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Latest Posts : Style
I am working on a documentary film and have hit upon a conundrum that we hope one of the fabulous Pain in the English grammarians can solve. We are using the full capital case (”all caps”) to identify our experts, in a text box that pops up below them during their appearances on screen; for example: JOHN SMITH, HISTORIAN. One of our experts has a name that includes a superscript letter (e.g.: JANE MCDONALD) and another has the abbreviation Jr. after his name (e.g.: WILLIAM DOE, JR.).
Question: Should those superscripted and abbreviated letters stay in all caps, too? Or should they be treated differently, either lower case or small caps? (e.g.: JANE McDONALD / WILLIAM DOE, Jr.) I’ve searched the Chicago Manual of Style and the Government Printing Office’s online manual, and have found no guidance in either.
Thank you for your help!
Susan
There is a town called “Two Egg” in Florida USA. My question is; why the egg is not plural there. Also there is something like “Two egg cake”.
Can someone explain it? Actually i am planning to establish a shop. Which one would suit better “two egg” or “two eggs”
Thank you?
I’ve developed a “tic” for adding - I believe the expression is “postpositively” “is what I’m saying” at the end of a sentence. In usage, it is an intensifier. So I might say “I’ve been noticing that I use this expression a lot, is what I’m saying!” Typically after some prior exposition on the topic - this becomes the concluding thought.
Two questions - has anyone else heard anyone else say this? Where does it come from? Where did I pick it up? I’m in the Northeastern US. Is the expression or any variant from this region?
It’s awfully similar to “I’m just saying” but my understanding of “I’m just saying” is that it’s somewhat negative - connoting an undercurrent of a wink and a nod. “...is what I’m saying” doesn’t have that connotation, is what I’m saying. LOL!
Some authorities (such as IBM and Wikipedia) say that “big data” should not be capitalised, while others say it should be capitalised as “Big Data”.
Logically, it would be capitalised only if it were a proper noun, that is, if it identified a unique individual. For example, “the Internet” refers to the global internet, of which there is only one, so it is capitalised. Big data does not really seem to be like that. In any technical usage, it refers to the use of very large databases, and should therefore be a common noun.
In the popular imagination, however, all instances of big data coalesce into a monstrous global conspiratorial network of databases, called Big Data. It is akin to Deep State.
So, it seems to me that “big data” should be used in any sober context, and “Big Data” reserved for conspiracy theories untethered from objective reality.
But ... in a proofreading context I would have to correct “a Big Data-driven project” to “a big data-driven project”, which is ambiguous as it could mean either “a big project that is driven by data” or “a project that is driven by big data”.
Any suggestions?
I need to give a range of percentages. Do I say “somewhere between 40 and 50%?” or “somewhere between 40% and 50%”? Does the percentage sign get assigned to the first value, even though it’s not verbally articulated?
Is it alright to omit the word “I” in some cases. If I have already been writing about myself and I slip in a sentence that says for example, “Will be in town next week.” Is this acceptable or should I write “I” at the beginning of each sentence?
A) Must we have fish for dinner again?
B) Shall we have to have fish for dinner again?
C) Will we have to have fish for dinner again?
D) Do we have to have fish for dinner again?
Accepting that (D) is by far the commonest utterance and would express annoyance or lament. roughly the same as “I wish we weren’t having fish again”, my concern is with the other options, particularly (B) which looks “grammatical” but just sounds odd to me. (A) is less common today but seems to go back a long way whereas “have to” is relatively modern, so which sound “normal” to you?
How do you handle a quote within a quote within a quote in an MLA citation?
“She said she...” or “She said that she...”
All my life I have received great feedback about my grammar, but these past few years I find myself over thinking it—all the time. It actually causes me to create mistakes where there previously weren’t any. Bizarre?
One such thing that I have thought too much about is the necessity of “that” in phrases like the above. When would you say it’s necessary? Always? Never? Sometimes? Explain! Thanks!
Latest Comments
“by the time”
- taleshka
- February 12, 2025, 12:54pm
If I look at this sentence: "By the time he arrived, the lesson had finished". I wonder if it would be enough just to say "the lesson finished", as the time expression of "by the time" seems to clearly indicate what happened first. Am I right or is it 100% necessary to use Past Perfect with the expression?
Treatment of abbreviations and superscript items in full capital case
- smithcarrie96
- February 12, 2025, 7:35am
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gifting vs. giving a gift
- JillG
- February 2, 2025, 7:53pm
Thank goodness somebody else has spotted the difference! The current fashionable usage "gifting" drives me mad. Gifting is something like donating your house to the National Trust. If you hand over a birthday present you are giving it. Gifting implies a certain degree of grandness and selfless generosity.
Screw The Pooch
- BrewJay's Babble Bin
- January 27, 2025, 11:53pm
"Screw The Pooch" means to avoid work, basically the job of an enjineer, work being enerjy or time expenditure. For example, computers use very little enerjy these days compared to an ENIAC (ancient computer -- very expensive to operate). They are also composed of transistors so numerous, clock speeds so high, that artificial intelligence, starting with grammar checkers and automated graphic artists, and ending in no way.
Correct preposition following different? Redux
- PedanticScot
- January 8, 2025, 9:27pm
Warsaw Will Dec-30-2012
"@Hairy Scot - Hi. I don't think "different to" falls into your PS category, as it's pretty old. It seems in fact to be an older usage (1520) than "different from" (which is first attested to in Shakespeare)"
I have searched all of my Shakespeare collection and I can find no examples of "different to".
Treatment of abbreviations and superscript items in full capital case
- ananclipping
- January 4, 2025, 5:44am
Great question, Susan! In full capital case, superscript letters and abbreviations like Jr. should ideally remain in all caps for consistency. However, small caps can be a good choice for abbreviations like "Jr." to keep the text legible and balanced with the rest of the name.
For instance:
JANE MCDONALD (with the superscript letter in normal caps)
WILLIAM DOE, JR. (keeping Jr. in all caps or using small caps for a more refined look).
This way, you maintain uniformity while also giving a slight differentiation to the abbreviations for readability.
“my” vs. “mine” in multiple owner possessive
- Hari
- January 2, 2025, 4:18pm
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“my” vs. “mine” in multiple owner possessive
- brollyacademy1
- January 1, 2025, 3:41pm
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“my” vs. “mine” in multiple owner possessive
- user116479
- January 1, 2025, 9:16am
“My” works better here since “mine” is a standalone possessive. The sentence should read: “I so appreciate you taking my and Gregg’s child to school today.”
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I will go home.
Your analysis of home as an adverbial modifier rather than a direct object is spot on. In the sentence "I will go home," home functions as an adverb of place, modifying the intransitive verb go. This contrasts with noun phrases like the beach, which require a preposition (e.g., go to the beach).
Interestingly, home belongs to a special category of place-related words that can function adverbially without to, similar to abroad, downtown, or overseas. This pattern has historical roots in Old and Middle English, where certain location words developed an adverbial sense. That’s why we say "go home" but "go to the park"—not due to simple elision of to, but because home inherently carries an adverbial function.