Slips of speech

Our American writers evince much variety in their graces of diction, but in the accurate choice of words James Russell Lowell and William Cullen Bryant stand out conspicuous abo...

No rule of grammar is more familiar to the schoolboy than that which relates to the agreement of the verb with its subject, or nominative, and none that is more frequently viola...

The correct use of the pronouns, personal and relative, involves a degree of skill which many speakers and writers fail to possess. The choice of the appropriate pronoun, the ag...

We are all creatures of habit. Our sayings, as well as our doings, are largely a series of habits. In some instances we are unconscious of our peculiarities and find it almost i...

Taste is a universal gift. It has been found in some degree in all nations, races, and ages. It is shown by the savage in his love of personal decoration; by the civilized man i...

Clearness and elegance of style are, in no small degree, dependent upon the choice and right use of prepositions. Many rules have been formulated, some of which are deserving of...

Many persons of moderate education regard nouns that do not end with _s_ or _es_ as singular. Even the gifted pen of Addison once slipped so far as to betray him into using the...

Whatever may be said against employing contractions in dignified discourse, their use in colloquial speech is too firmly established to justify our censure. But, in their use, a...

The clearness of the sentence is often dependent upon the proper placing of the adverb. No absolute rule can be laid down, but it should generally be placed before the word it q...

Some time ago a shoe merchant called upon the writer to know how to arrange the points in the wording of a new sign that he was preparing to place over his door. He made a speci...

As a general rule, sentences should not begin with conjunctions. _And, or,_ and _nor_ are often needlessly employed to introduce a sentence. The disjunctive _but_ may sometimes...

Participles relate to nouns or pronouns, or else are governed by prepositions. Those ending in _ing_ should not be made the subjects or objects of verbs while they retain the go...

_A,_ which is a shortened form of _an,_ signifies _one, _or _any. An_ was formerly used before nouns beginning with either a consonant or a vowel sound, but now _an_ is used bef...

The use of two negatives in a sentence is much more common than is generally supposed. To assume that only those who are grossly ignorant of grammatical rules and constructions...

Certain adverbs and conjunctions, in comparison or antithesis, require the use of corresponding adverbs and conjunctions. Such corresponding words are called correlatives. The f...

Many errors arise from not knowing how to use the infinitive mood. Perhaps the most common fault is to interpose an adverb between the preposition _to_ and the infinitive verb;...