Stay ConnectedFive-time winner of Best Education Podcast in the Podcast Awards. Grammar Girl provides short, friendly tips to improve your writing and feed your love of the English language. Whether English is your first language or your second language, these grammar, punctuation, style, and business tips will make you a better and more successful writer. Grammar Girl is a Quick and Dirty Tips podcast.
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Copyright: © 2020 Mignon Fogarty, Inc.
920. Once you start thinking about it, it's weird that we have both "a" and "an." It gets even weirder from there! Plus, modern loneliness, and its solutions, are quite different from what they were when the word was first coined. We look at the history of this formerly rare word.
The segment on "a" versus "an" was written by Neal Whitman, an independent writer and consultant specializing in language and grammar and a member of the Reynoldsburg, Ohio, school board. You can search for him by name on Facebook, or find him on his blog at literalminded.wordpress.com.
The segment on the word "loneliness" was written by by Amelia Worsley, an Assistant Professor of English, Amherst College. It was originally published in The Conversation and appears here through a Creative Commons license.
| Transcript: https://grammar-girl.simplecast.com/episodes/a-an-loneliness/transcript
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| WRITER: Mignon Fogarty
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919. Rebracketing is a fascinating process that gives us more words than you might imagine, even words from French and Spanish! Also, I find a surprising answer to the question of which is correct: "ahold" or "a hold."
| Transcript: https://grammar-girl.simplecast.com/episodes/napron-ahold/transcript
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| HOST: Mignon Fogarty
| WRITER: Mignon Fogarty
| VOICEMAIL: 833-214-GIRL (833-214-4475) or https://sayhi.chat/grammargirl
| Grammar Girl is part of the Quick and Dirty Tips podcast network.
| Theme music by Catherine Rannus.
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918. Since "drop" can mean both "to release" and "to cancel," it can get confusing. We look at how this confusion came to be (and how to avoid it). Plus, we wade into the debate about whether there's a right or a wrong way to pronounce "often."
| Transcript: https://grammar-girl.simplecast.com/episodes/drop-often/transcript
The "often" segment was written by Edwin Battistella and originally appeared on the OUP Blog. Read the original here.
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| HOST: Mignon Fogarty
| VOICEMAIL: 833-214-GIRL (833-214-4475) or https://sayhi.chat/grammargirl
| Grammar Girl is part of the Quick and Dirty Tips podcast network.
| Theme music by Catherine Rannus.
| Grammar Girl Social Media Links: YouTube. TikTok. Facebook. Instagram. LinkedIn. Mastodon.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
917. For National Grammar Day, we answer one of the most common questions I get: How can I improve my grammar? Plus, I explain why parallelism is important, especially in resume writing.
"How to improve you grammar" was written by Susan Herman, a retired U.S. government analytic editor, language analyst, and language instructor.
| Transcript: https://grammar-girl.simplecast.com/episodes/improve-your-grammar/transcript
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| Watch my LinkedIn Learning writing courses.
| HOST: Mignon Fogarty
| VOICEMAIL: 833-214-GIRL (833-214-4475) or https://sayhi.chat/grammargirl
| Grammar Girl is part of the Quick and Dirty Tips podcast network.
| Theme music by Catherine Rannus.
| Grammar Girl Social Media Links: YouTube. TikTok. Facebook. Instagram. LinkedIn. Mastodon.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
916. Grant Faulkner, author of "The Art of Brevity" and executive director of NaNoWriMo talks with us about how writing very short stories can improve all your writing. (And whether it's worth it to get an MFA these days.)
| Transcript: https://grammar-girl.simplecast.com/episodes/grant-faulkner/transcript
| Grant's Website: https://grantfaulkner.com/
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| Watch my LinkedIn Learning writing courses.
| HOST: Mignon Fogarty
| VOICEMAIL: 833-214-GIRL (833-214-4475) or https://sayhi.chat/grammargirl
| Grammar Girl is part of the Quick and Dirty Tips podcast network.
| Theme music by Catherine Rannus.
| Grammar Girl Social Media Links: YouTube. TikTok. Facebook. Instagram. LinkedIn. Mastodon.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
913. Love is much more than romance, and different languages reveal universal truths about the different kinds of love. Plus, we look at whether you should write about wool sweaters or woolen sweaters, silk blouses or silken blouses, wood benches or wooden benches. Is it actually OK to use nouns as adjectives?
| Transcript: https://grammar-girl.simplecast.com/episodes/kinds-of-love/transcript
| Subscribe to the newsletter for regular updates.
| Watch my LinkedIn Learning writing courses.
| HOST: Mignon Fogarty
| VOICEMAIL: 833-214-GIRL (833-214-4475) or https://sayhi.chat/grammargirl
| Grammar Girl is part of the Quick and Dirty Tips podcast network.
| Theme music by Catherine Rannus.
| Grammar Girl Social Media Links: YouTube. TikTok. Facebook. Instagram. LinkedIn. Mastodon.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
914. To mark the 50th anniversary of "Schoolhouse Rock," the Saturday morning cartoon that taught millions of children about grammar, math, and more, we have a special multi-interview podcast, including memories from George Newall, one of the creators of the show.
| Transcript: https://grammar-girl.simplecast.com/episodes/schoolhouse-rock/transcript
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| HOSTS: Mignon Fogarty & Holly Hutchings
| VOICEMAIL: 833-214-GIRL (833-214-4475) or https://sayhi.chat/grammargirl
| Grammar Girl is part of the Quick and Dirty Tips podcast network.
| Theme music by Catherine Rannus.
| Grammar Girl Social Media Links: YouTube. TikTok. Facebook. Instagram. LinkedIn. Mastodon.
