Category Archives: polls and surveys

23 April: Correct-your-English Language Day

Posted on April 9, 2015 by Ingrid Tieken

This blog features a Language Calendar, and it includes 23 April – English Language Day (UN). Why was 23 April chosen for this, and why have an English Language Day to begin with? As a World Language, English is important enough as it is. So … Continue reading →

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Your help is needed, I mean: I need your help!

Posted on March 29, 2015 by Ingrid Tieken

I’m about to start analysing the results from the Mittins surveys that have been a regular feature on this blog from its earliest days. Many people have let us have their views on the sentences the past few years, for … Continue reading →

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A Dutch letter-to-the-editor: at last!

Posted on March 24, 2015 by Ingrid Tieken

I have been watching NRC Handelsblad (a quality Dutch daily newspaper) ever since the start of the Bridging the Unbridgeable project for letters to the editor that deal with usage problems, but without any luck. Until last night! And interestingly, … Continue reading →

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Into or in to, really?

Posted on March 20, 2015 by Ingrid Tieken

As I wrote earlier on this blog, I’m reading Heffer’s Strictly English (2010). In chapter 4, called Bad Grammar, he discusses the difference between into and in to. I never knew there was such a distinction in English! Is there … Continue reading →

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Final Mittins survey!

Posted on March 13, 2015 by BtU Admin

Here is the last set of the Mittins questions on which we welcome your feedback. This time the questions will be a little different, in that Mittins et al. asked their informants only to indicate the sentences’ acceptability for two … Continue reading →

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Hopefully over?

Posted on March 9, 2015 by Ingrid Tieken

Harry Ritchie, in English Grammar for the Natives (2013), writes that hopefully is “by far the most controversial adverbs of recent times” (p. 191). Usage of the adverb, he says, “has been met with fierce resistance”, and he quotes from Kingsley … Continue reading →

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Season’s Greetings and other seasonal pitfalls

Posted on December 4, 2014 by Carmen Ebner

Christmas is getting closer and the preparations for the festive season are well under way. If you think that pedants and sticklers will grant you some sort of Christmas amnesty, you are most probably wrong. For  them the Christmas season … Continue reading →

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Next generation of prescriptivists?

Posted on June 21, 2014 by Carmen Ebner

“I am a pedant. There is no question about it. Everyone I know would agree, and I accept and embrace it. I have no problem with being called a nerd, or a geek, or any synonyms of these words.” These … Continue reading →

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What makes a usage guide? (part 2)

Posted on June 2, 2014 by Robin Straaijer

A little over a month ago, I posted a survey on this blog, asking you which genres you think usage guides are most closely related to: dictionaries, spelling/punctuation guides, descriptive grammars, popular writing on language, handbooks on writing or style guides. It appears … Continue reading →

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Excuse me, I am terribly sorry to bother you, but …

Posted on May 28, 2014 by BtU Admin

Originally posted on Dr Carmen Ebner:
The data collection is soon coming to an end and it is time to say a big THANK YOU to everyone who has filled in the survey, shared it with friends and nagged their…

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