The Swiss Vacuum Cleaner Cord Conspiracy

It’s time we broke the silence about vacuum cleaner cords.  You’re among friends.  Don’t be afraid to say what everybody else here is already thinking.  We all hate them!  Comon!  You know you do.  More

The Changes Keep Coming!

We’ve updated our entire Documentation section.  It’s now 20% more Documenty, with even more examples of how to document everything!  Check it out!

Which is it:  Common Sense or Commonsense?

Common Sense, two words, is a noun.  Therefore, you can have common sense.

Commonsense, one word, is an adjective.  It describes something else as having common sense, such as:  Voting for the better candidate is the commonsense thing to do.  And when you vote for her, it will show that you have common sense.

We’ve Changed! 

The most obvious change is our name.  We are now The Incomplete Guide to American English, because there is so much more to language than grammar, and because American English is what we speak.  More than the name, The Incomplete Guide is a bit more complete.  For the most part, there was just a whole lot of reorganization.  As you can see, we’ve consolidated the College Classes into one tab, as well as adding a tab for Usage.  There are several changes inside of those tabs, too, such as the file “One Word or Two,” and several more examples of Commonly Confused Words. Perhaps the biggest addition, though, is our new Site Directory tab.  It will take you anywhere you want to go.

Keep watching for additional changes in our never-ending quest to prove that English really isn’t that hard to understand.

Grammar, Punctuation, and Usage 

Usage is how the language is used.  It’s not only spelling a word correctly, but using the correct word.  It’s knowing that “less” doesn’t necessarily mean the same thing as “fewer.”

Grammar deals with how those words go together.  It’s knowing that a plural subject requires a plural verb,  that a feminine noun requires a feminine pronoun, and that what you write generally makes sense.

And punctuation are all those little marks, indentations, and even spaces and lines that separate one word from another, sentences from each other, and divide thoughts into individual parts so everything has a logical order.

The line is often blurred between what is grammar and what is usage, between what is usage and what is punctuation.  But in the end it really doesn’t matter.  It takes all three to make written communication possible.