Grammar Girl Quick and Dirty Tips for Better Writing

Hosted ByMignon Fogarty

Five-time winner of Best Education Podcast in the Podcast Awards. Grammar Girl provides short, friendly tips to improve your writing and feed your love of the English language. Whether English is your first language or your second language, these grammar, punctuation, style, and business tips will make you a better and more successful writer. Grammar Girl is a Quick and Dirty Tips podcast.


All Episodes

I Cannot Tell a Lie (but I Can Mislead! And Sometimes People Do It With Percentages.

We look at the linguistic difference between lying and misleading, and then because people often lie with numbers, we look at the difference between “percent” and “percentage” and how to use them.

How Aphasia Causes Difficulty Speaking. Chairdrobe.

Prodded by Bruce Willis’s family’s announcement that he is leaving acting after being diagnosed with aphasia, we revisited language disorders, and the kinds of things we can learn from them.

Why Tired People Talk About Being ‘Out of Spoons.’ Why Nouns Are More Complicated Than You May Think.

Why Tired People Talk About Being ‘Out of Spoons.’ Why Nouns Are More Complicated Than You May Think.

Barracking, Sheilas and Shouts: How the Irish Influenced Australian English

Irish influences on Australian. What makes “NASA” different from “FBI.”

The Oxford Comma. And Should You Start a Sentence with ‘And’?

Have you ever wondered why it’s called the “Oxford comma” and who invented it?

Is ‘Materiel’ Just a Fancy Pronunciation of ‘Material’? Are Binomials the Same Across Languages?

Is “Materiel” Just a Fancy Pronunciation of “Material’? Are Binomials the Same Across Languages?

Why Do We Cringe at ‘Pepper and Salt’? Why ‘Square’ Is Uncool. Quickquish.

“Sticks and stones.” “Bride and groom.” “Heads or tails.” Some word pairs almost always appear in a specific order, and linguists have been investigating why for decades. Plus, after last week’s segment about square meals, a listener asked why it’s uncool

What’s Square About a Square Meal? How to Use Parentheses, Brackets, and Braces. Guck.

The idea of a square meal goes back to the 1800s, but the word “square” itself has a longer history. Admit it! You don’t know how to use curly braces.

Are People Using ‘Commiserate’ Wrong? The Origin of (the Word) ‘Influenza.’ Hersband.

How the “Witch of Wall Street” relates to the word “commiserate.” Plus, the interesting origin of “influenza” and other disease names.

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