Calling from the Greek island of Crete, a retired English teacher named Beth asks about using of amount of instead of numberof when it comes to such phrases as the amount of people or the amount of eggs. The traditional distinction is that amount applies to mass nouns, or uncountable things, and number is used with count nouns, or things that can be counted. In everyday speech, however, it’s fine to relax about this rule. This is part of a complete episode.
The so-called “lifestyle influencer accent” you hear in videos on TikTok and YouTube, where someone speaks with rising tones at the end of sentences and phrases, suggesting that they’re about to say something important, is a form of what linguists...
Meg in Cape Cod, Massachusetts, gets why the state highway department encourages drivers to use their blinkers when changing lanes, but placing a digital sign at the Sagamore Bridge that reads Use Ya Blinkah is, well, a lexical bridge too far. Meg’s...
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