Dirty, sexy, grammar – subordinate clause
A subordinate clause is to a main clause as Leopold von Sacher-Masoch is to the Marquis de Sade. You can’t have the masochist without the sadist – although the sadist can stand alone. Or maybe that’s...
View ArticleDirty, sexy, grammar – the Oxford comma
It gets its name from the Oxford University Press, so how could this little cousin of the goddess apostrophe be anything but stuffy, boring, and buttoned up? Uh, hello?? It’s a university! In merry...
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Dirty, sexy, grammar – head
Well, let’s see – how to tiptoe around what’s sexy about head? There’s that big round thing that sits atop your shoulders. That head can be sexy, if it’s filled with humorous, intelligent, humble...
View ArticleAdverbly yours
A habit, or maybe fall back, of many writers is the ease and frequency with which they use adverbs. Especially -ly adverbs. See? I did it again. After giving my novel out to the first round of beta...
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Dirty, sexy, grammar – dangling participles
While some participles might be sexy, and a few a little dirty, the dangling kind are just plain wrong! Please folks, keep those participles in your grammatical pants. We don’t need to see ‘em dangle....
View ArticleDirty, sexy, grammar – mood
Candles. Wine. Soft music. I bet you know what I’m in the mood for. Grammar! I mean, who isn’t? It’s such a sexy thing, good grammar. Even sexier when you break the ‘rules’ and rebel. That’s right,...
View ArticleDirty, sexy, grammar – bare infinitives
It’s time to share a little grammar for the nudists among us. A full (or to-) infinitive is a verb that follows “to.” A bare infinitive is the base form of a verb. It is ‘to’ bare. As opposed to too...
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Dirty, sexy, grammar – prepositions
A preposition creates a relationship. It is a grammatical proposition, bringing nouns or pronouns and other words together. These are usually couplings, but I’m sure the occasional threesome is okay....
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Dirty, sexy, grammar – gender
Woohoo, grammar has sex! I mean a sex. You know, more than one. Sex. Few traces of gender remain in modern English. Are we surprised? “No sex please we’re British.” Well, I’m not British, but I am...
View ArticleDirty, sexy, grammar – conjugation
So if prisoners are allowed conjugal visits, when you conjugate a verb are you screwing? Or screwed? Or just plain stupid for sleeping with a hardened criminal? Something like that. One definition of...
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