Sprachgefuhl

lean into. lean in to

2026-03-14T12:59:00.003-04:00

The Wall Street Journal says it’s “lean in to,” not “lean into.” The newspaper explains:

“‘Lean in’ is the verb phrase that should hold together.”

daylight-saving time. daylight saving time

2026-03-14T12:55:00.004-04:00

Merriam-Webster says “daylight saving time.”

The Wall Street Journal says “daylight-saving time.”

I think the Journal is right.

The Olympics

2026-01-31T07:56:00.008-05:00

The Olympics is, but the Olympic Games are.

—The Wall Street Journal

south Florida. South Florida

2026-01-21T10:04:00.004-05:00

According to the Wall Street Journal’s style police, it’s “South Florida,” not “south Florida.”

The editors explain:

“This is as subjective a call as they come for a stylebook, but South Florida qualifies as ‘widely known’ under our approach.”

Here’s the entry in the Journal’s stylebook for “cities and states”:

Usually lowercase the compass points when they describe a section of a state or city:

📍western Pennsylvania
📍southern Atlanta

But capitalize them in referring to several widely known sections:

📍Southern California
📍Northern California
📍Northern Virginia
📍South Florida
📍The South Side of Chicago
📍The Lower East Side of New York
📍South Texas
📍West Texas
📍East Texas
📍North Texas

If in doubt, use lowercase.

Does “Repeat 3 Times” Mean to Do It 4 Times Total, or 3?

2026-01-14T09:14:00.006-05:00

Technical writer Paul Stregevsky clarifies an ambiguity you almost certainly never considered:

“Repeat three times.”

So, do it four times, right? Literally, yes. But as often as not, the writer meant, “Perform three times” — in other words, “Repeat twice.”

Why Every CAPTCHA Is Ambiguous

2026-01-14T09:08:00.003-05:00

Technical writer Paul Stregevsky articulates what I’ve long wondered:

“Select each [CAPTCHA] square that contains a[n] ___.”

If a CAPTCHA instructs, “Select each square that contains a bus,” how much of a bus must I see? A tire? A taillight?

Why write “contains a bus” when it’s so easy to write “contains all or part of a bus?”

Better yet, why not tell us how much of a bus we need to see?

What Does “K” Mean?

2026-01-09T10:14:00.001-05:00

The New Yorker runs down the many definitions of this single letter:

one kilometre
1,000 monetary units
1,024 bytes of computer-storage space
a strikeout in baseball
a degree on the Kelvin temperature scale
the nation of Korea (as in “K-pop”)
the chemical potassium
a measure of the fineness of gold (karat)
the drug ketamine
kindergarten (as in “K-12”)
the king in a chess move (as in “Kd2”)
a South African racial slur (as in “the K-word”)
the shape of a kind of economic recovery
a protagonist in Franz Kafka’s novels

Identify the Dangling Modifiers

2026-01-03T15:32:00.004-05:00

One sentence of each pair contains a dangling modifier. Identify both the dangler and the correct sentence.

1A. Having misunderstood the assignment. I received a low grade on my paper.
1B. Having misunderstood the usignment, my paper got a low grade.

2A. Exhausted after 14 hours of driving, the exit to Denver was a welcome sight.
2B. Because we were exhausted after 14 hours of driving, the exit to Denver was a welcome sight.

3A. Having stood in the oily marinade for six hours, you are now ready to grill the meat.
3B. Having stood in the oily marinade for six hours, the meat is now ready to be grilled.

4A. As the spider painstakingly repaired the damaged web. I marveled at its skill and patience.
4B. Painstakingly repairing the damaged web, I marveled at the spider's skill and patience.

5A. Approaching the Continental Divide, there was a noticeable drop in temperature.
5B. Approaching the Continental Divide, we noticed a drop in temperature.

6A. The archaeologists could not decipher the inscription covered with the grime of centuries.
6B. Covered with the grime of centuries, the archaeologists could not decipher the inscription.

7A. To avoid overexposing the picture, use a light meter.
7B. To avoid overexposing the picture, a light meter should be used.

8A. Meeting Lou after geology class, he suggested a handball game.
8B. Meeting Lou after geology class, I suggested a handball garne.

9A. If unable to attend, please call the reservation clerk.
9B. If unable to attend, a call to the reservation clerk would be appreciated.

10A. Seen from miles away, the mountain looks like a cloud.
10B. Seen from miles away, one might think the mountain was a cloud.

11A. Having only two days of holiday, it might be sensible just to stay home.
11B. Having only two days of holiday, we might just as well stay home.

12A. This being payday, I am momentarily without financial worries.
12B. Being payday, I am momentarily without financial worries.

finalize. finish

2025-12-20T08:24:00.003-05:00

In The Elements of Style, Strunk and White declare that finalize is a “pompous, ambiguous verb.” They explain,

“Finalize ... is not standard; it is special, and it is a peculiarly fuzzy and silly word. Does it mean terminate, or does it mean put into final form? One can't be sure, really, what it means, and one gets the impression that the person using it doesn’t know, either, and doesn't want to know.”

In Style: Toward Clarity and Grace, Joseph Williams argues otherwise. He acknowledges that “some may think finalize still smacks too much of the bureaucratic mind, an understandable objection.” But he draws a distinction between finalize and finish:

“Never use finalize to mean finish, complete, end. Finalize does not mean what any of those other words mean. Finalize means to clean up the last details of an extended project, a specific sense captured by no other word.”

grow. expand

2025-12-20T08:15:00.001-05:00

Even though “grow” can serve as a transitive verb (“She grows daisies”), pedants object to a phrase such as “Grow your business.” They argue, “Why not just say, ‘Expand your business’?”

