Have you ever stared at "principal/principle" and thought, "Wait, which one?"
The old trick—"the principal is your pal"—is just the beginning. That P-A-L spelling has a surprising number of meanings: the lead actor, a CEO, the main part of a loan, and more.
The princiPLE spelling is simpler: a rule or belief.
Check out the podcast for a memory trick!
WATCH: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oULr_H44QKo
READ: https://www.quickanddirtytips.com/transcripts/1172/
LISTEN: https://pod.link/173429229
Our brains can retrieve words in just 200 milliseconds—as fast as a blink!
When I say "dog," your brain instantly processes the smell of wet fur, barking sounds, petting sensations, specific dogs from your past, and all your emotions about dogs.
Check out this week's podcast for more about how your brain retrieves words.
WATCH:https://youtu.be/1Bd5-Dl7FsA?si=mGJ9u8Pre1QrkpQB
LISTEN: https://pod.link/173429229
Have you ever groaned at an elaborate pun? It might have been a *feghoot*!
The term comes from a 1956 sci-fi series about time-traveling troubleshooter Ferdinand Feghoot, whose adventures always ended in cringey puns.
This episode is guaranteed to make you laugh, and there's even one piece of "Rocky & Bullwinkle" trivia that made me say, "No way!" out loud. :)
WATCH: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Bd5-Dl7FsA&t=119s
LISTEN: https://pod.link/173429229
In today's show, Peter Sokolowski traces the word "dictionary" back to a 16th-century Latin work by a monk named Calepino. We look at how this original source led to the first monolingual dictionaries in both English and French, all within a year of each other.
WATCH: https://youtu.be/6pKn4RKUHng?si=MaYRwBmaOalGmKqQ
READ: https://grammar-girl.simplecast.com/episodes/1169/transcript
LISTEN: https://pod.link/173429229
Have you ever seen people use "Academy Awards" as though it were singular?
Jim Norrena did and wondered whether it's always wrong. Hear what he found in today's Grammar Girl podcast!
WATCH: https://youtu.be/ZM9oS-hAtjg
READ: https://grammar-girl.simplecast.com/episodes/1166/transcript
LISTEN: https://pod.link/173429229
Some people call these the same thing, and other people have different names for them — and it can depend on where you live!
That's just one of the cool things you'll learn this week from my chat with Joan Houston Hall, former editor of the Dictionary of American Regional English (often called DARE).
WATCH: https://youtu.be/F6dYztdHnG8?si=fbziIA7D-tXJBrwQ
READ: https://grammar-girl.simplecast.com/episodes/1165/transcript
LISTEN: https://pod.link/173429229
(I call them both a spatula.)
Teens aren't destroying language. They're playing with it!
I talked with Sali Tagliamonte, a "language detective" who's studied teen talk for years. She busts myths about texting, explains why "like" dominates, why "very" is back, and shares her linguistic interviewing secrets: ask about childhood, their street, or their best friend.
Check out the podcast for more!
WATCH: https://youtu.be/MmMOtR-gV6k
READ: https://grammar-girl.simplecast.com/episodes/1163/transcript
LISTEN: https://pod.link/173429229
Are you ever confused about "awhile" versus "a while"? Here's how I remember the difference:
"A while" (two words) is a noun phrase, so test whether you can use a different noun:
✅ It's been A WHILE = It's been A YEAR
"Awhile" (one word) is an adverb, so test whether you can use a different adverb:
✅ Go play AWHILE = Go play QUIETLY
Check out the whole podcast:
WATCH: https://youtu.be/RHGqwPumPK4?si=ocW8JEOUg9abCX5w
READ: https://grammar-girl.simplecast.com/episodes/1160/transcript
LISTEN: https://pod.link/173429229
Did you know ChatGPT's earlier versions barely used em dashes at all? This week, I talked with Sean Goedecke, a software engineer who's looked at *why* AI models went em-dash wild.
The shift may have happened when companies started digitizing public domain books from years when em dash use peaked. Plus, we talked about tokens versus words, semicolons, and more.
Check it out!
WATCH: https://youtu.be/DXjxrXTEH5w
READ: https://grammar-girl.simplecast.com/episodes/1157/transcript
LISTEN: https://pod.link/173429229
Listeners recently told me about an important "dozens" phrase: "the dozens," an African American game where two people trade increasingly inventive insults, usually in front of an audience.
The origin of "the dozens" is surprisingly hard to find. There's the slave auction theory, the twelve insults theory, and more. Check out the podcast!
WATCH: https://youtu.be/c2ObOfBGMkU
READ: https://grammar-girl.simplecast.com/episodes/1156/transcript
LISTEN: https://pod.link/173429229
Mignon Fogarty