The laws of grammar may be arbitrary, as those who would simply dismiss them assert. But arbitrary laws are just the ones that need enforcement. Most of my fellow linguists, in fact, would say that it ...

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The Oxford comma. “Ask” instead of “aks.” There, their, and they’re. The legitimacy of “ain’t” and “y’all.” These are familiar, if sometimes contentious, issues in the usage of the English language.

The new question-of-the-week is: How should we teach grammar to students? Our students need to learn grammar, but the real question is how to teach it in ways that don’t bore them out of their minds.

With friends, family, and romantic partners, we have much to tell and hear. What we communicate, however, depends not only on the content of what we say but also on the structure. In particular, ...

We asked a jury of editors and linguists to judge the most glaring pop culture grammar glitches. But instead of condemning the mistakes, they condemned the rules themselves, turning pop culture from ...

The University of Washington, Tacoma’s Writing Center now instructs students that expecting proper grammar from others perpetuates racism and “unjust language structures.” A cadre of staffers at ...

The ACT reported recently that college professors rank grammar as the most important skill for students entering college, while high-school teachers consider it the least important. The ACT thinks ...

Roslyn Petelin does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond ...