1054. Ever wonder what goes into designing daily word games? Lex Friedman, creator of Lex.games , shares his journey from puzzle lover to puzzle maker, how he keeps his games fresh, and why some puzzles stump even the best players. Plus, we talk typos, accessibility, and the psychology of great wordplay. If you enjoy Wordle, crosswords, or Connections-style puzzles, this episode is for you! 🔗 Share your familect recording in a WhatsApp chat. 🔗 Watch my LinkedIn Learning writing courses . 🔗 Su...
Feb 06, 2025•26 min•Transcript available on Metacast 1053. If you’ve ever hesitated between ‘toe the line’ and ‘tow the line,’ this episode is for you. We look at the phrase's history to clear up the confusion. Then, we look at metonymy and synecdoche — powerful literary devices that can make your writing more compelling. The metonymy segment was written by Jim Norrena, MFA, who has been writing and editing professionally for more than 35 years in the publishing and academic industries within the Bay Area. After earning his MFA in Writing and a UC...
Feb 04, 2025•17 min•Transcript available on Metacast 1052. What do “CDB” and “U11 2” have in common? They’re both examples of gramograms! This week, I chat with writer Rob Meyerson and New Yorker cartoonist Dan Misdea about their book "AB@C," a fun collection of gramograms—letters, numbers, and symbols that form words when read aloud. We look at the history of this quirky wordplay and the artistic process behind the book’s illustrations. 🔗 Share your familect recording in a WhatsApp chat. 🔗 Watch my LinkedIn Learning writing courses . 🔗 Subscri...
Jan 30, 2025•18 min•Transcript available on Metacast 1051. This week, we look at doubled words, like "salad-salad" or "job-job," and what the repetition is actually telling us. Then, in honor of National Puzzle Day, we look at the history of jigsaw puzzles and some fun words from the industry such as "whimsy" and "puzzband." The "puzzle" segment is by Karen Lunde, a former Quick & Dirty Tips editor and digital pioneer who's been spinning words into gold since before cat videos ruled the internet. She created one of the first online writing worksho...
Jan 28, 2025•15 min•Transcript available on Metacast 1050. This week, I talk with Wendy Dale, author of "The Memoir Engineering System," about how to write a compelling memoir. We look at the differences between memoir and autobiography, the importance of plot, and why outlining can save writers years of work. Wendy shares practical tips on crafting scenes, connecting events, and handling sensitive topics while maintaining relationships with the people in your story. It's not just for memoir writing either — I found the tips inspiring and helpful ...
Jan 23, 2025•20 min•Transcript available on Metacast 1049. I came across a hilarious entry about quotation marks in an old usage guide and had to share it. Then, we look at a technique that can work for both fiction and nonfiction writing — starting a story in the middle. The "in medias res" segment is by Karen Lunde, a former Quick & Dirty Tips editor and digital pioneer who's been spinning words into gold since before cat videos ruled the internet. She created one of the first online writing workshops, and she's published thousands of articles o...
Jan 21, 2025•17 min•Ep 1049•Transcript available on Metacast 1048. Ellen Jovin set up a folding table on the street in all 50 U.S. states to talk with people about grammar, which led to the book "Rebel with a Clause." Now, her story, and the story of people who talked with her, is a movie by the same name. Mignon talked with Ellen and her documentarian husband, Brandt Johnson, about what they learned about both filmmaking and humanity. Find them at RebelWithAClause.com . 🔗 Share your familect recording in a WhatsApp chat. 🔗 Watch my LinkedIn Learning wr...
Jan 16, 2025•25 min•Ep 1048•Transcript available on Metacast 1047. This week, we look at word pairs like "august/August" that change their meaning when capitalized and how you can make your meaning clear. Then, we look at how we got to the point where U.S. presidents always seem to say, "The state of the union is STRONG," in their State of the Union addresses. 🔗 Share your familect recording in a WhatsApp chat. 🔗 Watch my LinkedIn Learning writing courses . 🔗 Subscribe to the newsletter . 🔗 Take our advertising survey . 🔗 Get the edited transcript . ...
