A Word With Beth
A Word With Beth — About Apostrophes
The Grammar Owl is looking at his talons again. This time, they’re making him think about apostrophes (and the grammatical catastrophes they sometimes cause.) Apostrophes should be easy. They should be… Let’s look at the apostrophe’s main uses, shall we? They’re used to create contractions. Think of them as the blank tile…
Read MoreA Word With Beth — About Well-Meant Words
Instead of a grammar post today, this will be a bit of a rant, but hopefully a gentle, thoughtful rant. There’s a phrase that bothers me every time I hear it. I know what is meant by it, but still it bothers me. Very often, people who work for a cause with great dedication are…
Read MoreA Word with Beth — About Commas, Part Two
At the request of a couple of readers, the Owl and I are taking a second look at commas today. Before the Owl sinks his talons into a few more comma rules and faux pas, we have a little bit of housekeeping to deal with. Apparently, for some readers, the avatars are obscuring part of…
Read MoreA Word with Beth — A Grammar Gift
As you know, my focus this month is gifts that I can give you. Today, instead of the regular Grammar Q&A or Grammar Owl post, I want to share a link to a delightful episode of Kerri Miller’s The Daily Circuit on MPR (Minnesota Public Radio). Billed as “a scientist’s take on language,” Steven Pinker…
Read MoreA Word with Beth — about Commas, Part One
The Grammar Owl was undecided regarding which grammatical quandary to post about today. He scratched his head, totally perplexed. Have you ever seen an owl do that? Those talons are so sharp! Just the thought makes me flinch with imagined pain. Back to our perplexed owl. After scratching his head, he stretched out his leg…
Read MoreA Word with Beth about “Than” and “Then”
The Grammar Owl is back and so is my monthly feature that looks at some question about English language usage and grammar. Today, the Grammar Owl and I want to talk about the words “than” and “then” and when to use one and when the other. (You may have gathered that from the title of…
Read MoreA Word with Beth — about Me, Myself and I (Part Two)
As I indicated last month, the Owl really gets his grammar feathers in a twist when it comes to the use and misuse of the word Myself. In an attempt to smooth the Owl’s feathers, I’d like to mention a few of the ways Myself is abused in conversation, writing, and speech-making, and suggest alternatives.
Read MoreA Word with Beth — about Me, Myself, and I (Part One)
The Owl has observed that Me, Myself, and I are often troublemakers in the grammatical world. Me and I work in tandem to cause confusion, while Myself causes quite enough problems on its own. Today I’m going to talk about Me and I. Myself will get a post all of its own, next month. Here’s…
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