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Est. 1828

Grammar & Usage

Using Bullet Points ( • )

Point of View: It's Personal

First, second, and third person explained

31 Useful Rhetorical Devices

Beyond 'simile' and 'metaphor'
  • Commonly Confused
  • Punctuation
  • Spelling & Pronunciation
  • Usage Notes

Popular

How to Use Em Dashes (—), En Dashes (–) , and Hyphens (-)

Be dashing—and do it well

Plural and Possessive Names: A Guide

A guide to plural and possessive names

The Difference Between 'i.e.' and 'e.g.'

For example, the different ways to use them

Why is '-ed' sometimes pronounced at the end of a word?

As in: learned, alleged, and wicked

What's the difference between 'fascism' and 'socialism'?

In which we definitively answer a thoroughly uncontentious question

More Commonly Misspelled Words

Because spelling is tricky

Words You Always Have to Look Up

The dictionary is here to help

Absent Letters That Are Heard Anyway

They aren't seen but they are heard

Commonly Confused

Commonly Confused

  • 'A' and 'An' and the Patterns of Their Use

    Which gets used where?
  • 'Gray' vs. 'Grey': What is the difference?

    Spelling isn't all black and white
  • 7 Pairs of Commonly Confused Words

    We promise you're not the only one who has trouble with these words
  • Homophones, Homographs, and Homonyms

    The same, but different
  • See All

What's the difference between 'sympathy' and 'empathy'?

You don't know how it feels

Punctuation

See All

The History of 'Ampersand'

How the '&' got its name

All About Ellipses ...

How to use them … and talk about them

Should that word have a hyphen?

On open, closed, and hyphenated compounds

Comma Splices: What They Are and How to Correct Them (or not)

Adventurous writers pull them off regularly

Why do we use apostrophes to show possession?

The shifting role of the apostrophe
See All

Spelling & Pronunciation

Spelling & Pronunciation

  • Commonly Misspelled Words

    Spelling is hard
  • How to Pronounce the Trickiest Menu Items

    No more order anxiety!
  • Revealing What Rhymes with 'Orange'

    It's technical, but it works.
  • 7 Uncommonly Doubled Letters

    For word games and other shenanigans
  • See All

The Many Plurals of 'Octopus'

But which is correct?

Usage Notes

See All

Singular Nonbinary ‘They’: Is it ‘they are’ or ‘they is’?

Notes on a conjugation

Is Singular 'They' a Better Choice?

The awkward case of 'his or her'

8 Grammar Terms You Used to Know, But Forgot

Plus yodeling

Fun, Funner, Funnest

Why does it sound strange to say 'funner' or 'funnest?'

Is it 'graduated' or 'was graduated from'?

No, this will not be on the test
See All
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