Grammar Girl: For Writers and Language Lovers.

929. While we were looking into why we use the word "score" to mean "twenty," our minds were blown by how many languages still have remnants of a base-20 counting system. And then we learned the secret rules that explain why some plurals end with an "s" sound and others end with a "z" sound. It was quite a week! | Transcript:  https://grammar-girl.simplecast.com/episodes/score-dogz/transcript | Th...

928. Listen to the interview that got me playing Wordle again. Lynne Murphy shared all sorts of things you probably didn't know about this game! Lynne Murphy is professor of linguistics at the University of Sussex in England, the author of the book " The Prodigal Tongue ," and the writer of the long-running Separated by a Common Language blog. | Transcript:  https://grammar-girl.simplecast.com/epi...

927. Whether you're a bird brain or a wise old owl, you'll love this week's episode as we fight an uphill battle to understand a language filled with metaphors. | Transcript:  https://grammar-girl.simplecast.com/episodes/uphill-animals/transcript | The "Uphill/Downhill" segment was written by Samantha Enslen, an award-winning writer who runs the writing and editing agency Dragonfly Editorial. You...

926. You may remember being told not to start sentences with "there are," but do you know why? We have the answer! Plus, for Cinco de Mayo, we have five fun facts about Spanish. | Transcript:  https://grammar-girl.simplecast.com/episodes/expletives-spanish/transcript | The "Five Fun Facts About Spanish" segment was written by Susan Herman, a former linguist, analytic editor, and language instructo...

925. The existence of the manchineel tree does NOT beg the question of how many different ways a tree can actually hurt you. But it does show that you can't always use taste to tell whether something is safe to eat. Plus, Online, Remote, Distance, and Virtual. What Kind of Learning Do You Like? | Transcript:  https://grammar-girl.simplecast.com/episodes/begs-the-question/transcript | The "Online,...

924. What if I told you that you actually should use "uh" and "um" when you're giving a talk? And what if I told you "dude" was originally an anti-masculine word? Those are just some of the surprising insights from Valerie Fridland's new book, "Like, Literally, Dude." | Transcript:  https://grammar-girl.simplecast.com/episodes/valerie-fridland/transcript | Get Valerie's book, "Like, Literally, Dud...

923. America's writing coach, Roy Peter Clark, shares his wisdom about the five things every writer he's ever taught wants to learn. | Transcript:  https://grammar-girl.simplecast.com/episodes/roy-peter-clark/transcript |  Subscribe to the newsletter for regular updates . |  Watch my LinkedIn Learning writing courses. |  Peeve Wars card game .  |  Grammar Girl books .  | HOST: Mignon Fogarty | VOI...

922. "A dozen of eggs" sounds weird, but why? Rabbits performing violent acts are a common scene in medieval marginalia. But why are they there? Turns out—Monty Python was on to something! | Transcript:  https://grammar-girl.simplecast.com/episodes/dozen-bunnies/transcript |  Subscribe to the newsletter for regular updates . |  Watch my LinkedIn Learning writing courses. |  Peeve Wars card game . ...

921. Taxes, and the words for them, go back all the way to ancient Egypt. Plus, I have much more to tell you about the phrase "I am sufficiently suffoncified"! It's an especially fun week on the Grammar Girl podcast. | Transcript:  https://grammar-girl.simplecast.com/episodes/taxes-suffonsified/transcript |  Subscribe to the newsletter for regular updates . |  Watch my LinkedIn Learning writing co...

920. Once you start thinking about it, it's weird that we have both "a" and "an." It gets even weirder from there! Plus, modern loneliness, and its solutions, are quite different from what they were when the word was first coined. We look at the history of this formerly rare word. The segment on "a" versus "an" was written by Neal Whitman, an independent writer and consultant specializing in langu...

919. Rebracketing is a fascinating process that gives us more words than you might imagine, even words from French and Spanish! Also, I find a surprising answer to the question of which is correct: "ahold" or "a hold." | Transcript:   https://grammar-girl.simplecast.com/episodes/napron-ahold/transcript |  Subscribe to the newsletter for regular updates . |  Watch my LinkedIn Learning writing cours...

918.  Since "drop" can mean both "to release" and "to cancel," it can get confusing. We look at how this confusion came to  be (and how to avoid it). Plus, we wade into the debate about whether there's a right or a wrong way to pronounce "often." | Transcript:   https://grammar-girl.simplecast.com/episodes/drop-often/transcript The "often" segment was written by Edwin Battistella and originally ap...

917.  For National Grammar Day, we answer one of the most common questions I get: How can I improve my grammar? Plus, I explain why parallelism is important, especially in resume writing. "How to improve you grammar" was written by Susan Herman , a retired U.S. government analytic editor, language analyst, and language instructor. | Transcript:   https://grammar-girl.simplecast.com/episodes/improv...

