GrammarPhile Blog

As the summer winds down, we thought we'd post a short article and perhaps cause you to laugh (or at least chuckle a little). Hope you enjoy today's post.

Rather than a grammar post this week, we chose to devote the post to a great moment in American literature. Whether you're in a lofty Manhattan skyscraper or an out-of-the-way home office in the Australian Outback, we hope you'll find a quiet moment today to enjoy this moving excerpt from Cross Creek, a book about early 20th century life in the Florida "scrub," by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings.

Today is International Left-Handers Day. Left-handed people are in their right minds. "Left" is the past tense of "leave." "Leaves" are foliage. Clear up your confusion with today's vocabulary test.


1. cade:
(a) on or toward the left side of a ship;
(b) given or left by a will;
(c) left by its mother and reared by hand;
(d) a Chinese cabbage forming an open head with left-winding white stalks and green leaves.

2. sitzmark
(a) a depression left in the snow by a skier falling backward;
(b) a pleat made by forming two folded edges one facing right and the other left;
(c) the paint left on a surface by a single application of a brush or palette knife;
(d) to put (a matrix) in a form with all the nonzero elements along the diagonal from upper left to lower right.

3. significant digit
(a) the leftmost digit in a number;
(b) any of the digits of a number beginning with the digit farthest to the left that is not zero and ending with the last digit farthest to the right that is either not zero or that is a zero but is considered to be exact;
(c) one digit connected ("married") to another, as in the "5" in Car 54 Where Are You?;
(d) any digit greater than 5.

4. service stripe
(a) a high-water or sometimes low-water mark left by tidal water or a flood;
(b) a temporary mark left on a windshield of a car that has been serviced;
(c) a stripe worn on an enlisted man's left sleeve to indicate three years of service in the army or four years in the navy;
(d) a bud that develops into a leafy shoot and does not produce flowers.

5. pot liquor
(a) a crescent-shaped liquefied dumpling filled usually with pork, steamed, and then fried;
(b) a high-alcohol distillate created in a pot-bellied stove;
(c) the liquid left in a pot after cooking something;
(d) a double-fisted contraband.

6. paradiddle
(a) something (as a piece of writing) that is mutilated or left unfinished;
(b) a poem written and intended to be read right to left;
(c) two diddles;
(d) a quick succession of drumbeats slower than a roll and alternating left- and right-hand strokes in a typical L-R-L-L, R-L-R-R pattern.

7. OS
(a) medical shorthand for "left eye";
(b) medical shorthand for "left arm";
(c) medical shorthand for "left brain";
(d) medical shorthand for "left ear."

8. ort
(a) Gaelic for "east";
(b) a morsel left at a meal;
(c) not diluted or adulterated;
(d) indy's ousemate.

9. mortmain
(a) a stereoscopic motion or still picture in which the right component of a composite image usually red in color is superposed on the left component in a contrasting color to produce a three-dimensional effect when viewed through correspondingly colored filters in the form of spectacles;
(b) left for dead;
(c) on or toward the left side of a ship;
(d) the condition of property or other gifts left to a corporation in perpetuity especially for religious, charitable, or public purposes.

10. Left-Bank
(a) Shaq's downfall;
(b) of, relating to, situated in, or characteristic of the bohemian district of Paris on the left bank of the Seine River;
(c) the leftist division of a group (as a political party);
(d) where Renee lives, after she just walked away.

 

So, how's your left-handed vocabulary? Find out here.

Here are some more questions we've received from readers who are unsure about something they're writing. See their questions and test yourself against our experts.

After you've completed your answers, please click the link at the bottom of the post to see our Grammar Experts' answers.

 

We're often asked how to punctuate requests properly and politely. Today's post addresses this issue.

Want to be known as an eloquent speaker and compelling writer? Use the subjunctive mood more. Use it to express a wish, a demand, a requirement, an exhortation, or a statement contrary to fact--as well as in a number of fixed idioms.

 

Here are some writing tips from the leading legal writing style guide, The Redbook / A Manual On Legal Style by Bryan Garner. Our topic today is numbers.

The Redbook generally follows AP in the basics: spell out one through nine and use numerals for 10 and above. Here are some other rules from The Redbook:

We thought we'd do something a bit different today. We often receive questions directed to our Grammar Experts and reply to them privately. I'm going to share some of these questions today and give you an opportunity to test yourself against our experts. Names have been changed to protect the innocent!

After you've completed your answers, please click the link at the bottom of the post to see our Grammar Expert's Answers.

 

Do you know someone who won't get out of bed for fear of crossing paths with a black cat or being hit by a meteor? We're glad you braved the day and came to work. Do watch out for ladders, though. Walking under a ladder is unsafe all year long.