1. What’s your favorite word?
Friday! Just kidding. A favorite – hmm a very difficult choice. Of the words I use often it would be the simple, lovely, ambidextrous “fuck. ” It’s a noun; it’s a verb; it’s an adjective. It really does it all.
2. What is your least favorite word?
Irregardless. It is indeed a word, look it up. But it is so unnecessary. Regardless does the exact same thing.
3. Do you have a nifty grammar punctuation rule that makes you feel smart every time you get to apply it?
Two tricks. One is a nifty spelling rule – there is a “rat” in separate. And I adore the semicolon to get around the vicious comma splice that could plague so many college papers.
4. If you could change one grammar rule what would it be?
See above – quit being such a blue-nose about commas and the comma splice. Faulkner, Joyce, Rushdie they do/did it all the time and they turned out okay.
5. What common grammar mistake annoys you the most?
The use of the possessive apostrophe in third person use. Especially your vs you’re. (and while we are on the topic: their, and they’re, and there) Typos I regretfully can overlook but when these example are over-used consistently incorrectly it gives me concern. I blame autocorrect and using mobile devices to communicate and defaulting to shortcuts and abbreviations for so many woes that translate poorly when someone tries to communicate formally. I had an employee who never used the word “because” correctly in emails and instead would use “cause” in its place (not the colloquial “cuz” which I still don’t care for). I could never never break her of that habit.
1) Putz – An oldie but a goodie, “cause” people don’t rrealize how offensive it really is. https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Putz
2) The current application of the name “Karen”, when really you could just use putz.
3) The em and en dashes. They are not hyphen “-” and should not dare be used as such. As a copywriter by trade, I have come to understand them and use them frequently. Learn it—live it—love it; 24–7
4) When to use period and when not to use periods on bullet points. Who gives an ever-loving fuck!
5) The most common mistake I see is switching between first and third person voice in the same written piece. People should pick a lane and you stay in it!
1. “Poignant.” Great word, great pronunciation, vague meaning.
And it’s also wonderful to hear people butcher it verbally.
2. “No.” I don’t like being told no. As a spoiled child of “old Denver,” I’m pretty used to the fact that most rules no longer apply to me.
3. (Good tip on the en and em dashes Tony!) My superpower is the proper and frequent application of colons and semicolons; the semicolon alone is quite powerful in its ability to string together unrelated concepts.
4. I’m a big stickler for proper title casing. However, title casing has so many picky little nuances, that most people get it wrong. Maybe we could go to all lower case or all capitalized titles instead?
5. Sorrry RW, but the comma splice is my weakness. When I write extemporaneously, I litter the first draft with commas, which I then go and strip out at first edit (and then re-insert or move commas as I continue to edit).
1) Obelisk so rarely is there a good opportunity to use it. My second favorite is thong, it’s fun to say.
2j Inconsequential, fuck you everything has meaning to someone. Don’t be a narcissist prick.
3) Thankfully my field they rarely if ever care about grammar. My trick is to use the grammar tools provided by the vast internet.
4) I do not give a fuck about grammar rules.
5) mine falls on pronounced words. I fucking hate it when basic words are mispronounced. Example there is no fucking R in wash! Oh and fuck you there is height and there is width there is no heighth! These sort of things make me cringe internally.