GrammarPhile Blog

The bandage was wound around the wound. When shot at, the dove dove into the bushes. After a number of injections, my jaw got number. Any wonder why English is so hard to learn? How well will you do on this week's vocabulary test?

• accounts payable records
• branch office reports
• income tax return
• life insurance policy
• public relations adviser
• word processing center
• nuclear energy plant
• social security tax
• exception: a mail-order business

When a compound adjective consists of a noun plus an adjective, hyphenate this combination whether it appears before or after the noun.

No aspect of style causes greater difficulty than compound adjectives. When a compound adjective is shown hyphenated in the dictionary, you can assume only that the expression is hyphenated when it occurs directly before a noun. When the same combination of words falls elsewhere in the sentence, the use or omission of hyphens depends on how the words are used.

From time to time, even the most science-averse writers must cover a scientific term in writing. For example, is it Fahrenheit or fahrenheit? Is it Celsius and Centigrade, or celsius and centigrade? While there are several authoritative guides that should be found on the shelves of all science writers (The AIP Style Manual, Physical Review Letters, Astrophysical Journal, and The ACS Style Guide for chemists), the following are some general guidelines for nontechnical editors.

What writer does not want to grab the attention of his or her readers? Whether your lot in life is writing directions for cashing in winning lottery tickets or box labels for over-the-counter sleeping pills, you need to compel your readers to absorb all of the text (even the part about "may cause drowsiness"). Consider using, but not overusing, some of today's tips in your very next assignment.

Idiom is language peculiar to a people or to a district, community, or class. It's also an expression in the usage of a language that is peculiar to itself either grammatically (as no, it wasn't me) or in having a meaning that cannot be derived from the conjoined meanings of its elements (as Monday week for "the Monday a week after next Monday").

Do you know the origin of the word malapropism? It is taken from the character of Mrs. Malaprop in the 1775 R.B. Sheridan comedy The Rivals.

A malaprop is simply an example of a malapropism, and a malapropism is a usually unintentionally humorous misuse or distortion of a word or phrase; more especially the use of a word sounding somewhat like the one intended but ludicrously wrong in the context. For example, "he always said 'polo bears' and 'Remember Pearl Island' and 'neon stockings.'"

We're not talking about those parking spots in old-timey towns in America. We're talking about that 'slash' character (/) found on most keyboards to the right of the period. It's also known as virgule, solidus, slant, or forward slash, to distinguish it from a backward slash, or backslash (\).

An idiom is an expression, common to a particular language, that often differs from the literal meaning of its parts taken as a whole. "A manifestation of the peculiar" is the closest possible translation of the Greek word.

The notion that ending a sentence with a preposition is grammatical heresy was originally advanced more than three centuries ago by the venerated English poet and essayist John Dryden. Dryden, a Latin scholar, based his view on the fact that prepositions are never found at the end of sentences written in Latin. And given Dryden's reputation, it is no surprise that his sentiments forged their way into the grammar texts of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries and eventually into the grammar classrooms of the twentieth century.