It’s just three letters (with or without an apostrophe). It’s one way of saying “it is.” “Its” is a simple possessive of a pronoun. It’s also one of the biggest grammar errors according to the Blue Book of Grammar and Punctuation. To quickly check which word you should use, replace your version of the three…
My boss and I recently debated the proper use of the apostrophe when the word you’re adding it to ends in “-s” or “-es” (for the record, his last name ends in -es). To my surprise, I was unable to find a single resource willing to make a definitive statement on this. As we touched…
A classic sales tactic is to create a promotion that gives potential customers an incentive to buy. Almost every advertisement for a new car includes incentives for trading in your old one, or having the dealership do your taxes and double your refund to use as your down payment. One highly-publicized example of “incentive marketing” was…
The first stage of any concept is rarely pretty. Staring at a blank canvas at the start of a writing or creative project is daunting, and the first attempts at clarifying the scope of what you’re trying to accomplish and how you’re going to get there usually end up in the trash or wiped off a…
“Don’t use 10 words if you can say it in five.” This is one of the most common writing tips I come across while I’m researching grammar rules. Oddly enough, we were all taught to practice the exact opposite in school. Remember writing papers that were required to be at least 1,000 words or 10…
A few weeks ago, my hometown high school football team faced a minor controversy that was featured in the news. During an away game, they had allegedly trashed the locker room at the opposing school’s facility. The article, posted late one evening on a regional news site, was the official statement from my hometown school…
Which is correct? To say that I write a blog post for Grammar Hammer each week or to say that I write a post for Grammar Hammer every week? “Every” is used to talk about how often something happens. If I say I write something on a weekly basis, I’m saying I write something “every…
Months ago, I received a Grammar Hammer suggestion to look at the difference between the words “shinny” and “shimmy.” The person who suggested this topic to me said she’d never heard the word “shinny.” I’ll confess, I hadn’t heard of it either. I wondered if shinny was an eggcorn (a word or phrase that results…
In public speaking, you are taught to watch your use of “disfluencies” – as in the crutch words where you um, like, and you know your way through the silence as your brain scrambles to make a point. Disfluencies can dilute your message and damage your credibility. When speaking to a crowd, ending each point with…
If you were a child of the 70s and 80s, ABC’s animated series Schoolhouse Rock left an indelible mark. Many of us can trace a love for history, mathematics, science and – of course – grammar to the show’s clever, musical episodes. In honor of the back to school season, ABC aired a tv special last month ranking the…
I’m of the age that one of the classes I took in high school was typing. Putting two spaces after the period at the end of a sentence was drilled into our heads as a best practice with no rhyme or reason for why this was necessary. Recently, a heated discussion over whether this practice…
A suggestion from a loyal reader inspired this week’s Grammar Hammer. Is everyday one word or two words (every day)? Both variations refer to an activity that occurs on a daily basis. As usual, the best way to determine which version to use depends on the context. If I am discussing the routine activities that…
Elicit and illicit might sound similar, but technically they are not homophones and their meanings are vastly different. The words are occasionally confused due to their similar pronunciation and spelling, which is why they are the focus of today’s Grammar Hammer. “Elicit” is a verb that means “to obtain.” It can also mean “to draw out, to extract,…
I often see “wile away the hours” used interchangeably with “while away the hours,” so which is correct? Technically, they both are, but there are some subtle differences one should consider. “To while away the hours” means to “pass time idly” or to “pass time, especially in some leisurely or pleasant manner.” For example, “I spent hours…
I have a tendency to overthink certain grammar rules. Then vs. than is one of those grammar rules that I think I’ve nailed down, but always end up double checking after overthinking it for 10 minutes. To save you time and confusion, here are a few ways to remember the correct usage. “Then” is used to describe…
Part one of our “Punctuation Saves Lives” series covered the heavy hitters of periods, commas, question marks, exclamation points, colons, semicolons, dashes, and hyphens. Part two wraps up with brackets, parentheses, braces, ellipses, quotation marks, and apostrophes. Groups – brackets, parentheses, and braces Use parentheses ( ) to contain additional thoughts or qualifying remarks (I consider…
In English grammar, there are 14 different punctuation marks that I think of as the “primary” punctuation marks – the period, comma, question mark, exclamation point, colon, semicolon, dash, hyphen, parentheses, brackets, braces, ellipses, quotation marks, and apostrophes. These are the marks that help us with sentence structure, help us clarify meaning, and distinguish between…
“The principal is your PAL!” With apologies to Ferris Bueller, that’s how I learned the difference between “principle” and “principal.” Here again, we have two words that sound the same, but have two completely different meanings. “Principle” refers to a fundamental law, doctrine, or tenet. It can only be used as a noun. “Principal” actually…
Flair/Flare is one of my favorite homophones. Even though these words sound the same, their meanings are very different and these words are not interchangeable. FLAIR: A natural talent or aptitude; distinctive elegance or style Example: She had a real flair for soufflé. Example: He wore that hat with a lot of flair. FLARE: A fire or a…
Have you been so confused with when to use “assure,” “ensure,” and “insure” that you actually go back and rewrite your sentence to avoid using that word? I confess, I do that often. “Ensure” and “insure” derive from the Latin word securus, which means “safe” or “secure.” This Latin word also gives us “sure,” “secure,” “assure,” and…
