英语语法：149 “Principal” Versus “Principle”

Grammar Girl here. Today were going to recall that the principal is indeed your pal, but well also see that a principal can be so much more. In this episode well talk about the various ways to use principlethats p-l-eand principalthats p-a-l. (These

英语语法：148 “Myself”

Grammar Girl here. Today's topic is how to use the word myself. Misusing myself is definitely one of the top things people complain to me about. Here's an example: caller comment The caller is right; people seem to be so afraid to use the words me an

英语语法：147 “Historic” Versus “Historical”

Grammar Girl here. Todays topic is the difference between the words historic and historical. A listener, Denise, wants to know if she should say, We sell historic replicas or We sell historical replicas. Was an event a historic occasion or was it a h

英语语法：146 “Diffuse” Versus “Defuse”

Some pairs of words are used interchangeably, even indiscriminately. Often the words in question sound similar, and that creates confusion. Other times they are simply misused so frequentlyowing to their similarity of meaning, despite a nuanced diffe

英语语法：157 Always, Never, Usually, Often, Most

by Mignon Fogarty Today we'll discuss words you should never use and words you should always avoid--or something like that. As many of you know, before I was Grammar Girl, I was a science and technology writer. Even as an undergraduate, my instructor

英语语法：155 Addictive Versus Addicting

Grammar Girl here. I'm on vacation this week, but before I left I updated one of the early episodes that I took down a few months ago. I hope you enjoy this new and improved version. Today's topic is addictive versus addicting, and we'll get to use a

英语语法：153 “Which” Versus “That”

Since Halloween is coming up, I thought you could use a refresher about whiches--more specifically, when to use a which and when to use a that. To understand the difference between which and that, first you need to understand the difference between a

英语语法：61 How to Write a Great Blog Comment

Steven from Katy, Texas, asked me how to write a good blog comment, and I thought it was a great topic I haven't seen covered anywhere. I don't know any bloggers who don't crave comments, but there are many more places than blogs that you can leave c

英语语法：59 How to Use Transition Words

Grammar Girl here. Today, Bonnie Trenga will help us choose better transition words. This article could make you a tad hungry, because today were comparing the art of writing to the art of making a sandwich. In fact, just for today, we might need to

英语语法：9 Generating Story Ideas

Grammar Girl here. It's a rare bonus episode! Today's topics are generating story ideas and overcoming writers block. Matt from College Park wrote in saying that the podcast has helped his writing, and now his only problem is finding something to wri

英语语法：8 Excessive Redundant Redundancies

Grammar Girl here. Today's topic is redundant acronyms. Some of you know that I'm a working writer. I've had some big deadlines over the last few weeks, so that's why there haven't been as many episodes out; but my work is always a huge inspiration f

英语语法：7 Compound Possession

Grammar Girl here. Today's topic is compound possession, but a couple of people told me they expected last week's episode to be about the word capital, since the iTunes title was A Capital Idea. So I'll address that question first. Here's Scott: Comp

英语语法：5 Chicago Style

Grammar Girl here. Today's topics are style guides and how to deal with book titles. Joe called in with this question: With all of the style guides that are out there -- APA, MLA -- why would anyone use Chicago? I was finding it very hard to believe

英语语法：6 Citing Podcasts and Websites

Grammar Girl here. Today's topic is how to deal with electronic citations. Listener Question Now to get started, here's a listener question: Hi, Grammar Girl. My name is Laura and I am a teacher of 9th-grade English and a big fan of your podcast. I'v

英语语法：96 Using “For” to Mean “Because”

Grammar Girl here. The grammar authorities are going to battle it out today. For they all have a different opinion about our topics: the merits of using the word for to mean because, and whether its OK to start a sentence with the word for. Now, gues

英语语法：86 Sit Versus Set

Grammar Girl here. Today's topic is sit versus set. When I did a show about lay versus lie many months ago, listeners wrote in asking me to do a follow up show on sit versus set because the problem with sit and set is similar to the problem with lay

英语语法：87 Split Infinitives

by Mignon Fogarty Today, I'm gonna get crazy. I said that if people wrote reviews at iTunes, I would split infinitives, and you wrote a lot of reviews. So, to say thank you, I'm going to purposefully split as many infinitives as I can! My secret, tho

英语语法：88 Splitting Verbs

Grammar Girl here. Today's topic is how a verb and an adverb messed up the inauguration. I took a break from work Tuesday to watch Barack Obama's inauguration, and like millions of other people, I saw a bit of confusion between Chief Justice John Rob

英语语法：89 Stacked Modifiers

Todays episode concerns a what-you-may-have-been-wondering-about topic. That sure was a mouthful, and it illustrates the problem of stacked modifiers, which occurs when you string together too many words to describe a noun at the end of the mouthful.

英语语法：90 Starting a Sentence With "However"

Grammar Girl here. Today's topic is how to use the word however in a sentence. It's probably more complicated than you think it is. The question I get asked most frequently about however is whether it is OK to use however at the beginning of a senten