Every year in this column, I give tips for how to avoid the most common writing mistakes in holiday greetings and invitations. And every year, I’m reminded of just how influential I’m not as people ...

When I saw “men’s’ clothing” with two apostrophes, I figured it must be a typo. I was editing a professional writer who’s been on the job for years, and I know from experience that writers make typos, ...

Mark Twain’s encounter with a particular foreign tongue inspired an essay called “The Awful German Language.” Welcome to a new feature of this column. We won’t call it “The Awful English Language.” ...

Before you start composing your holiday cards and invitations, here’s a cautionary tale for you. Recently, I bought an e-book that I didn’t realize was self-published. But by the time the protagonist ...

Have you ever corrected someone mid-conversation because what he said just didn't sound right? What I'm talking about is words that sound like plurals and possessives but shouldn't be and vice versa.

One hundred and eighteen miles north of London, in the town of Boston, England, there lives a retired newspaperman named John Richards who is experiencing an unusually rotten spring. Richards is the ...

Let's face it, grammar is more important for some people than for others. An ambulance driver probably has more important things to worry about than whether to hyphenate adverbs ending in "ly." (FYI: ...

Why is Christian Science in our name? Our name is about honesty. The Monitor is owned by The Christian Science Church, and we’ve always been transparent about that. The Church publishes the Monitor ...

What's the rule for making a name ending in 's' possessive, or plural possessive? NPR's David Folkenflik talks with grammarian Ellen Jovin, who's watched the confusion over the Harris-Walz ticket.

After VERIFYING how to spell canceled (with one l or two), a viewer asked us to VERIFY another grammar inquiry you might have been breaking for years. Beth Miller from Guilford County asked, "Why ...