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Affect, effect, and the arguments your group chat keeps having. 34 questions and counting.

Affect vs. effect: which one do I want?Affect is almost always the verb, effect almost always the noun: the rain affected the game; the rain had an effect on the…
Can you end a sentence with a preposition?Yes. The prohibition was invented in the 1600s by writers trying to make English behave like Latin, and no major style guide…
What is the Oxford comma, and do you need it?The comma before the final and in a list: red, white, and blue. It is optional, but use it, because leaving it out…
What is the difference between e.g. and i.e.?E.g. means for example and introduces a partial list. I.e. means that is and restates or clarifies precisely. Memory trick…
When does its take an apostrophe?Only when it means it is or it has. The possessive its takes no apostrophe, which breaks the usual rule and is exactly why…
Your or you're: what is the actual rule?You're is a contraction of you are; your shows possession. Expand the contraction to test it: if you are fits the sentence…
Why is English spelling so inconsistent?Because the spelling froze while the pronunciation kept moving. The printing press standardized spellings just as English…
Then or than: which one do you need?Than is for comparison: bigger than, rather than. Then is about time or sequence: first this, then that. If you are…
What is the difference between empathy and sympathy?Sympathy is feeling for someone, from the outside. Empathy is feeling with them, from inside their experience. Sympathy says…
What does ironic actually mean?A gap between what is expected or stated and what is actually the case. Rain on your wedding day is bad luck rather than…
Lay or lie: which one do you want?Lay takes an object and lie does not. You lay a book on the table; you lie down. The reason nobody keeps it straight is that…
Whose or who's: which one do you need?Who's is a contraction of who is or who has. Whose is possessive. Expand it to test: if who is fits, use the apostrophe. It…
Is i before e except after c actually true?The short rule fails constantly: weird, science, seize, their. The full old version, restricted to the ee sound, works…
Is irregardless a word?Yes, it is in the dictionary, and has been for decades, labeled nonstandard. Dictionaries record usage rather than issue…
Does literally now mean figuratively?The intensifier use of literally is centuries old; Twain, Joyce, and Dickens all did it, and dictionaries record it. English…
How does a word get into the dictionary?Editors track real usage across many sources over time and add a word once it shows sustained, widespread use with a stable…
Where does the word woke come from?It began in African American English as stay woke, meaning stay alert to racial injustice, documented back to at least the…
Are double negatives actually wrong?Wrong in standard written English, but grammatically systematic in many dialects and in most world languages. I don't know…
What is the difference between a simile and a metaphor?A simile compares using like or as; a metaphor states the comparison directly. He fought like a lion is a simile. He was a…
Fewer or less: which is correct?Fewer for things you can count, less for amounts you cannot: fewer bottles, less water. The famous exception is time, money…
What is the longest word in English?It depends what counts. The longest in major dictionaries is pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis at 45 letters…
Who vs. whom: does anyone still care?The test: answer the question with he or him. He gets who; him gets whom. In speech, whom is dying and nobody will arrest…
Why do British and American English spell things differently?Largely one man. Noah Webster deliberately simplified spellings in his American dictionaries in the early 1800s, dropping…
Why do we say bless you when someone sneezes?Nobody knows for certain, but the most cited story credits Pope Gregory I during a plague outbreak around 590 AD. The…
Why is it a pair of pants when it is one garment?Because early leg coverings genuinely were two separate pieces, tied on individually at the waist. The phrasing outlived the…
Where does the word OK come from?A joke abbreviation from 1830s Boston, standing for oll korrect, a deliberate misspelling of all correct. A presidential…
What is an oxymoron?Two contradictory terms placed together deliberately, like deafening silence or bittersweet. It is not the same as a…
What is the plural of octopus?Octopuses, and it is the form dictionaries list first. Octopi applies a Latin rule to a Greek word, which is why it is…
Complement or compliment: which is which?Complement with an e completes something. Compliment with an i is praise. The memory hook is that complement contains…
Farther or further: does the distinction still hold?The traditional rule assigns farther to physical distance and further to figurative extent, and it is worth following in…
Further vs. farther: is there a difference?Farther for physical distance, further for everything figurative: he ran farther, we discussed it further. The distinction…
How do people's names become regular words?They are called eponyms, and English is full of them. Sandwich, boycott, silhouette, saxophone, and nicotine all come from…
Why is I capitalized in English?Because a lone lowercase i was too small and got lost or misread in medieval manuscripts. Scribes enlarged it for…
What is a portmanteau word?A word made by fusing parts of two others, like brunch, smog, or podcast. Lewis Carroll coined the term in Through the…