Fandom Grammar

Winter Hiatus

2017-12-12T01:39:42Z

Posted by: melayneseahawk

Fandom Grammar is now on its regular winter hiatus. Enjoy your holiday season, if you celebrate, and we'll see you next year!

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Answer: Hold Your Peace/Piece and Speak Your Peace/Piece

2017-11-21T03:48:22Z

Posted by: chomiji

Reader rebcake had a question about two venerable idioms concerning speaking out—or not. Is it proper to say “hold your peace," or is it “hold your piece"? What about “say your piece"—or “say your peace"? We’ll take a closer look with the help of old friends from J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings.

( “Let’s )

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Answer: wonder vs. wander

2017-11-06T22:48:58Z

Posted by: randi2204

Today we’re looking at a pair of words that are easily confused – after all, there’s only one letter different between them. tigerlilly asked us “When do you use ‘wonder’ vs ‘wander,’ like in ‘let the mind wander?’ What is a good way to remember, esp. for non-native English speakers?” Let’s jump right in, with some help from the characters of Doctor Strange.

( I wonder as I wander… or is it the other way around? )

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Answer: Is "case in point" or "case and point" correct?

2017-10-23T23:12:57Z

Posted by: whymzycal

It's Monday again, and that means it's time to answer a question here on Fandom Grammar. Today we'll be dealing with lauramcewan's question, "Is 'case in point' or 'case and point' correct?" So if you're ready, let's jump behind the cut and find out with a little help from the characters of ( Brooklyn Nine-Nine. )

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Commonly confused words: amoral and immoral

2017-09-25T17:42:20Z

Posted by: chiroho

In this week's commonly confused words, we will look at the difference between amoral and immoral. Participating in our examples will be the cast of ( Person of Interest )

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Commonly Confused Words: Poison / Venom / Toxin

2017-09-12T00:54:52Z

Posted by: chomiji

As Lewis Carroll's Alice observed, if you drink from a bottle marked "poison," it is almost certain to disagree with you sooner or later. But what about venom or a toxin? Today we'll take a look at these three terms and figure out what makes them different from one another.

( With the help of the cast from Star Trek: The Original Series )

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Commonly Confused Words: brake/break

2017-08-14T14:11:22Z

Posted by: green_grrl

Welcome, grammar fans, to another installment of Commonly Confused Words. Today we are looking at brake and break. These two words not only sound exactly alike, they are both also used as a noun or a verb, and can even overlap somewhat in meaning. So, how do you know which to use when? ( Let's take a look, with a little help from our friends from Hawaii Five-0. )

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Commonly Confused Words: all together/altogether

2017-08-01T05:38:08Z

Posted by: whymzycal

Hello, fellow grammar lovers, and welcome to another look at “Commonly Confused Words”! Today we’re going to learn about the difference between all together and altogether with a little help from the cast of ( Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. )

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Commonly confused words – ground vs. floor

2017-07-17T22:21:28Z

Posted by: randi2204

Welcome back, grammar fans! fandom_grammar has a lighter schedule during these summer months, but fear not, we still have interesting grammar issues to discuss! Today we’ll be talking about a couple of words that are very commonly used in place of each other. Ground and floor aren’t exactly the same thing, and we’ll get into their differences with some help from the characters of Sherlock.

( Are you sure you don’t mean the ground floor? )

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ANSWER: Toe the line vs Tow the line

2017-07-03T16:25:44Z

Posted by: traycer

Someone wanted to know, is it toe the line or tow the line?

Let's discuss this with help from the people of Stargate Command.

( Read more... )

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Editorial - The Riot Act

2017-07-02T17:16:09Z

Posted by: mab_browne

When I was a very young grammarian, my mother would proclaim her readiness to read the riot act if her children got too rowdy, or too lazy, and I remember my baby-nerd delight when I found out that the Riot Act was once a genuine regulation. Ella Morton's 2014 article in Slate gives an overview that's the subject of our Fandom Grammar editorial today.
( Reading about the Riot Act )

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Say What? Never put off until tomorrow... & Procrastination is the thief of time

2017-06-26T22:18:38Z

Posted by: randi2204

Welcome to another Monday, and another Say What?. As much as we try to complete things in an expedient fashion, sometimes the evil of procrastination takes hold and we’re left scrambling at the last minute. Therefore, without delay, we’ll be looking at never put off until tomorrow what you can do today and procrastination is the thief of time, with some timely help from the characters of Jodi Taylor’s Chronicles of St. Mary’s.

( I’ll get around to it… eventually. )

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Answer: Is it "drips and drabs" or "dribs and drabs"?

2017-06-19T16:14:01Z

Posted by: whymzycal

Happy Monday, grammar fans, and welcome to today’s post, in which we answer the question, “Is it ‘drips and drabs’ or ‘dribs and drabs’?” with a little help from the characters of ( Sherlock )

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Editorial: 14 wonderful words with no English equivalent

2017-06-17T05:59:16Z

Posted by: green_grrl

This Friday editorial is fun, plain and simple. The staff of The Week compiled 14 wonderful words with no English equivalent, and the headline is entirely accurate.

