Nothing could go wrong because nothing had…I meant “nothing would.” No – Then I quit trying to phrase it, realizing that if time travel ever became widespread, English grammar was going to have to add...

Internet Etiquette is a subset of Netiquette for using proper forms of the alphabet, Netiquette Words.

I love you all for bearing with me, whether I was asking your opinion on the best sources to base the magic in the book off of, hearing your suggestions on wording, or having an...

Cynthia had been on friendly terms with an eccentric librarian called Porlock who in the last years of his dusty life had been engaged in examining old books for miraculous misprints such as the substitution...

A man’s grammar, like Caesar’s wife, should not only be pure, but above suspicion of impurity.

Glenn used to say the reason you can’t really imagine yourself being dead was that as soon as you say, ‘I’ll be dead,’ you’ve said the word I, and so you’re still alive inside the...

Grammar, which can govern even Kings.

Truly good manners are invisible: they ease the way for others, without drawing attention to themselves. It is no accident that the word “punctilious” (“attentive to formality or etiquette”) comes from the same original root...

We got through all of Genesis and part of Exodus before I left. One of the main things I was taught from this was not to begin a sentence with And. I pointed out that...

I can’t think why fancy religions should have such a ghastly effect on one’s grammar. It’s a kind of intellectual rot that sets in, I’m afraid.

The female form provides the solution in which the essence itself is held; she is passio, and acted upon, the male is actio, the mover.

What really alarms me about President Bush’s ‘War on Terrorism’ is the grammar. How do you wage war on an abstract noun? How is ‘Terrorism’ going to surrender? It’s well known, in philological circles, that...

The writer who neglects punctuation, or mispunctuates, is liable to be misunderstood for the want of merely a comma, it often occurs that an axiom appears a paradox, or that a sarcasm is converted into...

Where was the threshold, between the inner world and the outer one? We each move unthinkingly through this gateway every day, we use the passwords of grammar–I say, you say, he and she, it, on...

… [In ‘Pride and Prejudice’] Mr Collins’s repulsiveness in his letter [about Lydia’s elopement] does not exist only at the level of the sentence: it permeates all aspects of his rhetoric. Austen’s point is that...

WHAT AM I GOING TO DO? Tiny shouts in my ear, and I want to say, “Hopefully, go find a guy who knows there is no u in awesome

Grammar is like a strive for perfection. It’s useless really.

It’s good netiquette to judge others by the the intent of their words not content of characters.

Those extra letters dangling at the ends of words are the genitalia of grammar.

Evolution did not design us to believe only true facts, nor to buy only useful products, nor to say only meaningful sentences

Grammar, he saw, was agreement, community, consensus.

The Grocery Checkout Proviso: The more things you care about, the more vulnerable you are. If you are part of that epicurean minority in this country that is still offended by violations of the English...

A misspelled word is probably an alias for some desperate call for aid, which is bound to fail.

In grammar, as in war, there is strength in numbers.

I decided quickly that committing crimes against grammar was a hard limit for me.

If you have any young friends who aspire to become writers, the second greatest favor you can do them is to present them with copies of The Elements of Style. The first greatest, of course,...

Stupid English.””English isn’t stupid,” I say.”Well, my English teacher is.” He makes a face. “Mr. Franklin assigned an essay about our favorite subject, and I wanted to write about lunch, but he won’t let me.””Why...

Each letter of the alphabet is a steadfast loyal soldier in a great army of words, sentences, paragraphs, and stories. One letter falls, and the entire language falters.

The best grammarian still can’t write a verse.

Thou shalt not use the 140 characters limit as an excuse for bad grammar and/or incorrect spelling.

People who cannot distinguish between good and bad language, or who regard the distinction as unimportant, are unlikely to think carefully about anything else.

Whenever I write a paragraph in English, I first check it with the Google Translator, and most often it says no language detected.

Sex is a matter of biology, while gender is a matter of grammar, and there is no earthly reason why sex should be involved in gender distinctions.

One of the major problems encountered in time travel is not that of becoming your own father or mother. There is no problem in becoming your own father or mother that a broad-minded and well-adjusted...

When you depart from standard usage, it should be deliberate and not an accidental lapse. Like a poet who breaks the rules of poetry for creative effect, this only works when you know and respect...

The bridge between the words glamour and grammar is magic. According to the OED, glamour evolved through an ancient association between learning and enchantment.

Grammarians make no new thoughts, but thoughts make new grammar.

The academic bias against subjectivity not only forces our students to write poorly (“It is believed…,” instead of, “I believe…”), it deforms their thinking about themselves and their world. In a single stroke, we delude...