Scat singing doesn’t have any relation to scat, as in “excrement.” Musical scat probably derives from the sound of one of the nonsense syllables in such songs. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Musical...
After she added to his unusual collection of photos of relatives riding camels, Douglas in Thomasville, Georgia, wonders whether his brother’s granddaughter is his great-niece or his grandniece. Both terms are widely acceptable for that relationship...
In an earlier episode, we played a game in which we raised the ante on words with hidden “numbers” inside them. For example, forever became five-ever. Many listeners wrote to share Victor Borge’s hilarious Inflationary Language...
A Quebec listener asks: In the phrases it’s a girl, or it’s raining, what exactly is the it here? It’s called the weather it or the dummy it, and it serves a placeholder inserted to make the sentence function grammatically. This is...
A pitch-in is Indiana’s preferred term for a potluck dinner, as Sabrina learned after moving to Indianapolis from Seattle. When classmates announced a pitch-in, she didn’t know what they meant, and friends from Ohio and family in the South were...
How can you tell the difference between who and whom? A listener shares a chant learned in grade school to remember the proper usage. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Grammar Chant” Hello, you have A Way with Words. Hi...