Madam Grammar

@MadamGrammar

Teacher, editor, grammar evangelist. Finding the joy in language and walking the fine red line between prescriptivism and descriptivism.

Kansas, USA
madamgrammar.com
Joined September 2012
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  1. Pinned Tweet
    3 Jan 2014

    We can take English out of the box and play with it -- it won't break. No need to keep it "mint."

    2 replies 55 retweets 98 likes
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  2. 16 hours ago

    I always remember this one by “Oui, I would like some soup” and “Bully for gold.”

    There's BOUILLON, which is the clear broth (often made from beef bones). And there's BULLION, which is "uncoined gold or silver in bars or ingots."
    1 reply 1 retweet 9 likes
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  3. Apr 3

    “It need not provoke anxiety to know we cannot read all we wish. ... there is a joy just in knowing particular books exist, and the best way to remind ourselves of their existence is to surround ourselves with them.”

    3 retweets 8 likes
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  4. Apr 2

    An interesting take on the exclamation mark from novelist Elena Ferrante:

    4 retweets 11 likes
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  5. Mar 31

    Reminder: It’s a tough ROW, not road, to hoe.

    3 replies 9 retweets 24 likes
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  6. Mar 29

    This headline really jumped out at me. I see that lists “mouses” as an alternative plural, but Amazon, Best Buy and Office Depot all use “mice.”

    Headline that includes the phrase “keyboards and mouses”
    Three screenshots from online stores that all list “mice” for sale
    4 replies 13 likes
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  7. Retweeted
    Mar 27

    One very real use case for dictionaries that I discuss in this article: “People love telling other people that they are wrong on the Internet, and a dictionary can help you figure that out. Dictionaries are often used to settle debates.” 👉📘👈

    Trump’s spelling is so bad, online dictionaries are seeing an "unpresidented" boost in traffic
    1 reply 9 retweets 28 likes
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  8. Mar 26

    (Yes, the “im” was deliberate.)

    1 reply 5 likes
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  9. Mar 26

    No, im not, because I don’t trust your website enough to enter my credit card number.

    2 replies 19 likes
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  10. Mar 26

    Semicolon for sure, with a dash of colon

    might as well tweet the tag yourself meme i made
    5 likes
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  11. Mar 25

    If I ever win the lottery, this keyboard is something frivolous but fun that I will buy. (h/t )

    Computer keyboard where the keys look like Scrabble tiles
    7 retweets 26 likes
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  12. Mar 25

    "The aversion to disfluencies may well have arisen from speakers’ horror at hearing their own recorded voices. ... In truth, disfluencies appear to distract mainly those who have been trained to revile them."

    4 retweets 1 like
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  13. Retweeted
    Mar 22

    My new American dialect survey is up at ! You can answer 30-60 questions, and see heat maps for where your answers are popular. Please pass this along to your American friends too. Free, and no registration required. Thanks for your input!

    61 replies 596 retweets 872 likes
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  14. Mar 21

    Like it or not, language mistakes make you look sloppy. For some people, that doesn’t matter. When you represent others, it certainly does. (by at )

    4 retweets 14 likes
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  15. Mar 21

    "Sunday" as a verb, Iowa, USA, 1889

    Newspaper clipping with text: "Milt Turney, who is attending college at Shenandoah, Sundayed at home."
    6 replies 16 retweets 58 likes
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  16. Mar 20

    One of the fun things about going through old documents is looking at usage and slang in addition to information. "Slinging lightning across the wires" = being a really fast telegrapher

    Clipping from old document that says "regarded as an expert in slinging lightning across the wires"
    1 reply 8 retweets 38 likes
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  17. Mar 17

    The transposition of sounds in a word, such as "purty" for "pretty," is called "metathesis" in linguistics.

    Scrabble score showing the word "purty"
    5 retweets 26 likes
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  18. Retweeted
    Mar 16

    There are words we created because we are scared of calling frightening things by their true names, of summoning them or giving them power. Among linguists, these words are called taboo deformations. One of these words is "dagnabbit"

    7 replies 222 retweets 500 likes
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  19. Mar 13

    Reminder: "Forego" means to go beFORE, usually seen in "foregone conclusion"; "forgo" (no E) means to abstain from.

    13 retweets 34 likes
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  20. Mar 10

    A literal "egg-corn" from a 1959 Pogo comic:

    Panel from a comic strip with character saying "what kind of oaks grow from them kinda egg-corns"
    1 reply 8 likes
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  21. Mar 8

    "So what it really comes down to is the fact that a very small but very vocal minority don’t like the new use and would rather say that it’s been ruined for everyone than to admit defeat." Interesting perspective on skunked terms from :

    1 reply 5 retweets 9 likes
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