Mistake of the Month: Missing Commas

There are two types of writers in this world: those who use too many commas and those who use too few. While unnecessary commas can turn straightforward sentences into twisting labyrinths of syntactical confusion, missing a critical comma can change the entire meaning of your sentence.

Consider the headline from the now-infamous Rachael Ray cover of Tails magazine: “Rachael Ray finds inspiration in cooking her family and her dog.” While the line breaks of the original cover make it apparent what the editors meant to say, the lack of commas between the three items in the list—“cooking,” “family,” and “her dog”—caused Tails to accidentally portray Ray as a cannibal who gleefully cooks her family and dog. Wonder if she uses EVOO for that, too?

Here are some places in your writing where you should include commas:

1. After an introductory element. When complex sentences begin with a phrase or clause, a comma is required to separate the introductory element and the independent clause. The previous sentence demonstrates this rule, but let’s look at some more examples:

• Without a care in the world, Mildred raced down the hill on her brand-new velocipede.
• In an attempt to fix the TV, he smacked the side of the set.
• To her, Paris would always be the most magical city in the world.

Note that with shorter introductory elements—generally those consisting of four or fewer words—you can technically skip the comma. However, it’s never wrong to use a comma in this instance, and eschewing it can lead to confusion.

2. Around a nonrestrictive or nonessential element. Nonrestrictive elements provide added information, but without them the sentence would still make sense. For example, “My wife, Karen, bakes the best peach cobbler.” Presumably the speaker has only one wife, so telling us her name is a helpful but nonessential aside. This piece from the New York Times has more on the difference between essential and nonessential elements, but here are a couple of additional examples:

• My best friend, Jimmy Brown, always brings an extra pudding cup for me. (People can only have one best friend at a time, so his name is a nonessential element.)
• I played the game Settlers of Catan for six hours this weekend with my friend Parvati. (Here, neither Settlers of Catan nor Parvati should be set off with commas because there are more games and friends in the world other than the two mentioned in the sentence.)

That and which indicate essential and nonessential elements, respectively. When you use that, don’t use a comma, as in “The ants that have infested my kitchen show no signs of leaving.” In this example, we need to know which specific ants the speaker is talking about. However, in the sentence “Ants, which have infested my kitchen, are my least favorite insect,” the aside set off by commas is interesting, yet taking it out doesn’t change the core meaning of the sentence.

3. After the next-to-last item in a list. Among English enthusiasts, the Oxford (or serial) comma is one of the most frequently debated topics. (Ironically, British English doesn’t tend to use the Oxford comma as frequently as American English.) When you have three or more items in a list, you have the option to use a comma between the next-to-last and last items in that list. This can sometimes clarify potential confusion or downright awkward misunderstandings. Mental Floss has a collection of pro and con examples, so take a look and decide for yourself which one you want to use.

The important thing is to be consistent; while both styles are technically correct, switching between the two in the same piece of writing is a faux pas everyone can agree on.

Are you for or against the Oxford comma? Leave a comment below!

3 Cool Ways English Evolved in 2015

It’s hard to keep up with a language evolving as fast as English. Before you know it, a new turn of phrase has come and gone before you can say selfie. That’s so passé. Do try to keep up. Let’s have a look at some trends from 2015.

1 Portmanteaus, or word mashups

It’s been climbing the charts for a few years now, but in 2015, the portmanteau officially arrived. Portmanteaus are nothing new, but lately they’re “spiviralling” out of control. That’s a new one right there; we can’t break their stride. Originally meaning a suitcase with two equal compartments, portmanteau is now used to describe the merging of two words to create a new, unique meaning. Also known as a “word blend,” many are so baked into English we no longer notice the separate ingredients, as with brunch, motel, or workaholic. Often credited with switching on the blender in 1871 was Lewis Carroll. In his Through the Looking Glass, Humpty Dumpty explains the word slithy to a confused Alice:

Well, “slithy” means “lithe and slimy.” “Lithe” is the same as “active.” You see it’s like a portmanteau—there are two meanings packed up into one word.

In recent years we’ve had a love affair with word mushing. Trendy business buzzwords like mompreneur (mom + entrepreneur) and guesstimate (guess + estimate) cropped up. Technology has presented us with new objects for which no words exist. And when we do try to describe them, we sometimes end up with creations like phablet, a mix of phone and tablet.

