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Grammar Police Files - A List of All The Posts

Posts from 2012

 

Than vs. Then and Subject/Verb Agreement


Irregular Verbs

(includes 'drag' and 'lie/lay')

Who, Whom and Other Pesky Pronouns

(includes subjective & objective pronouns)

Which vs. That

(includes restrictive & nonrestrictive clauses; that vs. who)

Commonly Confused Words 

(homophones)

More Commonly Confused Words

(more homophones, including some possessive pronouns)

A Dash'll Do Ya 

(Atypical marks of punctuation - dashes, parentheses, semicolon)

Pst...Your Participle Is Dangling

(Dangling participles - a type of misplaced modifier)

Do Commas Give You Pause? Part I &  

Do Commas Give You Pause? Part II

(comma rules)

All Is Not Well & Good 

(common mistakes with adjectives and adverbs)

Say What?

(commonly confused words including callous/callus, pour/pore, & annunciate/enunciate)

Weekly Dose of Counsel

(more commonly confused words including discrete/discreet, aisle/isle, and council/counsel)

Of Language Arts & Potty Parts

(lesson on usage of the verbs can, may, might & could)

I'm A Rebel Alright

( All ready vs. already, all together, vs. altogether, any one vs. anyone, and all right vs. 'alright')

Valuable Gems

(commonly confused words including appraise / apprise,  wonder / wander, and palate, palette & pallet)

Are You Sending Your Readers Back & Forth In Time?

(Verb tense part I - review of basic verb conjugation and avoiding verb tense errors in fiction)

Verb Tense: It's all relative

(Verb tense part II - more comprehensive lesson on verb tenses)

Stand Up And Be Counted

(The difference between words that indicate number and those that indicate quantity or amount)

Eating Crow

(Usage of myriad, couple vs couple of, 180 vs 360 degrees, might /ought, and 'couldn't care less')

GPM + Genre Favorites Blogfest

(We had some fun with this one - links to songs and movie posters with bad grammar)

Sometimes You Can Do No Wrong

(Words with more than one acceptable spelling)

So Be It!

(The word sobeit vs so be it, and link to my first interview)

Mistakes Of Epidemic Proportion

(Usage of endemic vs epidemic vs pandemic,  entomology vs etymology, track vs tract, and defamation vs deformation)

Don't Be Obtuse

(Usage of accurate vs precise, differ vs vary, & abstruse vs obtuse.) 

Partnership & Pinching Pennies

(A stroll down memory lane, plus usage of economic vs economical, collaborate vs corroborate, & benefactor vs beneficiary.) 

A Grisly Lesson

(Usage of poisonous vs venomous, fearful vs fearsome, & grisly vs grizzly)

Double Trouble

(Double possessives & double negatives)

Just Shoot Me

(Usage of goal vs objective, hilarious vs hysterical, and magic bullet vs silver bullet)

Whoa! Check Your Usage

(Usage of reign vs rein, seam vs seem, and course vs coarse)

Does Usage Make You Weary?

(Usage of wary vs weary vs leery, taught vs taut, taunt & tout, and route vs root vs rout)

Gaffe-Proof Yourself

(Usage of gaff vs gaffe, naval vs navel, and stationary vs stationery)

Pieces Of Flair

(Usage of diffuse vs defuse, whole vs hole, and flare vs flair)


Posts from 2013

GPM - The Bank You're Welcome To Rob

(Usage of dispose vs dispose of, dispense vs dispense with, gone vs went, & rob vs steal.)

Grammar By Request

(In this post, I answer questions from visitors: use of emigration vs immigration, use of 's for possessives- recent changes in rule, proper format for ellipses, and use of anytime vs any time.) 

Don't Make Your Readers Cry Foul

(Usage of fawn vs faun, foul vs fowl, & dribble vs drivel.)

En Garde

(Usage of dual vs duel, duly vs dully, & delve vs divulge.)

Positively Green

(Usage of envious vs jealous, ambivalent vs indifferent, dominate vs dominant vs domineer, & bear vs bare.) 

Stay Current

(Usage of hearty vs hardy, heal vs heel, & current vs currant.)

It's Just A Faze

(Usage of faze vs phase & rap vs wrapped vs rapt)

GPM (untitled) & Nick's Anthology

(Usage of clamor vs clamber & pedal vs peddle vs petal)

Dances With Packrats

(Usage of gig vs jig, jam vs jamb, & horde vs hoard)

Guilty As Charged

(Usage of indite vs indict, insight vs incite, & compared to vs compared with)

Politically Incorrect

(In this post, I address the origins of a few common colloquialisms that are rooted in racism and stereotypes.)

Big Changes

(Besides announcing a temporary blog hiatus, I address the usage of err vs error, dilemma vs difficulty, & precedents vs precedence.)

Crazy For You

(Usage lesson on: feelings for vs feelings about; enamored of vs enamored by; endeared to, including a mini lesson on direct and indirect objects.)

Carol Kilgore Visits

(Author Carol Kilgore visits with several grammar tips: who vs whom, dangling participles, oxford comma, and a handful of commonly confused words.)

Oh. No. They. Didn't! (Oh yes, they did.)

(Examples of bad grammar from a publisher's website: ending sentences with a preposition; phrasal verbs.)

Working Girls

(A lesson on hyphens: compound modifiers, compound nouns, compound verbs; link to downloadble PDF of hyphen rules included.)

All Cued Up

(This post begins with a discussion on changes to the comma-before-too rule. It also includes usage lessons on elicit vs illicit and cue vs queue.)

Get Your Ducks In A Row

(Common misspellings: duck tape vs duct tape, jutebox vs jukebox, and cowtow vs kowtow.)

To Be Or Not To Be

(Discussion of grammar, writing, and editing in regard to 'be' verbs; addresses things like passive voice and continuous tense verbs.)

Know Your Idioms

(Definition of 'idiom' followed by explanation of flesh out vs flush out, palm of vs pawn off, and jerry-built vs jury-rigged.)

Don't Judge Me

(Usage of empathy vs. sympathy and critique vs. criticize.)

Keep The Faith

(Usage of eminent vs. imminent and fateful vs. faithful.)

Pure Gold

(Usage of chute vs. shoot, cement vs.concrete, and bullion vs. bouillon.)

Commas Are Not The Antichrist

(A discussion, or rather a rant, on the necessity of commas.)

Seize Control of English Usage

(Usage of overtake vs. take over and oversee vs. overlook.)


Posts from 2014

On The Farm

(Proper usage of some common sayings, e.g. 'tough row to hoe'.)

Bovines, Bods & Blue Ribbons

(Usage of vein vs. vane vs. vain and fair vs. fare.)

Redundancy

(A quick lesson on tightening your writing.)

It's Your Turn to Gloat

(Proof that even grammar-conscious writers need an editor.)




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Comments

  1. I followed a link from Carrie Butler's site. These posts are super fun, I'm glad you're doing them. I, for one, could always use a refresher course.

    ReplyDelete

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