Author Archives: Ingrid Tieken

Grumbling about grammar over coffee

Posted on October 3, 2013 by Ingrid Tieken

The Literary Gift Company What a wonderful gift this would be, this lovely set of Grammar Grumble Mugs! Except that most of them are about spelling, not grammar of course (I’m a pedant after all!). Thanks for the link, Ana! 

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Even The Guardian …

Posted on October 1, 2013 by Ingrid Tieken

… has joined us in our interest in prescritpivism. Read all about it here. And that isn’t all: here’s what they published two days later. Keep sending us more of this. (Thanks, Joan!)

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You guys, you all and Kingsley Amis

Posted on September 29, 2013 by Ingrid Tieken

When we were living in Cambridge, two years ago, I was struck by the pervasiveness of you guys as a plural pronoun. It is not as if it was new to me: in my history of the language lectures I … Continue reading →

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Ain’t: Bob Dylan vs. The Byrds

Posted on September 14, 2013 by Ingrid Tieken

Whenever I listen to Bob Dylan’s song “Mr Tambourine Man”, I catch myself being surprised at the line: I’m not sleepy and there is no place I’m going to. Shouldn’t it be ain’t in this context? Googling for the line, … Continue reading →

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“I judge you …

Posted on September 13, 2013 by Ingrid Tieken

… when you use poor grammar” is the title of a picture book of grammatical and other linguistic bloopers. Viktorija brought it back with her as a present for our group when she returned from the States earlier this month. … Continue reading →

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Kind regards or best wishes?

Posted on September 3, 2013 by Ingrid Tieken

During dinner at a conference last week, a British colleague raised the question of where the closing formula “kind regards” had suddenly come from. It is pervasive in emails nowadays, she said, but she waived my suggestion that it might … Continue reading →

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How funny are they?

Posted on August 23, 2013 by Ingrid Tieken

One of the characteristics of English usage guides is that they often include tongue-in-cheek remarks, actual jokes or just plain witticisms. As the Fowler brothers wrote, when they were working on The King’s English, “we try to throw in a little elegant flippancy … Continue reading →

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Eenermost: a gross corruption?

Posted on August 19, 2013 by Ingrid Tieken

In the one instance in which this word occurs in Jane Austen’s letters it doesn’t mean what the spelling appears to suggest (innermost?): he said the fleas were so starved when he came back from Chawton that they all flew … Continue reading →

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Back to school: buy Fowler

Posted on August 16, 2013 by Ingrid Tieken

I was just forwarded an email from OUP USA which announces a Back to School 2013 offer of a 65% reduction on book prices. The list of books on offer include Fowler’s Modern English Usage, at half-price, which is good, … Continue reading →

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Peter Trudgill on less and fewer

Posted on August 13, 2013 by Ingrid Tieken

Reading students’ papers this summer, I kept stumbling over their use of less for fewer. But it is not a typically Dutch error (as I have to see it in my role as their teacher), nor is it new. For … Continue reading →

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