Jan 14, 2025•16 min•Ep 1047•Transcript available on Metacast 1046. Jennifer Lynn Barnes, author of the "Inheritance Games" books, discusses how writing from different points of view can help readers connect with characters in different ways. We also talked about her book recommendations, and how the "Grey's Anatomy" pilot surprised her by having almost all the elements she had identified as important for the success of novels. 🔗 Share your familect recording in a WhatsApp chat. 🔗 Watch my LinkedIn Learning writing courses . 🔗 Subscribe to the newslette...
Jan 09, 2025•23 min•Ep 1046•Transcript available on Metacast 1045. A listener asked if the song "The Wizard and I" should actually be "The Wizard and Me," so we look at how you can tell. And then we look at interesting idioms about familiar places: "neck of the woods," "stomping grounds," and "haunts." The "neck of the woods" segment was written by Karen Lunde, a former Quick and Dirty Tips editor who has crafted hundreds of articles on the art of writing well. She was an online education pioneer, founding one of the first online writing workshops. These ...
Jan 07, 2025•15 min•Ep 1045•Transcript available on Metacast 1044. Today, I'm talking about a strange disappearance that forensic linguist Natalie Schilling worked on that she calls "the case of the mystery dialect." This is the original bonus segment from our conversation back in October. Grammarpaloozians who support the show get these segments right when they come out, and maybe more importantly, give us the help we need to keep going and produce the bonus segments. So many thanks to all you wonderful Grammarpaloozians! Natalie Schilling is a professor...
Jan 02, 2025•20 min•Ep 1044•Transcript available on Metacast 1043. "Skibidi," "polarization," "brat," "demure," "enshittification," and more. You might get whiplash from the vacillating vibes of all the words the dictionaries chose this year. I joined John Kelly, former vice president of editorial at Dictionary.com, to romp through all the choices and contenders. Find John at https://mashedradish.com 🔗 Share your familect recording in a WhatsApp chat. 🔗 Watch my LinkedIn Learning writing courses . 🔗 Subscribe to the newsletter . 🔗 Take our advertising...
Dec 30, 2024•44 min•Ep 1043•Transcript available on Metacast 1042. Today, I have the bonus segment from my interview with Ben Yagoda back in September. Ben is the author of the book "Gobsmacked: The British Invasion of American English," and we talked about the words "twee," "vet," the two spellings of "gray," the surprising origins of "football" and "soccer," and more. Grammarpaloozians who support the show get these segments right when they come out, and in today's really tough podcasting environment, they help us keep going and produce these bonus segm...
Dec 26, 2024•15 min•Ep 1042•Transcript available on Metacast 1041. Today, we talk about the word "home" and its meaning beyond just a structure, and then we talk about false friends — words in different languages that don't mean what you think they mean. The "home" segment was written by Valerie Fridland, a professor of linguistics at the University of Nevada in Reno and the author of " Like, Literally, Dude : Arguing for the Good in Bad English." You can find her at valeriefridland.com . The "false friends" segment was written by Karen Lunde, a former Qu...
Dec 23, 2024•14 min•Ep 1041•Transcript available on Metacast 1040. The downsides of AI bother me a lot — job loss, energy use, and the content tsunami. But I also think it's critically important to understand what this technology can do and how it's likely to change the way we work and live. In this Grammarpalooza bonus segment, I talked with Christopher Penn about how he thinks about these problems. 🔗 Join Grammarpalooza . Get ad-free and bonus episodes at Apple Podcasts or Subtext . Learn more about the difference . 🔗 Share your familect recording in ...
