Grammar and Usage

The other day my fitness coach went online to pay a $250 deposit on her daughter's high school trip. She found the website and the correct trip, clicked the link to pay $250, and then faced a cell marked Amount. In a hurry, she typed… continue reading

I just finished reading another excellent mystery by Louise Penny: The Beautiful Mystery. Penny’s series of Inspector Gamache mysteries, which take place in Québec, gets better and better with each volume. I’m always looking forward to the next one. This time I read a library book. To my… continue reading

Awhile back, I taught a friend all about passive verbs. I thought she understood. But her thank-you email said, “Much appreciated!” I hope she was teasing me. How about you? Do you understand the difference between passive and active verbs and know when to use… continue reading

Do you think you know words well? Take this challenge: Pick the correct word or phrase in every sentence below. No peeking at the answer key until you have finished! 1. This site/sight/cite is ideal for our conference. 2. John made less/fewer trips to Chicago… continue reading

Subject-verb disagreement is one of the commonest errors I see these days in business writing. People who have mastered punctuation, pronouns, and challenging word pairs still miss the occasional agreement problem. Sometimes a plural verb is incorrectly paired with a singular subject, for example: Each… continue reading