Category: Queen’s English / Latin Lovers

Several years ago we ran an article on ex post facto laws – laws that become effective retroactively.   In general, such laws are unconstitutional and therefore unenforceable. The effective date of a law (or a change in a law) can be of monumental significance.   For example,… Continue reading →

Members of the Pennsylvania Bar are indebted to Gertrude Block, of the University of Florida, who writes a monthly column on grammar in our monthly magazine; two topics she recently commented on follow.   The first topic concerns money, and its plural.  Is moneys (or… Continue reading →

In previous issues we have talked about the concept of venue, which generally establishes the location of the court hearing a particular case.  The rules on venue prescribe the proper place for a case to be tried; these rules require a logical connection between the… Continue reading →

There are times when the capitalization of generic words used in conjunction with proper nouns can raise questions. All states and cities begin with capital letters, but what of the word “state” where a state and city bear the same name, such as Washington State… Continue reading →

In larger corporations and institutions you will sometimes see that the holder of an office is also deemed to be a member of the board of directors or the board of trustees “ex officio.” The term ex officio means “by virtue of one’s office,” and the… Continue reading →

Consider the colon: It is another device to alter emphasis in a sentence subtly.  Starting with a not, it is not a semi-colon which is a device used in place of a period to separate independent clauses.  “John went out to play baseball; he took… Continue reading →

People who think about such things debate the use of active and passive voices of verbs.  What’s that?  You didn’t know verbs had “voices”?  Consider the following illustrations:                                       Active Voice                           Passive Voice          … Continue reading →

The term quid pro quo is often used in business negotiations, but few stop to think what the words really mean. Literally, the phrase means “what for what” or “something for something.” Used in legal matters, the term means the giving of one valuable thing… Continue reading →

In oral conversation we use contracted words routinely (and properly):                  isn’t for “is not”                 it’s for “it is”                 aren’t for “are not”                 it’s for “it has”                 couldn’t for “could not”                 who’s for “who is”                 you’re for “you are”                 let’s for “let us”                 they’d for… Continue reading →

The use of an apostrophe followed by an s in a possessive phrase is generally not difficult: “John’s hat” or “the girl’s book.” Most of us have little difficulty recognizing these as possessive and inserting the �s properly. But what about words ending in sibilants?… Continue reading →