Grammar Girl Quick and Dirty Tips for Better Writing

1156. This week, we look at the pronunciation chaos surrounding "forte" and "pianoforte," from the French fencing term meaning "strong point" to the Italian musical direction meaning "loud." Then, we look at "playing the dozens" — the African American insult game with a mysterious origin.

1155. This week, we look at whether it’s actually true that Inuit languages have hundreds of words for snow with Dr. Charles Kemp. We look at how researchers used a database of 18 million volumes to find out how our environment shapes our vocabulary using the Nida-Conklin principle. We also look at a surprising finding about words for rain being abundant in non-rainy regions.

1154. This week, we look at "headless" nouns like "scarecrow," "pickpocket," and "breakfast." We look at why these "cutthroat compounds" break the normal rules of English grammar. Then, we look at the science of reading versus listening, including how our brains process text differently from audio and why multitasking can affect your comprehension.

1153. This week, we look at the high-stakes world of Scrabble tournaments with John Chew, head of the North American Scrabble Players Association. We look at the strict etiquette of the tile bag, why professional players count tiles, and how the official word list is managed for competitive play.

1152. This week, we look at what a baker's dozen is and why it's actually 13. We also look at other "dozen" phrases, like "devil's dozen" and "banker's dozen." Finally, we tackle the inconsistency of making words that end in O plural, from "tomatoes" to "rodeos."