For all that James Nicoll's joke is true—English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat them unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary—there are still so many concepts we don't have words for in English. Sometimes these are locally influenced, such as distinct terms for snow in Inuktitut or for sweet potatoes in Hawaiian, but other times there are new ways of looking at life that other languages bring to the fore by naming them. ( How many of these words do you want to kidnap? )

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Say What? Reap What You Sow/Marry In Haste

2017-06-12T16:32:11Z

Posted by: mab_browne

In today’s Say What, we’re looking at two sayings very different in association and history: as you sow, so you shall reap and marry in haste, repent at leisure. Separated by time and their sources they might be but they share a unitary thread – that of consequences. The Guardians of the Galaxy will supply our fannish examples.
( On with the post )

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ANSWER: Off vs Of

2017-06-05T16:56:51Z

Posted by: traycer

minesomine asks: When do you use "off" versus "of", and how do you remember the difference?

With examples from The Dresden Files

( Off vs Of - Moving onward... )

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Editorial: Shibboleth. Casuistry. Recondite.

2017-06-04T02:56:31Z

Posted by: chomiji

Just look at those words! Aren't they wonderful? And as readers who consume a wide variety of literature, we recognize them, don't we? Of course we do!

A more difficult question is "Do we know exactly what they mean?" For my part, I'm not ashamed to say "not exactly, no."

These sorts of words are what author Seth Stevenson calls "bubble vocabulary." In his 2014 Slate article Shibboleth. Casuistry. Recondite., he takes a look at these words at the very edges of our vocabularies and suggests some strategies for attempting to employ them.

( Wrestling with bubbles … )

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Say What? All things come to he who waits / Hope springs eternal

2017-05-29T15:27:51Z

Posted by: chomiji

Anticipation, sang Carly Simon: It's keeping me waiting.

Today's Say What? features a pair of sayings that go well with Simon's famous song. We'll explore them with the help of Gansey III's crew from Maggie Stiefvater's Young Adult series, the Raven Cycle.

( We can't wait! )

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Answer: Moot

2017-05-22T20:45:39Z

Posted by: randi2204

We were asked, What is the origin and correct usage of “moot?” Moot has a variety of meanings, so correct usage can be a bit tricky. Let’s dig right in with some help from the characters of Star Trek.

( Who gives a hoot about moot? )

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Editorial: 10 Things People Once Complained Would Ruin the English Language

2017-05-19T18:34:32Z

Posted by: whymzycal

In February 2015, io9 writer Lauren Davis tackled a list of “10 Things People Once Complained Would Ruin the English Language,” a fun article that explains 10 things that grammarians and other language lovers used to freak out about. Unsurprisingly, it’s easy to see parallels between past concerns and the language worries of today. Spoiler alert: English hasn’t been ruined yet, and it ( probably won’t be. )

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Say What?: All this and heaven, too. / The devil looks after his own.

2017-05-16T06:50:54Z

Posted by: ariestess

For this week's Say What? adventure, we're going to look at a couple of seemingly biblically-inspired sayings, with the help of our friends over at ( with the help of our friends over at Once Upon a Time )

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Answer: Do appositives always need punctuation?

2017-05-09T01:45:51Z

Posted by: ariestess

Today we're going to look at this anonymously asked question, "Do appositives always need punctuation?" with the help of our friends from Ghostbusters.

( Do appositives always need punctuation? )

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Answer: "one and the same" or "one in the same"?

2017-04-25T01:30:05Z

Posted by: green_grrl

English is full of phrases that get sprinkled through conversation. We pick them up, use them, and don't think too hard about them until we have to write them down. Then we realize we're not quite sure what the exact phrase is. lauramcewan asked us about one of these: "Is it 'one and the same' or 'one in the same'?" When spoken, the phrase tends to sound like "one 'n' the same," so it is understandably confusing.

Unlike some other usage questions, there is only one right answer here. ( I'll illustrate with the Avengers. )

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Answer: When do you use "you and I" vs. "you and me"?

2017-04-11T03:19:15Z

Posted by: whymzycal

Hello, fellow grammar fans! Today we’re going to explore the question posed by wanted_a_pony: “When do you use ‘you and I’ versus ‘you and me’? Are there differences in American and British English?”

Let’s find out the answer with a little help from the characters of ( Harry Potter and Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. )

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Say What? Better to light a candle... & Man's reach exceeds his grasp

2017-04-03T20:56:05Z

Posted by: randi2204

It’s that time again – Say What? is back! Today we’ll be taking a look at a couple of sayings that give some insight into both hope and reality. Let’s get right into better to light a candle than to curse the darkness and man’s reach exceeds his grasp, and we’ll be enlisting the characters from the Magnificent Seven movie to help.

( Reach for the candle but don’t grasp the flame. )

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