I had to read this paragraph multiple times to figure out how you "rear- range" a sandwich. #grammar #hyphenation

Is there a Firefox add-on that could help me learn proper use of commas?

I think commas are used differently in German and English but I'm always unsure. A little add-on making suggestions would be great.

So, "Paper Towel" is a proper noun in English but not in Spanish… huh?

Today, in a fit of absolute rage, I turned off grammar check in my word processors. Spelling check still remains, but I was doing a basic check in Microsoft Word for someone else the other day to show someone how it worked and it kept suggesting wrong suggestions! Seriously! For example, whenever the dude would write, Friday morning, it kept wanting to capitalize morning and put a dash between Friday, and, morning when morning wasn't a noun. There are other little things I spotted too, so either my grammar is getting better or this new machine is dumb enough to think it knows better than me.

I'm keeping my autocorrects on though because I love the magic of typing two letters and having it transform into ten sentences.

But grammar? I've decided I'm leaving that to the editors. More work for them, but honestly, some of these suggestions are outright incorrect. This is especially ironic because I know some form of ML, Machine Learning, is behind these suggestions. Damn. You couldn't even code how fucking American English works, tech bros?

LanguageTooler GmbH released #Grammar and Spell Checker - LanguageTool for Firefox version 8.19.4. https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/languagetool/

Your attention please. Verbing nouns and nouning verbs is common practice, but this should be extended. Your task for this week, class, is to verb a different adjective every day.

Journalists must remain vigilant and rigorous in the face of a second Trump Administration. To help them do so, we are releasing an updated version of Strunk and White’s “Elements of Style” with some timely new examples. Please refer to it when writing and reporting, for as long as that’s still allowed, and sign up for our humor newsletter at the link in our bio for more painfully relevant satire. #humor #journalism #grammar #comedy

https://www.newyorker.com/newsletter/humor

Random English language advice:

The phrase "My laptop was stolen a few weeks ago." and the phrase "I had my laptop stolen a few weeks ago." do not mean the same thing.

The second version implies that you were somehow involved in causing the act to occur, which is probably not what you intended to say.

Summary: Don't use "I had" (or variations of it) as a substitute for "was".

If there are any grammar nerds, especially lovers of punctation, out there, you will enjoy this 1' 11" YouTube video by Elle Cordova as the Oxford comma. Very clever, witty, and funny.

Originally via Metafilter.

#grammar #ElleCordova #OxfordComma

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ky0YOo7_Y0o

Another gem by wordsmith Elle Cordova!

“I’m essential”
“You’re vestigial”

#Punctuation marks hanging out!

c: @ElleCordova on IG

I have a question, Mastodonians!

In English, city night be referenced using the preposition "of", and the first letter of the city doesn't affect the preposition.

- city of Ottawa
- city of Kitchener

But in French the preposition gets contracted if the first letter is a vowel (or sometimes an "h"?):

- ville d'Ottawa
- ville de Kitchener

What are examples in other languages (that use Latin alphabet) that have the behaviour for places that written French does?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FQbJO8-T0AI

What do Trump's steel and aluminium tariffs mean for Australia?
from Guardian Oz Media
by Guardian Australia

US president Donald Trump’s global tariffs on steel and aluminium imports have taken effect — and the Australian government’s intense lobbying for an exemption has not been successful. The Guardian's Ben Doherty explains how big of a deal these tariffs are for Australians.
Are Trump’s tariffs the beginning of a global trade war and should Australians be worried?
Donald Trump’s tariffs are disrupting markets around the world – here’s why it could be hurting your super

Did you spot it? Did you see it? Did it leap out & batter your eyeballs as it did mine?

how big of a deal

gaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

#English #Language #grammar #idiom #spelling #FuckMerkanMangling #FuckMerkanCulturalImperialism #WriteGooder #TalkGooder ffs!

Just heard a "grammar expert" interviewed on CBC suggest that "fewer than 53 pounds" was preferred, because 53 is countable.
Noooo...

Weight is a measurement, with uncertainty, that is not restricted to natural numbers. That pig might be 53.13±0.05 pounds. "Less than" should be the correct usage.

Tagging @grammargirl! What do you think? Do some measurements fall into a grey area because we often express them in nice, round umbers (like our weight)?

TIL “used to” and “use to” serve different grammatical purposes. I always used to think “use to” was wrong because I thought it was supposed to be past tense, but that’s not the case. https://www.merriam-webster.com/grammar/is-it-used-to-or-use-to

Strongly dislike peeps saying "based" as if it actually means anything other than the simple past tense and past participle of base, or its adjectival associate.

***The King's English by H. W. Fowler and F. G. Fowler**

_“Read now or download for (free!)”_

https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/75439

#Read #Download #Nonfiction #Book #Ebook #Bookstodon #English #Language #Grammar #Vocabulary #Syntax #Punctuation #Linguistics #ProjectGutenberg @linguistics @bookstodon

Eloquent proofreading assistant 1.1 is out with improved language detection and support for running LanguageTool server in the background

This allows 3rd parties such as LibreOffice and Firefox to connect to a local and offline instance of the LanguageTool server.

https://flathub.org/apps/re.sonny.Eloquent

Finally took some time to polish and publish Eloquent.

It's a proofreading assistant, that works fully offline; powered by LanguageTool.

https://blog.sonny.re/eloquent-proofreading-assistant