916. Grant Faulkner, author of "The Art of Brevity" and executive director of NaNoWriMo talks with us about how writing very short stories can improve all your writing. (And whether it's worth it to get an MFA these days.) | Transcript:   https://grammar-girl.simplecast.com/episodes/grant-faulkner/transcript | Grant's Website : https://grantfaulkner.com/ |  Subscribe to the newsletter for regular...

913. Love is much more than romance, and different languages reveal universal truths about the different kinds of love. Plus, we look at whether you should write about wool sweaters or woolen sweaters, silk blouses or silken blouses, wood benches or wooden benches. Is it actually OK to use nouns as adjectives? | Transcript:  https://grammar-girl.simplecast.com/episodes/kinds-of-love/transcript | ...

914. To mark the 50th anniversary of "Schoolhouse Rock," the Saturday morning cartoon that taught millions of children about grammar, math, and more, we have a special multi-interview podcast, including memories from George Newall, one of the creators of the show. | Transcript:  https://grammar-girl.simplecast.com/episodes/schoolhouse-rock/transcript |  Subscribe to the newsletter for regular upda...

913. This week brought us a silly kerfuffle in which the AP may have insulted France. Plus, we investigate the origin of the phrase "out over your skis" and why the apostrophe seems wrong in the company name Lands' End. | Transcript:  https://grammar-girl.simplecast.com/episodes/the-french/transcript |  Subscribe to the newsletter for regular updates . |  Watch my LinkedIn Learning writing courses...

912. We look at who the Teddy is in "teddy bears" and reveal why the Brothers Grimm, from fairytales, were also massively important in linguistics. | Transcript:  https://grammar-girl.simplecast.com/episodes/teddy-bears/transcript |  Subscribe to the newsletter for regular updates . |  Watch my LinkedIn Learning writing courses. |  Peeve Wars card game .  |  Grammar Girl books .  | HOST: Mignon Fo...

911. In honor of Martin Luther King Jr. Day, we cover a bunch of interesting things about labels such as "Jr.," "Sr.," and "III." Plus, we look at the origin of the names Carl's Jr. and Ruth's Chris Steak house. | Transcript:   https://grammar-girl.simplecast.com/episodes/comma-before-jr/transcript |  Subscribe to the newsletter for regular updates . |  Watch my LinkedIn Learning writing courses....

910. The final Grammar Girl word-of-the-year vote came down to "inflation" and "quiet quitting." We look at the interesting arguments voters made for both. Plus, we look at why some words that start with "un-" mean "not" and others mean "reversed"— and about the especially interesting words that can mean either (and why). | Transcript:   https://grammar-girl.simplecast.com/episodes/2022-woty/trans...

909. In honor of 2023, we’ll talk about writing dates. And then we talk about a fascinating study about how COVID has changed the way we think about certain words. | Transcript:   https://grammar-girl.simplecast.com/episodes/writing-dates/transcript COVID Words Segment Written by Valerie Fridland .  Reference: Kleinman D, Morgan AM, Ostrand R, Wittenberg E (2022) Lasting effects of the COVID-19 pa...

908. You had word-related questions after watching the World Cup. We have answers! And for the holidays, we look at the origin of toasting with wine (and why it actually IS related to toasted bread). | Transcript:   https://grammar-girl.simplecast.com/episodes/world-cup-words/transcript |  Subscribe to the newsletter for regular updates . |  Watch my LinkedIn Learning writing courses. |  Peeve War...

907. The fabulous Kory Stamper, author of "Word by Word," joins me this week to talk about words of the year: how they get chosen, what makes each one different, and what people yearn for in their words of the year. | Transcript:   https://grammar-girl.simplecast.com/episodes/words-or-the-year/transcript My guest is Kory Stamper , author of " Word by Word, the Secret Life of Dictionaries ." |  Sub...

906.  A'wassailing. Noel. Mistletoe. Trolling the ancient Yuletide carol, and more. We look into the wonderful words of Christmas and their origins — as delightful as a Christmas cookie. You'll be shouting "drink-hail!" forevermore. | Transcript:   https://grammar-girl.simplecast.com/episodes/wonderful-words-of-christmas/transcript The first segment was written by Kate Burridge and Howard Manns fr...

905.  Bonus Episode! You helped solve the mystery of my father's favorite childhood book. I also share quick and dirty tips from my email newsletter, my favorite social media posts, and some of my favorite products (one of which isn't a product at all). | Transcript:   https://grammar-girl.simplecast.com/episodes/we-found-the-book/transcript |  Subscribe to the newsletter for regular updates . | A...