Category: Blog

Separable verbs don’t need hyphens.

She got the verb wrong. Should be “seek out.”

The compound adjective is good, though: “half-dollar.”

End of lesson.

For Example:

You don’t even need to put it between quotes.

Can you think of a noun that you can’t use as a verb?

The clue is at the top of the fourth panel.

As you know if you read this site much, you should avoid passive voice like the plague! (I almost wrote “Passive voice should be avoided.” Shame on me.) And using the third person makes it worse!

First, let’s look at the comic, specifically the words “to do.” How correct are these, and why?

Okay, the answers:

• Panel 1: Let’s don’t call it a little dash. Call it a hyphen.
• Panel 2: Here “to-do” is a compound noun. The hyphen is okay. (I think she’s using “dash” as an activity, not as punctuation.)
• Panel 3: Here he’s using it as a verb. No hyphen.
• Final panel: Here “to-do” is a compound adjective. Hyphen is correct.

How did you do?

If you read this blog much, you have heard about the oxford comma (if not, look for it in the search box on the right), the comma before the conjunction in a list. I encourage you to use it. My rule is that without that comma you can sometimes be misunderstood; but with it, you will not be misunderstood.

The rule applies even if you don’t use the conjunction at the end. Maybe I should say especially if you don’t use the conjunction at the end. This list contains only two items, but you get the point.

So use the oxford comma!

Here’s the comic:

You know the difference between hard and soft consonants, right?

Panel 1, not panel 3

Please. Don’t say “on accident.”

But maybe it is!

It does suggest a writing topic. And I see the sign got the apostrophe correct!

The word in question is “contentious.”

Such a shift of Earth is called “true polar wander”, but the evidence for this process has been contentious.

http://astrobiology.com/2021/10/did-the-earth-tip-on-its-side-84-million-years-ago.html

Contentiousness is a human emotion or behavior. It’s not something that inanimate objects such as evidence do.

So I say the sentence should say:

Such a shift of Earth is called “true polar wander”, but the evidence for this process has been a source of contention.

What do you think?

Here’s a picture from the article:

“Comprise” means something like “is composed of” and a lot of people, wanting to sound high class, get it wrong. Here’s how to use “comprise”:

By at least 55,000 years ago, the first Australians had navigated open seas in boats to reach the super-continent of Sahul, or Greater Australia (comprising Australia, New Guinea and Tasmania, which were one land mass when sea levels were lower). 

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-03497-0

The whole thing comprises its parts. Got it?

The sentence is from a book review. The book is Our Oldest Companions: The Story of the First Dogs Pat Shipman Belknap (2021) and here’s a picture from the review: