Happy New Year, New Year’s, or New Years? How to Wish Someone Well in 2019 The last thing you want to worry about when ringing in the new year is where to put the apostrophe. Get the nitty-gritty on New Year, New Year’s, and New Years so you can make a toast at midnight and…
How to Formally Write the Date.Part 2 The International Standard So many systems for one simple concept, right? In an effort to avoid international miscommunication, the International Standard ISO 8601 was created. If an American writes May 3, 1988 as 05/03/1988 but an Italian writes May 3, 1988 as 03/05/1988 who’s to know what’s what!…
Writing the Date Formally for Business, Invitations, and Academic Work In formal U.S. writings, you never want to omit the year or use a purely numerical form for the date. For example, if you were to write a formal business letter, you’d write out the entire date, including the full month (January 1, 2011). Writing…
How to Formally Write the Date. Part 1. Did you know the Month/Day/Year (12/01/1994) format is almost exclusive to the U.S.? Belize and Micronesia also use this format and it is secondary in Canada and the Philippines. Anywhere else you live or travel, you’re more likely to find the date written in the little endian…
The Subjunctive This one is pretty simple. When you’re writing about a non-true situation — usually following the word if or the verb wish — the verb to be is rendered as were.So:* If I was were a rich man.* I wish I was were an Oscar Mayer wiener.If you are using if for other…
Comma Splices A comma splice is when you use a comma to join two independent clauses, as in It’s a sunny day, we’re off to the beach. Critics insist that such clauses be separated by a stronger mark than a comma, such as a semicolon, dash, or full stop, or by a coordinating conjunction, such…
Apostrophe Сatastrophes Apostrophe errors are extremely common, especially when the possessive case is involved. Take the phrase the people’s choice, which means ‘the choice of the people’. This is often incorrectly styled as *the peoples’ choice, which means ‘the choice of the peoples’. Writers somehow forget, when they’re placing the apostrophe, that people is already…
Your vs. You’re The difference between these two is owning something versus actually being something: Example: You made it around the track in under a minute – you’re fast!- Ты преодолел трек меньше чем за минуту – ты быстрый! Example: How’s your fast going? Are you hungry?- Как проходит твой пост? Ты голоден? See the…
Singular Nouns Treated as Plural Some singular nouns can be used with either a singular or plural verb. The commonest of these are the collective nouns which stand for a group or collection of people or things. These include words such as audience, committee, crew, family, government, group, team, and many others. So, both these…
Contractions These are the easier ones that most of us know pretty well. If you’re cutting down a word – like we are, you can just say we’re. Easy.More commonly, people get confused between you’re and your. And they’re, their and there, and things like that. Make sure you know the difference between these:You’re =…