Similarly, as new conditions arise, a scramble to name them ensues and word blends are the choice of choice. A recent Wall Street Journal article ponders the phenomenon of people who text while walking—should they be named pedtextrians (pedestrians+texters) or wexters (walkers + texters)? Elsewhere, a suggestion to Oxford Dictionaries proposed they be described as moblivious (mobile + oblivious). Whatever it is, nothing less than a portmanteau will do. Hell, there are even guides on what makes a rough blend or a smooth blend.

In December, Oxford Dictionaries added twitterati (Twitter + literati) into its fold, and indeed it is the twitterati who cook up of many of these blends. Starting off with some portmanteau peeps—no celebrity couple is an item until they’ve had their names mushed together. We’ve all heard of Kimye ( Kim Kardashian and Kanye West) and Brangelina (Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie). But 2015 has seen the portmanteaus evolve from the Twittersphere slang to legitimate and political terms. From the US presidential race the words cuckservative and hispadering have emerged through Twitter. The former is an insult used within Republican debates and is a mix of cuckold (a husband whose wife cheats on him) and conservative. The latter was an accusation fired at Hillary Clinton after her attempt to appeal to the Hispanic vote, a mix of pandering and Hispanic.

The news coverage of countries possibly exiting the European Union was peppered with the terms Grexit (Greece + exit) and Brexit (Britain + exit). These terms were used widely without explanation or irony. Grexit was even shortlisted for the Oxford Dictionary word of the year.

2 Mx., a gender-neutral honorific

The new honorific Mx. (pronounced “mix”), has begun to take its place among the traditional Mr., Mrs., Miss, and Ms. It has emerged from obscurity to being used in an article in the New York Times in June and has been added to dictionary.com and Oxford English Dictionaries. The title has been adopted by transgender individuals, non-binary people, or those who don’t wish to reveal their gender. This sudden acceptance of a relatively unknown title reflects how 2015 has seen conventional gender identities reassessed.

According to Jonathan Dent, OED assistant editor, the honorific first appeared in the American magazine Single Parent in 1977. It was then mooted as an alternative to the standard titles. At that time, Ms. was entering the mainstream, allowing speakers to avoid the implications about marital status inherent in Mrs. or Miss.

Taking the lead among British institutions, The Royal Bank of Scotland provided customers with the option of Mx. when filling out forms. Others have followed suit. In the United States, the title is beginning to make itself known. Events such as the public transitioning of Bruce Jenner to Caitlyn Jenner and her appearance on the cover of Vanity Fair during the summer highlighted issues of gender and sparked subsequent discussions. About the same time, the New York Times tried out using the term Mx. In a later piece, Philip B. Corbett, an editor at the New York Times said that the paper is not entirely ready to roll out the red carpet for the title. “It remains too unfamiliar to most people, and it’s not clear when or if it will emerge as a widely adopted term,” he said.

However, this statement was published before Ms. achieved the milestone of entering the OED. Also, the Times, in turn, raised awareness of Mx. and prompted a further bout of media coverage explaining the title. It made its mark in 2015 and might be commonplace by the end of 2016. Watch this space.

3 Delicious words

In the year 2015, it was food o’clock. If you didn’t get your fair share of eats, you might be hangry about it now. Maybe you clock up a few food miles, or perhaps you’re more of a locavore? Or could it be that you’ve been living in a bubble and have no idea what any of this means? Well, food is trending—the way we eat, what we eat, where it comes from, and who it comes from. Again, the Internet has incubated many of these new phrases, as food bloggers and foodie users of Instagram and Pinterest all find each other and find terms for every kind of gastronomical state or niche.

Josh Friedland, a food blogger, says this “has spawned an ever-expanding vocabulary to capture our fast-moving edible landscape” and was compelled to compile a dictionary called Eatymology: The Dictionary of Modern Gastronomy. Dictionaries are trying to catch the trend, but it’s moving along swiftly and they are only grabbing the tail. Oxford Dictionaries named locavore—someone who eats only locally sourced food—as its word of the year in 2007 but has only included it in its dictionary in December 2015. However, Friedland’s blog lists farm drag as one of his favorite 2015 food terms. According to Friedland, the term is a reaction to locavorism, especially where it has been hijacked and made into a cliché by restaurants hoping to remain on-trend.

