Grammar Girl: For Writers and Language Lovers.

1207. This week, we look at the hidden linguistic history of Ontario with Sali Tagliamonte. We look at why euphemisms like "golly" and "gosh" are going the way of the dinosaur, the surprising connection between Northern Ontario and the Southern U.S., and how Canadian words like "gas bar" and "Muskoka chair" finally made it into the Oxford English Dictionary. This episode ran for Grammarpaloozians in February 2026. To get more bonus content, visit Patreon.com/GrammarGirl.
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| HOST: Mignon Fogarty
| Grammar Girl is part of the Quick and Dirty Tips podcast network.
Audio Engineer: Dan Feierabend
Director of Podcast: Holly Hutchings
Advertising Operations Specialist: Morgan Christianson
Marketing and Video: Nat Hoopes, Rebekah Sebastian
Podcast Associate: Maram Elnagheeb
| Theme music by Catherine Rannus.
| Grammar Girl Social Media: YouTube. TikTok. Facebook. Threads. Instagram. LinkedIn. Mastodon. Bluesky.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

1206. This week, we look at the secret language of video gamers — including why getting "nerfed" is a bad thing and what it means to "rage quit" — and we answer a listener's question about whether the bird "duck" or the verb "duck" came first and whether real ducks actually duck for cover.
The duck segment was by Karen Lunde, a career writer and editor [who spent nine years as a video game journalist.] These days, she writes I'll Go First, a newsletter where she shares her story, then hands you a weekly writing prompt and a metaphorical pen. Find her on igofirst.org.
🔗 Join the Grammar Girl Patreon.
🔗 Share your familect recording in Speakpipe or by leaving a voicemail at 833-214-GIRL (833-214-4475)
🔗 Watch my LinkedIn Learning writing courses.
🔗 Subscribe to the newsletter.
🔗 Find an edited transcript.
🔗 Get Grammar Girl books.

| HOST: Mignon Fogarty
| Grammar Girl is part of the Quick and Dirty Tips podcast network.
Audio Engineer: Castria Communications
Director of Podcast: Holly Hutchings
Advertising Operations Specialist: Morgan Christianson
Marketing and Video: Nat Hoopes, Rebekah Sebastian
Podcast Associate: Maram Elnagheeb
| Theme music by Catherine Rannus.
| Grammar Girl Social Media: YouTube. TikTok. Facebook. Threads. Instagram. LinkedIn. Mastodon. Bluesky.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

1205. In the bonus discussion this week, we continue discussing AI em dashes with Sean Goedecke, software engineer for GitHub. We talk about why AI detectors are often unreliable and how they can disproportionately flag non-native English speakers. We also look at the controversial idea of "writing for AI" to ensure your ideas are represented in future machine learning models. This episode ran for Grammarpaloozians in February 2026. To get more bonus content, visit Patreon.com/GrammarGirl.

Find Sean at www.SeanGoedecke.com

🔗 Join the Grammar Girl Patreon.
🔗 Share your familect recording in Speakpipe or by leaving a voicemail at 833-214-GIRL (833-214-4475)
🔗 Watch my LinkedIn Learning writing courses.
🔗 Subscribe to the newsletter.
🔗 Find an edited transcript.
🔗 Get Grammar Girl books.

| HOST: Mignon Fogarty

| Grammar Girl is part of the Quick and Dirty Tips podcast network.
Audio Engineer: Dan Feierabend
Director of Podcast: Holly Hutchings
Advertising Operations Specialist: Morgan Christianson
Marketing and Video: Nat Hoopes, Rebekah Sebastian
Podcast Associate: Maram Elnagheeb

| Theme music by Catherine Rannus.

| Grammar Girl Social Media: YouTube. TikTok. Facebook. Threads. Instagram. LinkedIn. Mastodon. Bluesky.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

1204. This week, in honor of Shark Week, we look at six fun shark sayings from pop culture, including "jumping the shark," "voodoo shark," and more.

The shark segment was written by Samantha Enslen, who runs Dragonfly Editorial. You can find her at dragonflyeditorial.com.

🔗 Join the Grammar Girl Patreon.
🔗 Share your familect recording in Speakpipe or by leaving a voicemail at 833-214-GIRL (833-214-4475)
🔗 Watch my LinkedIn Learning writing courses.
🔗 Subscribe to the newsletter.
🔗 Find an edited transcript.
🔗 Get Grammar Girl books.

| HOST: Mignon Fogarty

| Grammar Girl is part of the Quick and Dirty Tips podcast network.

Audio Engineer: Castria Communications
Director of Podcast: Holly Hutchings
Advertising Operations Specialist: Morgan Christianson
Marketing and Video: Nat Hoopes, Rebekah Sebastian
Podcast Associate: Maram Elnagheeb

| Theme music by Catherine Rannus.

| Grammar Girl Social Media: YouTube. TikTok. Facebook. Threads. Instagram. LinkedIn. Mastodon. Bluesky.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

1203. In this bonus discussion with Dr. Charles Kemp, we look at why the Chinese writing system has actually become visually more complex over thousands of years. Dr. Kemp explains how his team used "perimetric complexity" to measure characters and why the need for distinctiveness in a growing vocabulary overrides the natural drive for simplicity. This episode ran for Grammarpaloozians in January 2026. To get more bonus content, visit Patreon.com/GrammarGirl.

Find Dr. Kemp at https://charleskemp.com/.

🔗 Join the Grammar Girl Patreon.
🔗 Share your familect recording in Speakpipe or by leaving a voicemail at 833-214-GIRL (833-214-4475)
🔗 Watch my LinkedIn Learning writing courses.
🔗 Subscribe to the newsletter.
🔗 Find an edited transcript.
🔗 Get Grammar Girl books.

| HOST: Mignon Fogarty

| Grammar Girl is part of the Quick and Dirty Tips podcast network.

Audio Engineer: Dan Feierabend
Director of Podcast: Holly Hutchings
Advertising Operations Specialist: Morgan Christianson
Marketing and Video: Nat Hoopes, Rebekah Sebastian
Podcast Associate: Maram Elnagheeb

| Theme music by Catherine Rannus.

| Grammar Girl Social Media: YouTube. TikTok. Facebook. Threads. Instagram. LinkedIn. Mastodon. Bluesky.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.