Dec 19, 2024•23 min•Ep 1040•Transcript available on Metacast 1039. People are saying "I mean" more lately, and we explain what it ... means! Plus, we look at why people leave out pronouns at the beginning of sentences such as "Ordering pizza!" The "I mean" segment was written by Valerie Fridland, a professor of linguistics at the University of Nevada in Reno and the author of "Like, Literally, Dude: Arguing for the Good in Bad English." You can find her at valeriefridland.com . The "pronoun deletion" segment was written by Karen Lunde, a former Quick and ...
Dec 17, 2024•17 min•Ep 1039•Transcript available on Metacast 1038. Chicago Manual of Style editors Mary Laur and Russell Harper dish on the changes they wanted in CMOS that didn't make it in, why the stylebook is bright yellow, and how a printing problem during the pandemic led to some rare editions of the manual. Plus, Mary shares her book recommendations just in time for holiday book buying. Original full interview: https://grammar-girl.simplecast.com/episodes/chicago-18 🔗 Join Grammarpalooza . Get ad-free and bonus episodes at Apple Podcasts or Subtex...
Dec 12, 2024•17 min•Ep 1038•Transcript available on Metacast 1037. This week, we answer a few questions that have popped up from previous episodes: What's up with the "positive anymore"? What is havoc? Is it wreaked or wrought? And more! 🔗 Share your familect recording in a WhatsApp chat. 🔗 Watch my LinkedIn Learning writing courses . 🔗 Subscribe to the newsletter . 🔗 Take our advertising survey . 🔗 Get the edited transcript . 🔗 Get Grammar Girl books . 🔗 Join Grammarpalooza . Get ad-free and bonus episodes at Apple Podcasts or Subtext . Learn more...
Dec 10, 2024•13 min•Ep 1037•Transcript available on Metacast 1036. Erin McKean runs an entire online dictionary with the goal of having ALL the English words. But Wordnik is not only huge, it's also filled with delightful quirks. Hear how Erin manages this one-woman show and how you can get in on the fun — by adopting a word, making your own lists, using the API for word games or a word of the day, adding words or definitions, and trawling the internet for interesting sentences. Erin McKean is a lexicographer and the driving force behind the online dictio...
Dec 05, 2024•25 min•Ep 1036•Transcript available on Metacast 1035. This week, we look at famous and amazing first sentences in novels to understand what makes them so compelling, and then we look at the interesting origin of "gladiator" and other words from Roman times. 🔗 Share your familect recording in a WhatsApp chat. 🔗 Watch my LinkedIn Learning writing courses . 🔗 Subscribe to the newsletter . 🔗 Take our advertising survey . 🔗 Get the edited transcript . 🔗 Get Grammar Girl books . 🔗 Join Grammarpalooza . Get ad-free and bonus episodes at Apple...
Dec 03, 2024•16 min•Ep 1035•Transcript available on Metacast 1034. First, we look at how writers should use trademarked terms like "Kleenex" and "Google," including when to capitalize them and how to avoid legal pitfalls. Then, we look at the way the word "thank" evolved alongside changing social conventions — who got thanked and why, and how the word itself evolved. The trademark segment was written by Natalie Schilling, a professor emerita of linguistics at Georgetown University in Washington, DC, who runs a forensic linguistics consulting firm. You can...
Nov 26, 2024•16 min•Ep 1034•Transcript available on Metacast 1033. Last year, Dragonfly Editorial had a "no AI" policy, but since then, they've been experimenting with the technology, and the policy has become more nuanced. President Samantha Enslen joins us to talk about what changed, what's working and what isn't, concerns, and how her employees feel about it. Visit Dragonfly Editorial . 🔗 Share your familect recording in a WhatsApp chat. 🔗 Watch my LinkedIn Learning writing courses . 🔗 Subscribe to the newsletter . 🔗 Take our advertising survey . �...
Nov 21, 2024•36 min•Ep 1033•Transcript available on Metacast 1032. First, we explore why children pick up languages faster than adults. You’ll learn about the critical period when young brains are best at learning, why kids often learn two languages at once, and what makes it harder for adults. Then, we tackle the grammar rules for using singular and plural verbs with band names and team names, comparing American and British usage. The "language learning" segment is by Syelle Graves, who has a PhD in linguistics and is the assistant director of ILETC (the...
