Recently in All About English Category

Here's a video I'd recommend you share with any friends and co-workers who rely on automatic spelling and grammar checkers to catch all the errors in their documents.

Thanks to Melissa's friend, Eric, for sharing the link.

I was wondering the other day about the origin of the phrase "pie in the sky." Here's what I found with a quick search online:

Pie in the Sky is defined by Dictionary.com as an empty wish or promise. Their definition entry offers the quote:

"To outlaw deficits... is pie in the sky"
—Howard H. Baker, Jr.

I'll guess and say that the researchers for this site are using Baker's quote as an example, not an attribution. If it's intended as an attribution then they ought to refer to another of Houghton Mifflin's titles, The American Heritage^® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer which traces the phrase back to 1911 when it was used in a rallying song by the International Workers of the World (or "Wobblies"):

"Work and pray, live on hay,
you'll get pie in the sky when you die."

A friend asked me to explain what a split infinitive is, so I thought I'd share my explanation with the folks who read my blog:

An infinitive consists of the function word "to" and the infinitive form of a verb: to + verb

A split infinitive is when an adverb (usually a word ending in -ly) is inserted between "to" and the infinitive verb creating the form: to + adverb + verb

I'm in the supermarket the other day, with two items in hand, looking for the shortest check-out line. I spot one and make my move. Coming around the corner I see two things that raise my ire: first, the sign that says "10 Items or Less", which always twists a knot in my grammatical gut and second, one of those screw-customer-service-style self-check-out stations. I make it out of the store and as I'm driving away, thanking God that I didn't punch the check-out station for ringing up my milk as feminine hygiene products (again), I take a deep breath to relax. That's when it hits me: I know why the sign is grammatically incorrect!

Now I've been a professional writer for 14 years, so knowing whether or not something is grammatically correct is kind of like Spider-Man's spider-sense tingling whenever there's trouble. Of course the difference between me and him (other than fact vs. fiction) is that where he always goes off to save the heroine, I cannot always immediately correct that which I know is grammatically incorrect. The problem I often encounter, as do many writers and editors, is that I'll change something if I can, but more often than not it requires explaining why something is wrong before being allowed to take action. For example, earlier this week I called a friend to the carpet about using "less" instead of "fewer" incorrectly. Other than when around children and ESL students, I try not to be the annoying wank who goes around correcting everyone's grammar. In this case my friend prides herself on being well-read and articulate, so I knew she'd appreciate being corrected in a constructive way. The problem arose when I corrected her and cited the "10 Items or Less" sign as an equivalent example and suddenly realized I couldn't explain why one is correct and the other not. She teased me about it and all I could say was, "Well...um...well, it just is!" Of course she got even with me by the condescending quip, "Of course, of course, I believe you, you're the trained professional writer and ESL teacher, not me!" AAAAARRRRGGGHHHH!!!!

In yesterday's entry I referenced two of my preferred online dictionaries. I thought it might be helpful to post a list of some of my favorite online English dictionaries.

Last night my buddy John called to ask what do you call someone who makes hats. I thought, "Duh, a hat maker!" But before answering, and knowing John, I knew he was looking for the fancier synonym: haberdasher. After a brief conversation about it, I was left to wondering if I it meant what we thought it did. I did a little online research this morning and determined that, as I suspected, I didn't have it entirely correct.

I was looking at more TEFL (teaching English as a foreign language) programs online today and saw one that asked for applicants to complete a grammar and vocabulary assessment questionnaire. One of the items it asked was for the difference between practice and practise.