436 GG Why People Have Always Been Confused About Apostrophes
An interview with Ammon Shea about the confusing history of apostrophes. Hanged Versus Hung. The story of the Victorian Great Exhibition, where Adolphe Sax displayed his invention: the saxophone. Hos...
2 Okt 201413min
435 GG We Might Could Harvest the Corn
Yes, you can start a sentence with "because." Here's how to do it.What are helping verbs (also called auxiliary verbs), and why do people in some regions say things such as "might could" and "might sh...
25 Sep 201413min
434 GG Ya Shank: The Made-Up Swear Words of 'The Maze Runner'
Insults, swear words, and world-building for young adults: In an interview with James Dashner, I got the inside scoop on the language of "The Maze Runner." Read the transcript: http://bit.ly/1poctaV H...
18 Sep 201410min
433 GG Why People Mix Up the Pronouns "Me" and "I"
I can tell you which pronouns to use, but it takes a linguist to explain WHY people get confused. Here, Gretchen McCulloch reveals the fascinating reason that people struggle with sentences such as "B...
11 Sep 201413min
431 GG Words That Aren't Words
In this podcast, you get a Quick and Dirty Tip about where to put periods and commas relative to quotation marks, an excerpt from Ammon Shea's book "Bad English," and a tidbit about a 1921 poem called...
28 Aug 201412min
430 GG The Plural of Money. This Is Your Brain on Writing. Egregious
In this week's podcast, Grammar Girl discusses the plural of money, how to use "egregious," and talks with Ellen Hendriksen from The Savvy Psychologist podcast about the findings from an experiment do...
21 Aug 201413min
429 GG How to Use the Conjunction “Nor”
How do you use the conjunction "nor" and why is it so special it deserves a podcast of its own? Neil Whitman explains. Visit the website to read the full transcript: http://bit.ly/1oOCyOR Hosted on Ac...
14 Aug 201416min
428 GG Crash Blossoms
Why the Associated Press accidentally made people think another Malaysian airplane had crashed, and what it tells us about language. Visit the website to read the full transcript: http://bit.ly/1rs4BX...
7 Aug 201411min