Another neologism linking food and environment is climatarian. Like locavores, climatarians aim to reverse climate change by avoiding meat and eating local. Food and emotion are found together in hangry, how we feel when we are hungry and angry. The obsession with photographing your dinner and uploading it to social media has created loads of foodspo, or food-porn.

Wine o’ clock or beer o’ clock, also added to Oxford Dictionaries in 2015, is when a person decides that it’s the correct time to have a glass of the drink in question.

Our appetite for food lore is not yet satisfied and looks to continue into 2016.

There Is vs. There Are: How to Choose?

• The choice between the phrases there is and there are at the beginning of a sentence is determined by the noun that follows it.
• Use there is when the noun is singular (“There is a cat”). Use there are when the noun is plural (“There are two cats”).

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There Is vs. There Are

You probably know that the choice between is vs. are depends on a noun. In most sentences, the noun comes before the verb. But in sentences that begin with there is and there are, the noun comes later.

There is a cat on the porch.

In the sentence above, cat is singular, so it requires there is.

There are many opportunities to learn at this company.

In the sentence above, opportunities is plural, so it requires there are. (Don’t let the word many throw you off—concentrate on the noun.)

There Is a Number of vs. There Are a Number of

There are a number of unnamed stars in our galaxy? There is a number of unnamed stars in our galaxy? It’s difficult to tease out whether you should use is or are in a construction like this. The verb is being pulled toward there, number, and stars all at once.

Here’s a tip: Sentences that begin with There is/are a number of… are almost always wordier than they need to be. Your best bet is to rewrite it: Many stars in our galaxy are unnamed.

But if you really can’t rewrite it, you’ll have to make a choice. Use is if you want to emphasize the group; use are if you want to emphasize the individual members.

It’s the same with other collecting phrases, like a variety of.

There is a wide variety of flavors to choose from.

There are a variety of unique destinations we can visit.

There Are a Lot of

Use there are when you’re talking about “a lot” of something.

There are a lot of people in this elevator.

There is a lot of people in this elevator.

There Is vs. There Are With a Series of Items

When you’re making a list of things, sometimes there are sounds wrong:

There are a kitchen, a living room, and a bedroom in my apartment.

There are sounds bad because the noun that follows it, kitchen, is singular. Even though you’re really talking about multiple things, (a kitchen, a living room, a bedroom), it’s often better to use the singular verb is in a construction like this.

There is a kitchen, a living room, and a bedroom in my apartment.

Some language commentators still insist on using are in sentences like this despite the awkwardness, but actual usage is extremely mixed. Remember, if the sentence sounds awkward either way, you can always rewrite it to avoid the “there is/are” problem altogether.

Grammarly Announces Add-in for Microsoft Office Suite

Today, the Grammarly team officially announced the availability of its Grammarly® Add-in for Microsoft® Office Suite. The add-in combines the power of Grammarly’s automated proofreading technology with Microsoft® Office Word™ and Microsoft® Office Outlook®.

In addition to checking for more than 250 common grammar errors and enhancing vocabulary usage, the Grammarly add-in offers unique features such as citation suggestions. Unlike the spell and grammar checking tools native to the Microsoft Office Suite, Grammarly provides real-time context for each suggested edit. Writers can easily select the type of errors they want to focus on, then edit their work throughout the entire writing process.

Check out a short video of the product in action.

To download the Grammarly add-in, visit http://www.grammarly.com/office-addin/. Immediately begin checking your text for potential writing errors by clicking the “Enable” button. Then, review errors as they appear in your text and decide whether, and how, to correct these issues based on the background provided by Grammarly.

See the full press release here, and let us know what you think!

 

Naughty or Nice Grammar Quiz

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Please attribute this content to https://www.grammarly.com/grammar-check

The Mother of All Blog Posts

According to History.com, a woman named Anna Jarvis created the American version of the holiday in 1908, prompted by the passing of her own mother. It became an official holiday in 1914. Jarvis later denounced the commercialization of the holiday and tried to have it removed from the calendar!

Here are some fascinating facts about Mother’s Day:

• More phones calls are made on Mother’s Day than any other day of the year, with a spike in traffic of as much as 37 percent.

