Q: When should you use “since,” and when should you use “because?” Also, can I use “because” at the beginning of a sentence?
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29 09 2015
Blogging For Profit
Blogging can be an insanely powerful tool in the business world today. As a human face for a company, a blogger, armed with a unique and engaging voice, brings a built-in customer base who are already in love with the brand.
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22 09 2015
Making Inroads With Millennials
There’s been much ado about the millennial generation for the past few years. Whether decrying the cohort’s fondness for selfies or analyzing its symbiotic relationship with mobile devices and the Internet, there’s a glut of judgments and think pieces that attempt to define the attitudes and behavior of those born between 1980 and the early 2000s.
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Q: My 81-year-old grandma has been dating a man her own age for a few years now. They’re not planning on getting married, but they are a “couple.” How should I refer to him? “Boyfriend” just seems weird, and grandma just calls him Larry.
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Hello, and welcome to the latest edition of “Questions for a Language Ninja,” the only Q & A language usage column where nearly every response to burning linguistic queries is: “It’s all good, man,” at least when those queries arrive in the middle of an otherwise lazy summer. Let’s get started.
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02 06 2015
How to Use (and Avoid) Obscure Words
If you are someone who enjoys writing, you probably take pride in using your skill and knowledge of the language to craft a message that communicates exactly the intended point. The raw materials at your disposal—words—are not unlike those of a sculptor; some are easier to work with than others. So when you can master the harder materials—more obscure words—you might feel a special satisfaction.
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When the phrase “extinction” is inevitably brought up in polite conversation, there’s a good chance that the first topics that jump into people’s minds are the declining mountain gorilla population or the sorry lack of Mexican grizzly bears in today’s wilderness.
Well, those may not be the primary examples that normal people usually consider, but the sad truth is that extinctions are silently occurring on a level far removed from many people’s minds—the extinction of language!
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Disclaimer: I’ve never been skydiving.
The first step of blogging, like skydiving, is making the commitment to do it. Once you’ve decided you’re going to skydive, you’ve got to decide on a method for your jump. Are you going in tandem? How about an accelerated free fall? Or should you static line that bad boy?
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28 04 2015
Is Technology Changing Our Language?
As the subject of much woeful head-shaking among English teachers and grammar snobs, text and Twitter lingo have long been blamed for ruining the way we now communicate. (Because we were such bastions of language excellence before, I guess? #scapegoat)
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The prevalence of homonyms in the English language is significant, almost as if homonyms were some deliberate linguistic choice designed to frustrate native speakers and secondary language students alike. A piece of peace, the imminent capital in the eminent capitol, a man you meet seen whining at a wine and meat scene. For those unfamiliar with the subtleties of the English vocabulary, it can be enough to make you bang your head against the wall.
