In a post a year ago I presented an inventory of some of the major bogus rules of English grammar and usage. They are also the subject of a series of short videos I am making at baltimoresun.com. But ...

When you first learn the rules for English grammar in elementary school, you find there are a lot of don’ts: Don’t end a sentence with a preposition; don’t begin a sentence with because. But as you ...

About a decade ago, I read a blog written by a linguistics student who proclaimed, “Prescriptivism must die!!!” He was talking about the school of thought that believes that textbooks and other ...

If you’ve ever been cited for breaking traditional grammar rules you will rejoice at the publication of The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language (Cambridge University Press, 2002). Coauthor and ...

Bryan A. Garner, the founder of LawProse, is the author of “Garner’s Modern American Usage” and the editor in chief of Black’s Law Dictionary. Robert Lane Greene Robert Lane Greene, an international ...

Back in the 19th century, some grammar teachers had a problem with the word reliable. It doesn’t properly fit the pattern of adjectives ending with –able. If you can be loved, you are lovable. If you ...

When we speak our native language we unconsciously follow certain rules. These rules are different in different languages. For example, if I want to talk about a particular collection of oranges, in ...

Chaise longues — those reclining full-length chairs that beckon you to the beach — are making me nostalgic. Not for days when I had more free time and closer proximity to the ocean, but for days when ...