Category: Blog

Usually we make nouns into verbs (it’s called denominalization). A “run,” for example, becomes the verb “to run.” You can make just about any noun into a verb. Think about it.

You should find it harder to make verbs into nouns, but here’s a way:

Take a phrasal verb, such as “run over.” We have a noun made by putting the second part of the verb first. You get “overrun.”

You can also do it without switching the order, but you accent the first part of the word: To “set up,” and “setup.” Of course, this word can go either way; we have a “setup.”

Exercise for the reader (or should I say best beloved): Make yourself a list of five of each kind of noun. Hint: You’ll find it easier to make the second kind of noun.

If I find a comic that illustrates this, I’ll include it. If you find such a comic, send it to me!

When you say “it is” or “there are” you’re using what we call a false subject. The words “it” and “there” don’t refer to anything. And the sentence is passive to boot. First panel:

Identify the guilty party! After all, it’s a news program. Could even have been free advertising for the coffee company. Something like “Brown Beanie Coffee Company announced today that they mislabeled…”

Harrumph.

Good writing is concise. That means you got rid of extra words but didn’t get rid of too many words. (Getting rid of too many words is being terse.) Okay, we have a couple synonyms here that involve not being concise. Definitions after the comics.

• Redundancy—needless repetition; “do it over again.”
• Pleonasm—unnecessary words; “on a daily basis” instead of “daily.”
• Tautology—the same thing twice; “he was prepared and ready.”

I’ll let you decide which of these are in the comics.

But I’m not going to bother to look it up. Seems to me that we didn’t use punctuation back then.

Seems to me most of our punctuation appeared in the middle ages.

By the way, don’t forget to pronounce that second “s.” It’s aster riSk, not aster rick.

When I learned about the parts of speech in school, my teacher included expletives in her list.

Maybe this teacher just liked matched columns in the list.

Expletives are expressions of surprise or similar strong emotion, and they generally appear all by themselves and are generally punctuated with an exclamation point. I leave it as an exercise for the reader to make a list of them…

Two things I have opinions about! Panel 1 and panel 2.

The phrase in panel 1 is correct. Do you see it? Many many people get it wrong. Answer below

Panel 2 is grammatical but not true! Lots of people use this phrase incorrectly, too. What is it?

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• Panel one: “all right” two words is correct. Many folks incorrectly use “alright.” ick.
• Panel 2: Use “can’t wait” only if you describe doing something because you can’t actually wait. If all you want to do is emphasize your desire for something to happen, say “I can hardly wait.” harrumpf.

Well, rule of thumb, that is. A recommendation, really. Third panel. He stated the rule a bit more strongly than I do.

My rule is that your writing is generally better if you can think of a good verb and dispense with the adverb. Unless your emphasis is on the adverb, maybe.

…about a week ago. But hey, repetition is the mother of learning, right?

Besides, he gives the same definition that I did, so I must be right, right?

And words that sound the same but have different meanings are homonyms, right? Rite?