Tuesday, March 04, 2008

National Grammar Day!

It's national grammar day! Dangle a participle, split an infinitive, go wild!

I learned of National Grammar Day last night while listening to one of my favorite podcasts: Grammar Girl's Quick And Dirty Tips To Better Writing. It's a fun podcast about grammar. (Yes, I am that much of a geek that I enjoy learning about Grammar!)

Her podcast this week dispels her top ten grammar myths. Check out her site to see what they are! In celebration, I plan to correct anyone who uses one of my pet peeve phrases: "whole entire…"

As is you could have part of the entire thing! Actually, I recently had this conversation with someone and since he has been deliberatel slipping it into conversation at every chance. I slipped it into a couple sentences last night to show that I had gotten the barb and appreciated the irony.

Wherever you are today, correct someone's grammar! Happy Grammar Day!

Don Bergquist - March 10, 2008 - Lakewood, Colorado, USA

1 comment:

Unknown said...

"What's the difference between 'ensure' and 'insure'?"

The question came from a colleague this morning… she was writing an email and was not sure, in context, which to use. How appropriate for National Grammar Day! While the two words are similar, they are not the same thing. It's pretty easy to remember:

Insure… It starts with an "I" - it protects you from Injury

Ensure… It starts with an "E" - it guarantees the Existence of some condition or event.

So, you insure something if you mean to protect from harm, injury or death, or to indemnify the subject from some action. You ensure something will happen by putting a plan into place to make it so.

…and I would add…

Assure… It starts with an "A" - if Asked, it calms fears.

When you assure something, you are confirming that you believe it to be true.

So, in conclusion:

The author assures you that he has ensured that his car will be protected from hail damage by allowing USAA to insure it.

djb