Nov 19, 2024•19 min•Ep 1032•Transcript available on Metacast 1031. This week, Fiona McPherson from the Oxford English Dictionary talks about the latest “beer” words added to the OED, from “boozeroo” to “beerage.” We discuss how these words are chosen, the fascinating history behind them, and why some have surprising origins. Fiona also explains how digital resources have transformed lexicography and shares why the OED preserves every word in the language, even obsolete ones. 🔗 Share your familect recording in a WhatsApp chat. 🔗 Watch my LinkedIn Learnin...
Nov 14, 2024•28 min•Ep 1031•Transcript available on Metacast 1030. This week, we look at why "hang" has two past-tense forms: "hanged" and "hung." (And why I keep messing them up!) Then we expand on why "pair" can be singular or plural. And finally we look at why we hear some words only in set phrases such as "bated breath," "throes of agony," and "to and fro." The "archaic language" segment was written by Karen Lunde, a former Quick and Dirty Tips editor who has crafted hundreds of articles on the art of writing well. She was an online education pioneer,...
Nov 12, 2024•17 min•Ep 1030•Transcript available on Metacast 1029. This week, I talk with Jennifer Lynn Barnes, author of the bestselling "Inheritance Games" series and a former psychology professor, about the psychology behind popular fiction. We look at why readers connect so deeply with fictional characters, the science of parasocial relationships, and how understanding human psychology can improve your storytelling. Find Jennifer Lynn Barnes on Instagram at AuthorJenLynnBarnes and on her website at JenniferLynnBarnes.com . 🔗 Share your familect recor...
Nov 07, 2024•41 min•Ep 1029•Transcript available on Metacast 1028. This week, we look at the weird situation when you want to add a suffix (such as "-less") to a plural-only noun such as "pants" or "scissors" — with a fun detour for some pants-related idioms. Then, with a new "Beetlejuice" in theaters, we look at the fascinating origin of the name and its role in mythology throughout the ages. The "pantless" segment is by Jim Norrena, MFA, who has been writing and editing for more than thirty-five years. He’s the founder and principal editor at TypoSuctio...
Nov 05, 2024•17 min•Ep 1028•Transcript available on Metacast 1027. This week, I talk with forensic linguist Natalie Schilling about how people's language gives them away — in manifestos, ransom notes, text messages, and more. Natalie Schilling is a professor emerita of linguistics at Georgetown University in Washington, DC, and runs a forensic linguistics consulting firm. You can find her on LinkedIn . 🔗 Share your familect recording in a WhatsApp chat. 🔗 Watch my LinkedIn Learning writing courses . 🔗 Subscribe to the newsletter . 🔗 Take our advertisi...
Oct 31, 2024•35 min•Ep 1027•Transcript available on Metacast 1026. This week, we look at the origins of words for men, including the ancient roots of "man," the surprising evolution of the word "guy" from being an insult to just another word, and how "guido" took a different route. Then, for some Halloween fun, we look at the difference between crypts, catacombs, mausoleums, and ossuaries, with an emphasis on their fascinating origins and some famous examples. The "words for men" segment is by Valerie Fridland, a professor of linguistics at the University...
Oct 29, 2024•17 min•Ep 1026•Transcript available on Metacast 1025. Have you ever wondered where meeting terms like “quorum” or “proxy” come from? In this episode, Jim Slaughter looks at the linguistic origins and historical contexts of these and other common parliamentary words. We discuss the evolution of words like “bylaws,” why minutes aren't related to time, how “filibuster” is connected to pirates, and why “majority” is often misunderstood. Jim Slaughter is an attorney, Certified Professional Parliamentarian, Professional Registered Parliamentarian, ...
Oct 24, 2024•26 min•Ep 1025•Transcript available on Metacast 