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913. This week brought us a silly kerfuffle in which the AP may have insulted France. Plus, we investigate the origin of the phrase "out over your skis" and why the apostrophe seems wrong in the company name Lands' End.
| Transcript: https://grammar-girl.simplecast.com/episodes/the-french/transcript
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| Watch my LinkedIn Learning writing courses.
| HOST: Mignon Fogarty
| VOICEMAIL: 833-214-GIRL (833-214-4475) or https://sayhi.chat/grammargirl
| Grammar Girl is part of the Quick and Dirty Tips podcast network.
| Theme music by Catherine Rannus.
| Grammar Girl Social Media Links: YouTube. TikTok. Facebook. Instagram. LinkedIn. Mastodon.
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912. We look at who the Teddy is in "teddy bears" and reveal why the Brothers Grimm, from fairytales, were also massively important in linguistics.
| Transcript: https://grammar-girl.simplecast.com/episodes/teddy-bears/transcript
| Subscribe to the newsletter for regular updates.
| Watch my LinkedIn Learning writing courses.
| HOST: Mignon Fogarty
| VOICEMAIL: 833-214-GIRL (833-214-4475) or https://sayhi.chat/grammargirl
| Grammar Girl is part of the Quick and Dirty Tips podcast network.
| Theme music by Catherine Rannus.
| Grammar Girl Social Media Links: YouTube. TikTok. Facebook. Instagram. LinkedIn. Mastodon.
Sources for the Teddy Bear segment
Clay, M. “The History of the Teddy Bear.” "Teddy Bear & Friends website." 2009. http://web.archive.org/web/20110723184018/http://www.teddybearandfriends.com/archive/articles/history.html (accessed January 23, 2023).
Porterfield, W.R. “Here’s Where All Those Teddy Bears Came From,” "The Milwaukee Journal." Friday, May 21, 1971.
Sorel, N. "Word People." American Heritage Press: New York. 1970. p. 281.
“teddy bear.” "Merriam-Webster online dictionary." http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/teddy%20bear (accessed January 23, 2023).
“teddy bear.” "Oxford English Dictionary online edition." https://www.oed.com/view/Entry/198513 (subscription required, accessed January 23, 2023).
“Teddy Bears.” "America’s Story from America’s Library website." Library of Congress.
http://www.americaslibrary.gov/aa/roosevelt/aa_roosevelt_bears_2.html
(accessed January 23, 2023).
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911. In honor of Martin Luther King Jr. Day, we cover a bunch of interesting things about labels such as "Jr.," "Sr.," and "III." Plus, we look at the origin of the names Carl's Jr. and Ruth's Chris Steak house.
| Transcript: https://grammar-girl.simplecast.com/episodes/comma-before-jr/transcript
| Subscribe to the newsletter for regular updates.
| Watch my LinkedIn Learning writing courses.
| HOST: Mignon Fogarty
| VOICEMAIL: 833-214-GIRL (833-214-4475) or https://sayhi.chat/grammargirl
| Grammar Girl is part of the Quick and Dirty Tips podcast network.
| Theme music by Catherine Rannus.
| Grammar Girl Social Media Links: YouTube. TikTok. Facebook. Instagram. LinkedIn. Mastodon.
References for the "Jr." segment
Garner, B. “Jr.; Sr.; III; Etc.” Garner’s Modern American Usage, 4th edition. Oxford University Press. 2016. p.613-5.
“Holidays.” The Chicago Manual of Style Online, 17th edition. 8.89. The University of Chicago Press. https://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/book/ed17/part2/ch08/psec089.html (subscription required. accessed January 15, 2023).
“If John Smith Jr. asks for the period in Jr. to be omitted …” The Associated Press Stylebook, Ask the Editors. Sept. 06, 2018. https://www.apstylebook.com/ask_the_editors/35499 (accessed January 15, 2023).
“Initials in personal names.” The Chicago Manual of Style Online, 17th edition. 10.12. The University of Chicago Press. https://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/book/ed17/part2/ch10/psec012.html (subscription required. accessed January 15, 2023).
“‘Jr.,’ ‘Sr.,’ and the like.” The Chicago Manual of Style Online, 17th edition. 6.43. The University of Chicago Press. https://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/book/ed17/part2/ch06/psec043.html (subscription required. accessed January 15, 2023).
“Martin Luther King Jr. Day,” AP Stylebook Online. Associated Press_._ https://www.apstylebook.com/ap_stylebook/martin-luther-king-jr-day (subscription required. accessed January 15, 2023).
“Names of holidays, etc.” U.S. Government Printing Office Style Manual Online. 3.24. U.S. Government Printing Office. https://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/GPO-STYLEMANUAL-2008/html/GPO-STYLEMANUAL-2008-5.htm (accessed January 15, 2023).
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