Hi, language lovers! Happy March 4, and Happy National Grammar Day! (Get it? “March forth” and syntactically sin no more?) Join the revelry here: Just don’t say we didn’t warn you about the earworm from that grammar song...
Why do subdivisions and office complexes have names invoking landscapes and animals that don’t exist there? A Fort Wayne, Indiana, listener got to wondering about this after passing the “Bay View Apartments” in her hometown: there’s not...
A Chicago man says he was caught up short when he caught himself writing the words “a whole nother.” Is nother really a word? The book Grant recommends on the topic is Everything You Know about English is Wrong, by Bill Brohaugh. This is...
Some children don’t talk until they’re age three or older, then go on to do just fine. Why do some kids start speaking relatively late in life? The hosts talk about a recent Ask MetaFilter thread on that topic. This is part of a complete...
Beep-boop-beep! It's another newsletter from "A Way with Words." This weekend we had a row over the death of the subjunctive, listened with curiosity to a Texan talking about "help your plate," fell in love with...
pregorexia n.— «The topic of celeb baby weight has even spurred a new phrase called “Pregorexia”—a condition where women get so obsessed with keeping their weight down during pregnancy that they go to extremes with diet and...