Author Archives: adrianstenton

On 8 July I wrote a post on a piece on irregardless in the UK Guardian newspaper, not because of the piece itself, but because it generated 327 responses from readers. This, I now realise, was small fry. A piece on … Continue reading →

MW’s inclusion of irregardless spawned not only a cartoon in the UK Guardian newspaper, but a response from 327 members of the the general public!

Are you a copy-editor or a proofreader of English texts? We are interested in what you think! If you can spare a bit of your time, you will help researchers at Leiden University learn more about editing practices by filling … Continue reading →

Another piece from the UK Guardian on how the Apostrophe Protection Society has finally given up the unequal struggle!

Another interesting article from the UK Guardian on which pronouns people who identify as non-binary would like others to use to refer to them. Apart from it being a possible language/usage change in progress, it also addresses the issue of … Continue reading →

From Sunday’s Guardian website … Oh for a German Academy! On a separate note, the spell-checker here wanted me to change Guardian to Gardina! For those not familiar with the Guardian, it has for many years been known for its … Continue reading →

The New York Times has asked students to respond to a short piece on “Does grammar still matter in the age of Twitter?”, and received 172 responses! The piece can be found here.

“Ain’t is a chav word, innit?” chavs

I fear that the Oldie (September 2019, a British monthly magazine whose title speaks of its readership – which of course includes me!) is a bit late for the party on this one …

I was reading the UK Autocar this week-end, and came across this: “My ghast is well and truly flabbered.” This stopped me in my tracks on two counts: (i) I could never say it, let alone write it; and (ii) … Continue reading →