• According to CNN.com, Mother’s Day is big business. Approximately 65 percent of card sales are made five days prior to Mother’s Day and consumers spend more than $20 billion on the holiday.

• We all value our mothers, but do you know what a mother’s work at home is really worth? According to Insure.com, in 2013 the average value of an at-home mother was more than $59,000 per year!

Sure, Mother’s Day is a time to celebrate all-things-mom. But, it is also cause for a linguistic celebration. There are a variety of popular idioms that incorporate the word “mother.” Have you heard any of the following?

Failure is the mother of success.

You’d assume that this means failure breeds success, or that you can’t have success without failure. However, UsingEnglish.com translates the saying to “failure is often a stepping stone towards success.”

Similar idioms:

Diligence is the mother of good luck: This reminds me of the famous saying, “Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity,” which, according to LifeHacker.com, is attributed to Roman philosopher, Seneca.

Necessity is the mother of invention: According to GoodReads.com, this quote can be attributed to Plato.

Motherhood and apple pie.

This phrase is used to refer to something that is largely agreed upon by all. The idea is that most people approve of motherhood and we all like apple pie, right? Another meaning the phrase has taken on in later years is to refer to something that is quintessentially American.

MakingHeadsOrTailsOfIdioms.com provides interesting background on the origin of the phrase. Most people agree that the original saying came from soldiers at war telling reports what they miss most about home.

A face that only a mother could love.

This phrase doesn’t require much thought to understand. Let’s just say, I hope to never hear this one directed at me! If you need some help deciphering, UsingEnglish.com explains it here.

Shall I be mother?

This phrase is common to British and Australian English and is typically used in a humorous way to ask whether the speaker should serve food or drink. In today’s politically correct world, the phrase is arguably sexist, but generally no offense is intended. Find more on this phrase and other British gems on EffingPot.com.

Word to your mother.

Believe it or not, this slang phrase has origins in the Afrocentric movement of the 1980s and started as “word to the mother,” as a reference to Africa or “The Motherland.” The corrupted phrase, “word to your mother,” generally implies agreement with what was said just before. UrbanDictionary.com provides a pretty comprehensive overview.

In addition to idioms using the word “mother,” we also have a plethora of quotes about the dear women that brought us into this world. Psychology Today has a nice list including:

The phrase ‘working mother’ is redundant. – Jane Sellman

Biology is the least of what makes someone a mother. – Oprah Winfrey

There is no way to be a perfect mother, and a million ways to be a good one. – Jill Churchill

As Mother’s Day approaches, remember the ways that the mothers in your life – and in your language – make your days richer. And don’t forget to buy a card!

10 (More) Words That English Needs

You can’t leave the Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows after reading only ten entries, and you can’t spread the word about one of the best websites on the Internet in just one article. So here we go, ten more words from the great fictional dictionary describing feelings and sensations you’ll recognize as soon as you read their descriptions.

Ambedo is the melancholic, almost hypnotic state you get into when you focus on sensory details like the flickering of a candle or tall trees swaying in the wind and you start thinking about the frailty of life.

Ellipsism is a sadness you feel because you will never know the answer to the question of our existence and you’ll never know how it all turns out in the end.

Apomakrysmenophobia is not a sorrow, it’s a fear—a fear that every connection you have in your life is, essentially, shallow.

We are but the smallest dots in the great and vast universe, and when you look at the night sky and feel slightly unsettled but also awed by the millions of miles separating huge stars, you feel degrassé.

Xeno is the tiniest measure of human connection you can actually feel, like when a person sends you a flirtatious glance, or when someone smiles at you passing by.

Every once in a while, you come across an author with whom you just connect, no matter how far in space or time they might be from you. That feeling of connection is called moledro

Chrysalism is the feeling of calmness you get while you’re indoors, listening to a thunderstorm happening outside.

Sonder will happen to you on the street, when you start noticing the people passing you by, and all of a sudden you realize that each and every one of them has a life that’s as vivid to them as yours is to you.

Catoptric tristesse is a sadness you feel when you realize that you’ll never really know what other people think about you.

On the day you turn 26, you have a midsummer—a feast that marks the point in your life when you can no longer use your youth as an excuse. It’s a time to buck up and start reaping what you sow, all the while noticing that the days of your life are becoming shorter.