I Definitely Like Dictionaries Better Than the Internet

These images are from a Happy Place post titled "How to keep the grammatically challenged off the Internet." The link above has more images.

I think the post does a good job of pointing out many common spelling and grammatical errors; however, a couple of items from the post caught my attention.

The title of the post does not have proper capitalization. It should be "How to Keep the Grammatically-Challenged Off the Internet." See here.

Additionally, I find it interesting that whoever created the images chose to capitalize The Internet almost as if it is comparable to The Bible.

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Update: The adjective "grammatically-challenged" could be hyphenated because the two words serve as a single adjective that modifies a noun (albeit an implied noun, grammatically-challenged people); however the more relied upon style guides do not require/recommend this.

Grammar Obsession Defined

In honor of the current Grammar.net contest for the Best Grammar Blog of 2011.

Thank you Logophilus for bringing this extremely hilarious video from ragan videos to my attention.

P.S. Don't forget to vote for A Walk in the Words at the contest link here.

Signs of a Prescriptive Grammarian

Greater Than or Less Than (or is it Fewer Than)

Prescriptive grammarians would find the sign on the left cringeworthy, preferring the sign to the right by a long shot.





The reason for this language peeve is that grocery store items are items that can be counted. Any number of grammar sites and blogs will tell you that the word less is used with mass nouns and the word fewer is used with count nouns.

For more about the difference between mass nouns and count nouns click here.

The reason I bring up this prescribed rule is because of the exceptions to the rule.

My son recently asked me why, if numbers can be counted, are the phrases greater than and less than used in mathematics.

& >

Well, every rule has exceptions and according to Washington State University "the exceptions to the less/fewer pattern are references to units of time and money, which are usually treated as amounts: less than an hour, less than five dollars. Only when you are referring to specific coins or bills would you use fewer: 'I have fewer than five state quarters to go to make my collection complete.'"

Based on this analysis, if I said 8 > 3, I would be comparing the amounts (or mass) of the two individual numbers and not talking about the counting of (1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8) of the numbers.

The Cambridge Online Survey of World Englishes - Do You Call it Soda, Pop, Coke or What?

While doing some research for the class I am teaching, I came across a Cambridge dialect survey that I would like to encourage all of my readers to take.

"What we are interested in is not what other people believe is "correct" English or what you think you and others should say, but what you actually do say."


The questions and multiple-choice answers from the survey are informative and entertaining and it only takes a few minute to answer them.

Plus, as an added bonus (wow, look at that redundancy) once you have completed the survey you can view the results that are tabulated on a daily basis.

Following is one of the questions with the current results to pique your interest:

Question: "What is your generic casual or informal term for a sweetened carbonated beverage? (As in: "We have milk, beer, apple juice, and four kinds of _____: Pepsi, 7Up, root beer, and ginger ale.") Results as of 9/13/2009:

soda (31%)
pop (17%)
soft drink (14%)
coke (8%)
I just call each kind by its individual name (6%)
Other responses (21%)

Prescriptive Grammar versus Descriptive Grammar

In a post a few weeks back I mentioned prescriptive grammar without really explaining what it is and for that reason I thought I would delve a bit further into the concept of prescriptive grammar - which also requires a knowledge of the concept of descriptive grammar. Both prescriptive and descriptive grammar are approaches to studying grammar and its usage.

Prescriptive grammar is what we are taught in school. Prescriptive grammar follows strict rules that can not be broken. Additionally, in prescriptive grammar there is always a right way and a wrong way. Descriptive grammar, on the other hand, simply describes grammar the way it is used every day by people. There are no set rules. There is no right or wrong.

In sum, the term prescriptive is used to tell how language should be and the term descriptive tells how language is. Grammar is not the only concept in linguistics that can be prescribed or described; spelling and phonetics can as well, for example, yesterday's post with the Hickphonics/English Dictionary was a descriptive account of the grammar and pronunciations of a particular dialect.

I have studied linguistics from both prescriptive and descriptive points of view. I know what the prescriptive rules are but I do not consider myself a strict prescriptivist. I far prefer studying language in its everyday use and I do not believe there are rights or wrongs, only variations that occur for regular, explainable reasons.

McDonald's Fruit Smoothies

I passed a McDonald's today and the sign in front read "Real Fruit Smoothies are Her." Did the last "E" fall off of the sign or did someone who does not follow prescriptive grammar remove the "E" to compliment his girlfriend and let everyone know that he thinks she is a real fruit smoothie?