Language experts agree that no single English language rule exists for terms like "farmers market," "couple's retreat" or "shopper's paradise," writes grammar columnist June Casagrande.

The lexicographer Kory Stamper’s new book, Word by Word: The Secret Life of Dictionaries, is an eloquent defense of a “live and let live” approach to English. Well, you know what they say about ...

Ellen Jovin is not the grammar police. She's more like a grammar guru, a gentle, nonjudgmental guide who knows English isn't etched into a linguistic stone, rigid and unchangeable. Instead, she knows ...

All learners of English encounter problem points on their journey towards mastering the language. A number of readers have sent in queries about English grammar, words and phrases, idioms, style. Here ...

THE ancient notion of English grammar was one of certain categories of words, and certain rules for their proper use. This is still the idea implied in most of the dictionary definitions of the word.

If you’ve ever used Microsoft Word, chances are you’ve seen that jagged green line appear beneath something you’ve written -- scolding you for drafting a fragmented sentence, maybe, or for slipping ...

Do you try to use good grammar? That’s great. Chances are your efforts pay off and you’re a better communicator as a result. But if you try too hard, your efforts can backfire. Grammar rules are based ...

The Anglo Saxons didn’t say ‘the’, they said ‘sê’ – as in pass me ‘sê’ bread. Nowhere in Old English grammar is there actually a precise ancestor for ‘the’. But some time over the 1100s it entered our ...