Tag Archives: split infinitive

Just out (surprise)

Posted on May 19, 2017 by Ingrid Tieken

Today, we found out that our article “Prescriptive attitudes to English” is published, that it has been out for two months already. Thanks, Carmen, for tweeting about it, or I wouldn’t have known. Still, I’m really pleased, and expect Carmen … Continue reading →

Posted in news, usage features, usage guide | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

The Comma Queen is back

Posted on April 19, 2016 by Carmen Ebner

Mary Norris, copy-editor and author of the usage guide Between you & me: Confessions of a Comma Queen, shares her knowledge on language use in a series of videos on The New Yorker.   Now in season two, the Comma Queen … Continue reading →

Posted in news, usage features, usage guide | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

Splitting only

Posted on February 18, 2016 by Ingrid Tieken

What do try and, only, split infinitives and dangling participles have in common? This is a question we asked a few weeks ago, and I promised to let you know as soon as we found out. Here, then, is a partial answer … Continue reading →

Posted in polls and surveys, usage features | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Try and, only, split infinitives, dangling participles

Posted on January 27, 2016 by Ingrid Tieken

(If this is your first time on this blog: please fill in the acceptability survey below. Thank you!) What do these features have in common? That is something Carmen Ebner and I are going to figure out in the article we … Continue reading →

More Galleries | Tagged , , , | 6 Comments

And then there were 4

Posted on September 18, 2015 by Carmen Ebner

After Grammar Girl’s Top 10 Grammar Myths in 2010 and the Guardian’s 10 grammar rules you can forget three years later, linguist and author Arika Okrent joins the usage problem shortlisting club with her 4 Fake Grammar Rules You Don’t … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment

On Microsoft’s Grammar Checker again

Posted on March 6, 2015 by Ingrid Tieken

A few years ago, Robin Straaijer wrote a blog post about Microsoft’s Grammar Checker. He had been inspired to write the post after hearing Anne Curzan speak on the topic during the ICEHL-17 conference at Zürich in 2012. Reading Anne Curzan’s … Continue reading →

Posted in usage features | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

Practicing with the HUGE database

Posted on February 10, 2015 by Robin Straaijer

Last week we ran a workshop with a group of language professionals in which they explored the HUGE database with some practice searches. Those practice search questions are now also available on the database page so you can do the same. … Continue reading →

Posted in usage features | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

How to Better Write Letters

Posted on January 27, 2015 by Ingrid Tieken

This is a copy of a book I accidentally found in the Leiden Free Bookshop the other day. It reminded me of eighteenth-century letter writing manuals, so I picked it up. And very much like Steven Pinker’s The Sense of Style, its final … Continue reading →

Posted in usage features | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

How careful can you be …

Posted on January 22, 2015 by Ingrid Tieken

I’m going through the final chapter of Steven Pinker’s The Sense of Style (2014) to find out how many old chestnuts he discusses in his overview of usage problems. I’m always hoping to find new chestnuts, so we’ll wait and see. Of … Continue reading →

Posted in usage features, usage guide | Tagged , | 2 Comments

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!)

Posted in news | Tagged , , | 1 Comment