Lydia in Portland, Maine, was texting someone about having seen an opossum, but wasn’t quite sure how to write that out with the article. Is it a or an opposum? Like most Americans, she drops the initial unstressed syllable, making it sound like...
Is the brand name Segway starting to replace the word segue, which means either “to follow” or “seamless transition”? This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Segway vs. Segue” Hi there, you have A Way with Words. Hi, this is Emily from...
First-century graffiti. People in ancient times could be just as bawdy and colorful as we are today. To prove it, we found some graffiti written on the walls in the city of Pompeii, and found plenty of sex, arrogance and good old fashioned bathroom...
A Tallahassee, Florida, mother who texted her daughter in a hurry accidentally asked about the “baby woes,” meaning “baby wipes,” and came to the conclusion that we need a new phrase: “read between the autocorrect.” This is part of a complete...
There’s no hard-set rule about whether to capitalize the phrase To Whom It May Concern, though it may also be worth figuring out who you’re addressing, and writing to them instead. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Capitalization in...
Autocorrect mistakes abound, but have you ever made the errors yourself, such as typing the word buy when you meant by? Studies in Computer Mediated Communications have linked this phenomenon to the way we process words phonetically before typing...