The Best Grammar Tips We Learned This Year
I could be Lifehacker’s parenting editor, but I also took on the unofficial role of authoring the site’s grammar this year. Every time I had to double-check the use of a word or phrase, or remember a mnemonic device that I found helpful, I wrote about it. And then I received specific requests from readers, for example: “ Could you write a post that would say that verbage is not a word? ”Or“ Can you then “compose”? And I was clearly too happy to please.
Is it this one or that one?
Very often we may get the feeling that “who” or “who” is the correct use in a particular sentence, but we are not quite sure because we do not know the rules. These are the best “one or another” posts of the year:
- Find out the difference between “If I was” and “If I was”
- How to use Lay, Lie, Lain and Laid
- How to use influence versus effect
- When to use “Ie” and “Eg”
- How to remember the difference between “who” and “who”
- “Disinformation” and “disinformation” are not the same
- There is a difference between “highest” and “highest”
Nice new and timely items
It is good to understand the classics, but the language must constantly develop and be funny, amirite? I’m surprised vacay took so long to get official word status, but Merriam-Webster added it to her vocabulary this year along with several other favorites, including dad’s joke, sesh , stan “And” swole “ . This year we also had to reflect on the evolution of the phrase ” quid pro quo ” and we had to admire a very good memo from one informant.
But perhaps the most exciting vocabulary development this year came when Merriam-Webster officially blessed a single non-binary “they” by adding it to their vocabulary. I don’t know who ultimately made this decision, but they made the right decision.
Don’t be a grammatical snob
Being a bit of a nerd grammar is good. Grammars are people who come up with mnemonic tricks that help the rest of us remember “who” from “whom.” But you don’t have to be an idiot about it , and you don’t have to purposefully use fancy words to make yourself seem smarter.
Having said all that, however, we still approve of adding a few of these Latin phrases to your vocabulary in 2020 because they are fun to pronounce.