I recently eavesdropped on someone talking about her upcoming nuptials.
“Zack and I’s wedding is in three weeks!” she exclaimed.
Congratulations!
But the woman’s all-too-common erroneous turn of phrase—Zack and I’s wedding—made me cringe. Zack’s and my wedding is in three weeks would have been the correct thing to say.
... (Read More)I saw an ad for a new at-home gym that promises me “personalized guidance with every workout.”
The word guidance gave me pause. It sounds weird. Guidance is what the CDC issues about navigating the pandemic. It’s what companies tell their shareholders about upcoming earnings. It’s the advice college counselors... (Read More)
A friend recently resigned from her job and received a message from a colleague that said, “Hi … Just spoke with Tom and heard you’re leaving… call soon…”
My friend was confused. Was she supposed to call her colleague or was the colleague going to call her? And were those... (Read More)
We’ve reached an incredible milestone. We’ve made incredible progress. I’m incredibly proud of the team.
That word crops up everywhere, which I find amusing because incredible means something is too improbable to be believed. (Haven’t you ever said, “I don’t find that credible”?)
Yes, incredible has a secondary meaning, which... (Read More)
As you can imagine, when I send out my posts, I get a lot of out-of-office replies. More often than not, the messages say the recipient is currently out of the office until a future date, which doesn’t make much sense.
Would you say, “I’m out of the office at the... (Read More)
The panty will be open.
That sounds vaguely pornographic, but there it was in an email alerting me to some upcoming construction work in a building I frequent. Clearly the person who wrote it meant to say pantry instead.
Typos are one of many things you’re looking for when you... (Read More)
If I can’t picture it, I can’t understand it.
Albert Einstein, the physicist who developed the theory of relativity, said that. The Nobel prizewinner had a point. It’s easier to grasp something if you can visualize it, which is why it’s important to write in language you can see.... (Read More)
Please check-in at the front desk, read the sign in the building lobby.
I didn’t take issue with giving my name to the gentleman seated outside the elevator bank, but I did have a problem with the hyphenated rendition of check-in. The sign should have said to check in at... (Read More)
Commas have lots of uses, but there’s one in particular that confuses a lot of people, including me. I always have to look up the rule, so I hope that by writing this post, I can remember it once and for all.
I have two daughters. If I refer to... (Read More)
A well-known executive said this about the link between productivity and wellness. But people do not resonate to something; something resonates with them, which means they can relate to it because whatever it is strikes a chord. So this executive also could have said the skeptics relate to the science,... (Read More)
