Heather in Fairbanks, Alaska, asks why historians and documentary narrators sometimes describe past events in the present tense. This use of the historical present is a storytelling convention that creates immediacy. The historical present can be...
Donna in Redwood City, California, reports confusion in her workplace over the term confirming. If she gets an email that says Confirming the supplies will be delivered on Tuesday, she assumes that this means the sender is still in the process of...
The word filibuster has a long and colorful history, going back to the days when pirates roamed the high seas. Today it refers to hijacking a piece of legislation. Plus, the language of yoga teachers: When doing a guided meditation, you may hear...
Ronald in Columbia, South Carolina, hears some people pronounce the word help as if they’re saying hope. There’s a British dialectal version of the past tense of the verb help that is spelled holp or holpen or hope, which have hung on in...
Gail in San Diego County, California, has been hearing forms such as I could have went for I could have gone, a ship that had sunken where she expected sank, I was sat, and I was drugged for I was dragged. These don’t all have the same explanation...
Lori from North Georgia asks whether a person with a sloppy appearance is unkempt or unkept. Unkept is a word for things not preserved or retained such as an unkept promise or an unkept house, but a person who looks disheveled is far more commonly...