Because when you “expand” it, you merely gain new customers. But when you “grow” it, you gain new customers and sell more stuff to old customers.

—Paul Stregevsky

log into. log in to

2025-12-18T10:16:00.001-05:00

The Wall Street Journal settles the debate on whether it’s spelled “log into,” or “log in to”:

The phrase is “log in to,” with the two-word form of “into,” because the phrase “log in” needs to hold together.

How to Break Up a Noun Cluster

2025-06-19T09:15:00.003-04:00

Bad Writing:
the setting of greenhouse gas emissions reduction targets

Revision 1:
set targets for greenhouse gas emissions reduction

Revision 2:
set targets to reduce greenhouse gas emissions

Revision 3:
set targets to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions

percentage. percentage points.

2025-05-27T09:07:00.004-04:00

A percentage increase is not the same as a percentage point increase.

If a number increases from 20% to 22%, that’s a difference of two percentage points. It’s not two percent.

Use percentage to describe the difference between two whole numbers. For example:

“Sales jumped from $90K to $150K, or 66%.”

Use percentage points to describe the difference between two percentages:

“Trump’s approval rating has dropped 10 percentage points, from 40% to 30%.”

flaunt. flout

2025-02-13T17:43:00.005-05:00

flaunt: to make an ostentatious or defiant display of

flout: to show contempt for something

—The Wall Street Journal

onetime. one-time

2024-11-28T08:51:00.004-05:00

onetime: former

one-time: for a single time

Thus: “The onetime chairman said the dividend omission while he was there was a one-time event.”

—Vol. 37, No. 11: Semiquincentennial [WSJ]

You Don’t Divest From a Company

2024-07-23T08:28:00.002-04:00

The word “divest” is often misused.

In the debate about whether colleges should invest in entities based in Israel, many people use the phrase “divest from companies.”

This phrase is wrong, as the Wall Street Journal notes. (And not just because singling out the only democracy in the Mideast is revoltingly anti-Semitic.)

It’s wrong because “divest” takes the preposition “of.” So, you’ll want to say “divest yourself of investments in companies.”

It’s a mouthful, but at least you’ll be grammatical.

Do Hyphens Matter?

2024-07-20T08:40:00.001-04:00

venomous. poisonous

2024-06-14T08:59:00.003-04:00

“Venomous” applies to organisms that bite (or sting) to inject their toxins.

“Poisonous” applies to organisms that unload toxins when you eat them.

Since the vast majority of snake toxins are transferred by bite, most snakes are venomous, not poisonous.

“What’s the Difference Between Venomous and Poisonous?”

Words With 2 Contradictory Definitions

2024-05-21T18:17:00.002-04:00

biweekly: twice a month, and twice a week

oversight: watchful care, and a lapse

inflammable: flammable

peruse: to skim, and to read thoroughly

sanction: to permit, and to punish

trim: to embellish, and to cut

buckle: to fasten, and to crumple

bolt: to secure something, and to flee

“Translated From the Italian?”

2024-05-15T08:22:00.005-04:00

We say, “I’m learning Italian.”

We say, “She speaks Italian.”

We say, “It’s written in Italian.”

So why do we say, “Translated from the Italian?”

—David Pogue

Can “It’s” Mean Both “It Is” and “It Has”?

2024-05-02T10:15:00.003-04:00

Ordinarily, I wouldn’t think twice of writing “it’s been” instead of “it has been.” Contractions are critical, and my meaning is clear.

But my wife pointed out that “it’s been,” technically, means “it is been,” which is obviously wrong.

Who’s right?

My colleague Paul says this:

A few English contractions can have two or more meanings. Lyrics with past-tense contractions like “It’s been a long time” and “It’s been on my mind” are found routinely in popular songs and showtunes. Likewise with “She’s been on my mind.”

In other words: I’m right. ;)

Don’t Use a Preposition After the Word “Including”

2024-02-15T13:57:00.008-05:00

Wrong:
Barbie, Oppenheimer, and Killers of the Flower Moon all scored multiple Oscar nominations, including for best picture.

Right:
Barbie, Oppenheimer, and Killers of the Flower Moon all scored Oscar nominations in multiple categories, including best picture.

—Paul Strevegsky

graceful. gracious

2024-02-15T11:30:00.004-05:00

Ballerinas are graceful; tactful people are gracious.

—Paul Stregevsky

’tis. ‘tis

2023-12-08T13:33:00.003-05:00

The grammar geeks at the Wall Street Journal clarify an issue I’ve long wondered about:

The word ’tis takes an apostrophe, not an open single-quote, because the apostrophe replaces a “missing” letter. In other words, ’tis is a shortened form of “it is.”

This is why rock ’n’ roll is properly spelled with two apostrophes, though writers often stumble and use an open-quote mark before the “n.” The two apostrophes replace the missing letters in “and.”

Problem is, unlike in the typewriter era, today’s writers are at the mercy of their editing software with such keyboard characters. We can think we’re typing in an apostrophe, but chances are that an open quote will appear instead if it’s before a letter. The writer has to go back and hit the key again to get the proper character to appear.

And note the spelling ’N Sync for the band (the apostrophe replaces the “I” in what could be read as In Sync), as well as the ’Ndrangheta, Italy’s most powerful and richest crime syndicate. Both names properly start with an apostrophe.

elder. eldest

2023-08-21T09:09:00.004-04:00

Use elder when comparing two people.

Use eldest when comparing three or more.

Lianna always admired her elder brother.

The eldest person at the reunion will receive a plaque.