If you’re having a conversation with someone, are you speaking with them, speaking to them, talking to them, or talking with them? A caller wonders what differences, if any, exist among all those expressions. This is part of a complete episode...
What’s the best way to improve vocabulary and remember the words you learn? When a San Diego listener asks that question, Grant and Martha share vocabulary-boosting practical tips. Forget the flash cards and reach for a library card instead...
Marty in Denver wrote mooses in an email, but spell-check balked, and neither moose nor meese sounded right to him. Standard dictionaries and style guides give the plural as moose. It’s a zero plural, the same in singular and plural, like deer...
Does your family use a special word you’ve never heard anywhere else? A funny name for “the heel of a loaf of bread,” perhaps, or for “visiting relatives who won’t leave.” In this week’s episode, Martha and...
A retired theater professor wants to know why she keeps hearing the word dramaturge used in surprising new ways. Is dramaturged now a legitimate verb? Can the noun also refer to someone who adapts a play for particular production—and not just to the...
Nominations for Word of the Year 2007 In this episode, Grant offers peek at some expressions he’s nominating for the American Dialect Society’s Word of the Year vote in January. Will it be “w00t,”...