As Barack Obama and John McCain assessed the nation’s many problems in last night’s debate, they committed many linguistic mistakes. Perhaps a delayed debate would’ve been beneficial, had it afforded them time to brush up on The Elements of Style. Then they would’ve been armed with solid grammar, along with twin bracelets from the mothers [...]

Click here to read more from singular-plural disagreement

singular-plural disagreement, redundancy

Tom Brokaw made multiple linguistic mistakes on this morning’s Meet the Press. His opening statement was problematic. He said, “Our issues this Sunday: the American financial system in deep crisis.”
Many of us dramatize speech. We want people to listen closely. We want to sound as intense as possible. And, to be sure, this [...]

Click here to read more from singular-plural disagreement

singular-plural disagreement
The Jonas brothers are so close they even plan to share a wife. At least that’s the message implied in a recent post on their MySpace page.
Asked if they’d ever date a fan, the brothers wrote: “Yes, we have already dated fans or girls that are not celebrities. In fact, we really like to [...]

Click here to read more from singular-plural disagreement

singular vs. plural pronouns
“Everyone goes through a hard time in their life,” Kirsten Dunst says in the October issue of Harper’s Bazaar.

Here’s the problem. Everyone is singular, as is life, but their is plural. If there’s one phrase that irks the Grammar Guard, it’s “their life.” In rare cases, it works. For example, you might [...]

Click here to read more from singular-plural disagreement