PLURALS cats dogs rhinoceroses bosses the Adamses or the Adams family yeses and nos/noes dos and don'ts ups and downs IDs ATMs DVDs x²s p's and q's A's and B's Only letters take ' in the plural. ladies families companies monies ... Mutated plurals: men/women teeth mice lice feet geese dice children oxen brethren kine wives lives knives wolves dwarves/dwarfs elves selves shelves leaves Self-plurals: deer fish fowl wildlife quail cattle sheep swine ... -craft barracks "Foreign" plurals: cacti fungi foci indices criteria stimuli bases vertices hypotheses analyses corpora matrics appendices syllabi phenomena axes oases crises theses alumni/alumnae nuclei ... POSSESSIVE APOSTROPHE ' Natasha's dog Boris's dog the boss's dog John Adams's dog the Adamses' dog [the Adams' dog] the bosses' dog Ben and Jerry's company [one company they jointly own] Ben and Jerry's companies [more than one company they jointly own] Ben's and Jerry's companies [they each own one or more companies separately] Ben's and Jerry's company [they each own a company separately] Perhaps better: Ben's company and Jerry's company CONTRACTION APOSTROPHE ' could've would've should've must've might've can't won't shan't don't doesn't didn't mustn't couldn't wouldn't shouldn't oughtn't aren't isn't wasn't weren't hasn't haven't hadn't I'm I've I'd I'd've I'll you're you've you'd you'd've? you'll he's he'd he'd've he'll she's she'd she'd've she'll it's one's it'll we're we've we'd we'd've? we'll they're they've they'd they'd've? they'll what's what'll who's who'd who'll how's how'd how'll where's where'd where'll why's why'd why'll here's there's there'll there'd that's that'll what'll somebody's someone's something's ain't 'tain't amn't y'all g'day o'clock entr'acte Ma'am 'twixt Let's It's its. COMMA , Bob's dog, Fido [he has only one dog] the "only" comma Bob's dog Fido [he has other dogs] Vocative comma: the comma of direct address Hey, Jude. Yes, sir. I plead not guilty, Your Honor. Don't have any comma splices, they make a run-on sentence, or do they? Sentence fragments. Avoid them. Unless for special effect. Dialogue comma Hamlet said, "To be or not to be." "To be or not to be," said Hamlet. "To be or not to be" is Hamlet's most famous soliloquy. [Except with 'to be'] Series/Oxford comma peas, beans, pears, and apples more QUOTATION MARKS "" He said "yes"! [author's emphatic] He said "yes!" [he's emphatic] SEMICOLON ; --needed for a list with items with commas: We went to Paris, Texas; London, Ontario; and Rome, New York. --optional: "longer" than a comma, "shorter" than a period. More independent than a comma. HYPHEN - recreate re-create reform re-form resigned re-signed a six-year-old maddeningly irregular man-eating shark The New Yorker diaeresis (AKA umlaut): reëlect the president Historical trend: two words, then two-word, then oneword. doll-like DASHes — em dash u2014 &mdash Word: AltCtrlNum- dialogus interruptus instead of parens en dash u2013 &ndash ranges, scores, votes connect multiword proper noun to something else Lots of punctuation: will-o'-the-wisp ne'er-do-well no-man's-land cat-o'-nine-tails once twice thrice first second Homo-somethings: You need the right wright to write a rite. carat karat caret carrot They're there in their hair. Which way to weigh the whey? Wear the ware where? Pare the pair of pears. A peek at the peak was enough to pique me. cite site sight I eye aye by bye buy so sew sow to too two rain rein reign not knot naught (nought) hi hie high pallet palate palette bite byte bight GN- words from Old English (gnat, gnaw), in Low German, Scandinavian as a variant of kn- (gneiss), in Latin and Greek (gnomon, gnostic) and representing sounds in non-Indo-European languages (gnu). gnat gnaw gnome gnomon gnu gnash gneiss gnostic gnarl KN- reduced to "n-" in standard pronunciation by 1750, after about a century of weakening and fading knack knapsack knave knead knee kneel knell knew knife knight knit knot knob knock knoll know knuckle knurl knish! knurd? WR- the -w- ceased to be pronounced c. 1450-1700. start words implying twisting or distortion wrack wrangle wraith wrap wrath wreak wreck wreath wren wrench wrest wrestle wretch wriggle wring/wrung wrinkle writ write/wrote writhe wrist wrong wrought -MB some silent since 13c. Others unetymological. dumb numb crumb plumb succumb limb climb aplomb bomb comb tomb womb lamb thumb(big toe) A phonographic memory: I never heard that, or I forgot it. Avoid: very rather really totally quite actually surely pretty just so of course that said in fact kind of sort of Spell-busters: ad nauseam archaeology dammit dilemma diphtheria enmity fuchsia genealogy inoculate/innocuous ophthalmology pharaoh prerogative/pejorative rococo stomachache e's before i's that aren't after c's: seize foreign albeit weigh heist height deify neighbor neither leisure heir beige ... cei's are -ceive or -cei[p]t except 'ceiling' Acronym: NASA NASDAQ COVID LOL Formerly: laser radar scuba snafu Initialism: NSA NNSA IOU RSVP ? RH Rhetorical question: "statement put in the form of a question for rhetorical effect only and thus not requiring an answer," is from 1670s. Rhode Island: said to have been named by Verrazzano in 1524, based on an imagined similarity between modern Block Island and the Greek Isle of Rhodes. More likely it is from Roodt Eylandt, the name Dutch explorer Adriaen Block gave to Block Island c. 1614, literally "red island," so called for the color of its cliffs. rhotacism: extensive,excessive, particular use of 'r' sound (the "burr"). Old English used 10 different words for "the" Double possessives: mine thine his hers ours yours theirs To WHOM it may concern For WHOM the bell tolls I/ he/ she/they/ who subject me/him/her/them/ whom object ... Sujunctive mood. nonrealities as if I/s/he were ... Unlikely, improbable, impossible: if I/s/he were ...