Category: Queen’s English / Latin Lovers

Previously we spoke of apostrophes and contractions where we combine two words such as a pronoun and a verb (“They’ve left.”). There are other times when the apostrophe is used when letters in a word are being omitted. Some illustrations: ‘burbs for suburbs ne’er (do… Continue reading →

I have been writing these columns for a couple of years — and enjoying every moment of it. Even more do I appreciate the response I have received from so many people. Perhaps at this point we could make this interactive by your suggesting a… Continue reading →

Article I, Section 10 of our Constitution declares that “no…ex post facto law shall be passed.” Literally, the phrase means “after the fact”; the doctrine prohibiting the passage of ex post facto laws generally applies to criminal laws which, after an act has been committed,… Continue reading →

Sometimes courts issue orders, especially injunctions, which require the litigants to maintain the status quo. Literally, the phrase means to maintain the existing state of things at any given moment. For example, if a court enters an injunction requiring a landowner, threatening to install a… Continue reading →

Contractual disputes often boil down to the question of whether the parties actually had a contract in the first place. This is especially true in the case of oral contracts for the performance of labor or services. While a court may indeed find that the… Continue reading →

In composition there are often choices that depend more on the subjective response of the writer than on rigid, objective rules of grammar. So it is with the use of commas, parenthesis, and dashes to set off thoughts. We have previously discussed restrictive and non-restrictive… Continue reading →

The misuse of the word hopefully continues unabated. To say “Hopefully, Bill will remember to get milk at the store” is to say that when he remembers the milk, Bill will be full of hope. This is not what the speaker intended; what was intended… Continue reading →

The general rule is that the word different (which is an adjective) should be followed by from, though in common usage than is often used. The “purists” apparently argue that the rule is unbending, and the use of than is always incorrect. The use of… Continue reading →

Most writers do not hesitate to use, and often misuse, the comma; to a lesser degree the semi-colon finds its way into our compositions. But the colon rarely appears. Is it because we fear the uncommon? We do use it routinely to separate volume and… Continue reading →

It has been called “the invasion of the verbs,” and it seems to know no bounds. Nouns are being transmogrified into verbs at what seems an ever-increasing rate. Perhaps it has always been the case, but the pace seems to have taken a leap with… Continue reading →