Grammar Girl

1220. This week, in honor of Talk Like a Pirate Day, we look at the history of eight pirate words, and then we look at whether the right pairing is "none is" or "none are."

Save the date for Grammarpalooza — The Game Show: Thursday, September 24 at 5 p.m. PT / 8 p.m. ET.

A hearty thank-you to our Keepers of the Commas and one Immortal on Patreon. We appreciate your support!

Larry Rosenblum
Mahala Russell
George Wilson
Laurel Paul
Linda Cox
Birna Anna Björnsdóttir
Marlen Ruiz

🔗 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.

1219. This week, we talk to Daniel Heuman and Chris Ryder from Intelligent Editing about the errors hiding in AI writing that looks flawless. We look at why it invents its own rules when you ask for Chicago or AP style, why it goes wrong in the middle of a document rather than at the ends, and why an AI that over-edits is harder to clean up than one that under-edits.

Find Daniel and Chris on LinkedIn, and more about their projects at Perfectit.com.

Save the date for Grammarpalooza — The Game Show: Thursday, September 24 at 5 p.m. PT / 8 p.m. ET.

A hearty thank-you to our Keepers of the Commas and one Immortal on Patreon. We appreciate your support!
Larry Rosenblum
Mahala Russell
George Wilson
Laurel Paul
Linda Cox
Birna Anna Björnsdóttir
Marlen Ruiz

🔗 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
Creative Partnerships & Business Development: 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.

1218. This week, we look at "dog-directed speech" — the high-pitched, sing-songy register people love to use with dogs — and what the research says about whether dogs actually like it. Then we look at why it's "bated breath" and not "baited breath," and how Shakespeare used the phrase in "The Merchant of Venice." Plus, we have a familect about "spicy water."

The dog segment was by Karen Lunde, a career writer and editor. She writes I'll Go First, a newsletter where she shares her story, and then hands you a writing prompt and a metaphorical pen. Find her at igofirst.org.

Save the date for Grammarpalooza — The Game Show: Thursday, September 24 at 5 p.m. PT / 8 p.m. ET.

A hearty thank-you to our Keepers of the Commas and one Immortal on Patreon. We appreciate your support!
Larry Rosenblum
Mahala Russell
George Wilson
Laurel Paul
Linda Cox
Birna Anna Björnsdóttir
Marlen Ruiz

🔗 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.

1217. This week, we talk to Florence Hazrat, author of "On the Mark," about how punctuation evolved over 2,000 years. We look at why ancient Greek and Roman writing had no spaces between words, how a librarian in Alexandria introduced the first marks to help readers, and why the Renaissance brought a burst of new punctuation that then mostly stopped. Then we look at why a period can make a short text message feel aggressive, whether emoji count as punctuation, and how failed inventions like the interrobang tried to join the ranks.
Find Florence Hazrat on Instagram or her website.

A hearty thank-you to our Keepers of the Commas on Patreon. We appreciate your support!
Larry Rosenblum
Mahala Russell
George Wilson
Laurel Paul
Linda Cox
Birna Anna Björnsdóttir

🔗 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
Creative Partnerships & Business Development: 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.

1216. In honor of Labor Day, we look at occupational surnames — why Baker, Cooper, and Fletcher sound like jobs, and why Wainwright, Chandler, and Fuller were jobs too, even though they don't sound like it anymore. We also look at how names like Webster and Baxter preserve an Old English suffix for women's work.

The jobs segment was by Karen Lunde, a career writer and editor. She writes I'll Go First, a newsletter where she shares her story, and then hands you a writing prompt and a metaphorical pen. Find her at igofirst.org.

Save the date for Grammarpalooza — The Game Show: Thursday, September 24 at 5 p.m. PT / 8 p.m. ET.

A hearty thank-you to our Keepers of the Commas on Patreon. We appreciate your support!

Larry Rosenblum
Mahala Russell
George Wilson
Laurel Paul
Linda Cox
Birna Anna Björnsdóttir

🔗 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
Creative Partnerships & Business Development: 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.