught so many years ago are now outdated (example: “He can only have one cookie,” is now considered okay). The word verbiage is in a radio commercial for a product that teaches you how to teach [...]

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