This one will not be easy to change but it is easy enough to understand. Hopefully is an adverb, a word that modifies a verb (an action word). Thus, a correct usage would be: “Hopefully, he rose to address the assembly.” In . . . Continue reading →
Several years ago I began to notice that young people were verbally articulate but their ability to speak well did not necessarily translate into an ability to write well. More recently it seems that verbal skills are suffering. There are a variety . . . Continue reading →
Mike writes to ask what resources I use or that have influenced me regarding grammar and style. Here is a quick list of some of the books that have influenced me over the years. Let me say, however, that this list is . . . Continue reading →
Clear writers distinguish between further and farther. The latter refers to distance and the former refers to logic. There are parts of the country (e.g., where I grew up, on the plains) where this distinction is ignored. Back home we say, “Go further down . . . Continue reading →
On sports-talk radio one gets a good sense of what is happening to the English language. College-educated hosts regularly abuse the language in ways that would frustrate their teachers to no end. For example, one of the hosts of one of my . . . Continue reading →
It’s that time of year. Chapters from MA theses and term papers are beginning to come across my desk and one of the mistakes that I see most often is the confusion of while for though. The latter may be used as . . . Continue reading →
HB reader Barbara asks, “Is conversate a word? I am a nurse and see other nurses using it in their progress notes. Example: ‘The resident was seen conversating with her room mate.’ Thanks Barbara. That is a good question. In English verbs, . . . Continue reading →
I was surprised to learn that of the more than 6,000 Heidelblog posts, two of the most popular have been Grammar Guerrilla posts: Grammar Guerrilla: Comfort v Comfortability and Grammar Guerrilla: Agreement v Agreeance. Continue reading →
Americans love to add intensifiers to words. They do it to add force to existing words. Irregardless, an adjective and an adverb, is a good example of this tendency. The earliest citation in the Oxford English Dictionary is from 1912, but it occurs in . . . Continue reading →
Two popular expressions entered the American colloquial lexicon about a decade ago. I first heard them both used by an evangelical from the American South. He wanted to “speak into” an issue and “love on” some people. It seems as if the . . . Continue reading →