The culprit that destroys the power of words
One little "e" can make a lot of difference; hence, the horror of typos.   A reader asked me to talk about the words "weary" and "wary." These are two words that begin with a "w" and end with a ...

Does something smell bad, or is someone venting in an oppressive way?
The words "reek" and "wreak" can be confused and often have been, but they have very different meanings.     "Wreak" means to vent or free play to one's anger, malice, rage, etc.; also, the word means to inflict or ...

It's time for my Fab Vocab introductory segment
All of us have favorite words. I am starting a series of blogs on such words. I encourage you to submit some of your favorites whenever I do these segments.   Let's start with a fairly common favorite: Persnickety.   ...

Soften the “T” in often
People might think it’s being picky, but the correct pronunciation of the word “often” is “off-en.” Many people think pronouncing the “T” hard in "often" is more sophisticated. But the Webster’s New World College Dictionary clearly shows the word’s pronunciation ...

Basically, these adverbs are actually useless
  The title of this little tutorial has unnecessary words. At some point, all of us have caught ourselves using the words “actually” and “basically” (and less often “usually”). But these words add little to a sentence. Take the title ...

Basically, these adverbs are actually useless
The title of this little tutorial has unnecessary words. At some point, all of us have caught ourselves using the words “actually” and “basically” (and less often “usually”). But these words add little to a sentence. Take the title of ...

This doctor has no abbreviation
Lots of people write "Dr. Pepper" -- this is incorrect. The trademark for the company is Dr Pepper with no period after Dr -- Get it? Got it. Good!  

A little dash of this, a little dash of that...
I promised a little primer on the dash – a loved and hated piece of punctuation. Personally, I don’t mind the use of a dash, but dashes can be annoying when overused. And often times, a comma works even better. ...

A little dash of this, a little dash of that…
I promised a little primer on the dash – a loved and hated piece of punctuation. Personally, I don’t mind the use of a dash, but dashes can be annoying when overused. And often times, a comma works even better. ...

Yeah, I am happy to let you know. Yea!
Lately, numerous people are confusing the pronunciation of these two words: yea and yeah. And then consequently they use the wrong word when using these words in writing.   “Yea” rhymes with weigh or pay. And it is a celebratory exclamation. ...