GrammarPhile Blog

Here are some interesting word choices people too often fumble. Make sure you don't!

When, if ever, is it correct to use the pronoun yourself or myself? Watch this short video to find out!

Believe it or not, some people have actually cried 96 Tears over where and when to use a question mark. It's not always as straightforward as one might think. In fact, sometimes it's downright mysterious - some might say, "It's a Mysterian." We'll begin with the obvious and end with the less so.

Today we're writing about how to hyphenate titles.

• my aunt and uncle's house
• Gilbert and Sullivan's musicals
• Minneapolis and St. Paul's transportation system
  but
• my aunt's and uncle's specific talents
• our friends' and neighbors' children

• a cookbook's index
• student assistants' time cards
• my daughter-in-law's office
  but
• the offices of both my daughters-in-law

• an hour's delay
• in three days' time
• six months' leave of absence (or a six-month leave of absence)
• three years' experience

• a consumers' group
• taxpayers' associations
• children's rights
• the women's team
• a boys' club
  but
• Publishers Weekly
• Diners Club
• Department of Veterans Affairs
• a housewares sale

Not sure when to use "farther" or "further?" This video will help!

You split a banana with ice cream, fudge sauce, and whipped cream. You split an infinitive by inserting a modifier--an adverb, usually--between the to and the verb, as in "I want you to carefully read over these instructions." The notion that this incision is grammatically unsound was first set forth in the mid-1800s, and it finds its basis in Latin, a language in which the infinitive is a one-word verb form.

Here's a small collection of miscellaneous rules for grammar. Perhaps one will be something you can use in the next ten minutes.

We think it was Mark Twain who said, "Better to keep silent and let people just think you're an idiot than to open your mouth and remove all doubt." That could be true in writing as well.

Here's our wish for the week: