The Curious Engineer

Grammarly Blog

2012–2016

402 posts

2017–2026 →

2016 340

December 2016

  1. “Historic” vs. “Historical”—Which Should I Use?
  2. Cannot vs. Can Not vs. Can’t—What’s the Difference?
  3. Labeled or Labelled—Which Is Correct?
  4. “Defence” vs. “Defense”—Which Should You Use?
  5. Bath vs. Bathe—Learn the Difference
  6. 5 Words to Enjoy by Candlelight
  7. Talk to vs. Talk with—Which Should I Use?
  8. Stationary vs. Stationery—What’s the Difference?
  9. Bingeing or Binging—Which Is Correct?
  10. How to Use “Touch Base” in a Sentence
  11. When to Use “Inquire” vs. “Enquire”
  12. Disinterested vs. Uninterested—Are They the Same?
  13. Imply vs. Infer—What’s the Difference?
  14. Ahold or A Hold—Which Should I Use?
  15. Between vs. Among—What’s the Difference?
  16. Is It Ridiculous Or Rediculous?
  17. Seven Longreads for Skimming
  18. Misspell or Mispell—Which Is Correct?
  19. Cloths vs. Clothes—What’s the Difference?
  20. What’s the Plural of Moose—Moose, Meese, or Mooses?
  21. Scarfs or Scarves—What’s the Plural of Scarf?
  22. Someday vs. Some Day—Don’t Confuse Them!
  23. The Cost of Learning a New Language
  24. Four Ways to Read More Over the Holidays
  25. Aid vs. Aide—What Is the Difference?
  26. No-one, Noone, or No One—Which Is Right?
  27. When to Use Of vs. Off?
  28. Is “Ginormous” a Word?
  29. Good Morning and Good Afternoon—Are They Capitalized?
  30. Offence vs. Offense—What Is the Difference?
  31. Congradulations or Congratulations—Which Is Right?
  32. Vaccum, Vacuum, or Vacume—Which Is Right?
  33. Whilst vs. While—Which Is Correct?
  34. Hooray! Scientific Writing Is Becoming More Casual
  35. “Beck and Call” or “Beckon Call”—Which Is Right?
  36. Writers on the State of Professional Writing
  37. 3 Trends That Will Dominate English Writing in 2017
  38. Here Are the Top 10 Slang Words of 2016
  39. 10 Habits Today’s Writers Share
  40. New Uses for Old Words
  41. Whiny, Whiney, Whinny—What’s the Difference?
  42. Regime vs. Regimen—Learn the Difference
  43. Surprise, Suprise or Surprize—Which Is Correct?
  44. Fulfil vs. Fulfill
  45. Mustache vs. Moustache: Which Is Correct?
  46. Nowadays or Now a Days?
  47. Truly or Truely —Which Is Correct?
  48. Six Writing Mistakes to Watch for When Editing
  49. Whoa or Woah—Which Is Correct?
  50. Wont vs. Won’t—What’s the Difference?
  51. Council vs. Counsel—What’s the Difference?
  52. Would Have or Would of?

November 2016

  1. Top 30 Commonly Confused Words in English
  2. 8 Words for Nature Lovers
  3. Occurred, Occured, or Ocurred—Which Spelling Is Right?
  4. Separate vs. Seperate—Which Is Correct?
  5. Hoping vs. Hopping—What’s the Difference?
  6. 6 Endangered Words
  7. What Is Eye Dialect?
  8. Humanity’s Best Eggcorn Examples
  9. 7 Puzzling Money Idioms
  10. Macaron vs. Macaroon: A Discussion of Confusing Food Names
  11. AFK to ZZZ – Internet Slang Trends
  12. What Are Ghost Words?
  13. What Does Lmao Mean?
  14. What Does Ikr Mean?
  15. What Does Afk Mean?
  16. What Does Lmk Mean?
  17. What Does Bff Mean?
  18. What Does Fyi Mean?
  19. What Does Irl Mean?
  20. What Does Ily Mean?
  21. What Does Luv Mean?
  22. What Does “Idk” Mean?
  23. Is Bestest a Word?
  24. What Does Lol Mean?
  25. What Does Nah Mean?
  26. What Does Zzz Mean?
  27. Can You Call Your Thumb a Finger?
  28. There Is vs. There Are: How to Choose?
  29. Few, a Few—What’s the Difference?
  30. Is “Year Old” Hyphenated or Not?
  31. Comma Before While
  32. City, Town, or Village–What’s the Difference?
  33. Cheque vs. Check
  34. Gist or Jist—Which is Correct?
  35. Let’s vs. Lets—What’s the Difference?
  36. Lightening vs. Lightning—What’s the Difference?
  37. What’s the Rarest Letter of the Alphabet?
  38. “My Apology” or “My Apologies”?
  39. Is “Do the Needful” Correct?
  40. Concave vs. Convex
  41. What Does “Verklempt” Mean?
  42. Capital vs. Capitol—What’s the Difference?
  43. Altogether vs. All Together
  44. Minuscule or Miniscule—Which is Correct?
  45. Commas in Dates
  46. Benefited or Benefitted—Which Is Right?
  47. Abbreviation for Continued–Cont. or Cont’d?
  48. Piecemeal Meaning and Usage
  49. Ambience or Ambiance—Which Is Correct?
  50. Threw vs. Through

October 2016

  1. 7 Words that Explain Diwali
  2. 15 Words That Denote the Absence of Words
  3. Toward or Towards
  4. Welcome or Welcomed
  5. Nevermind or Never Mind: What’s the Difference?
  6. Creating the Setting for Your NaNoWriMo Novel
  7. Why Do People Get So Upset about “Mad” and “Angry”?
  8. As Well As Comma
  9. Is Shakespeare the Father of the English Language?
  10. Leery—Definition and Examples
  11. Is Conversate a Word?
  12. Comprise vs. Compose: What’s the Difference?
  13. Born vs. Borne—What’s the Difference?
  14. Passivity vs. Passiveness—What’s the Difference?
  15. A Short History of the Long S
  16. Introducing the Diaeresis
  17. Sometime, Sometimes, and Some Time
  18. Choir vs. Chorus
  19. What’s the Difference Between Scared and Afraid?
  20. 5 Essays Every Student Needs to Know How to Write
  21. 8 Phrases That Can Make Your Business Writing Seem Outdated
  22. Smelled or Smelt—What’s The Difference?
  23. What Does Unkempt Mean?
  24. Ipso Facto Meaning
  25. Is It Omelet or Omelette?
  26. Pretense or Pretence—What’s the Difference?
  27. What Does “Ad Nauseam” Mean?
  28. How to Use “-Esque”

September 2016

  1. Whisky vs. Whiskey: What’s the Difference?
  2. 10 Breathtaking Foreign Words
  3. What Is a Protagonist?
  4. The Early Bird Catches the Word: Analysis Shows We Write Better by Day
  5. The Skinny on Latin Plurals
  6. When to Put a Comma Before or After “But”
  7. What Is a Comma Splice? With Examples
  8. Follow up, Follow-up, Followup: Which One is Right?
  9. Notwithstanding Definition
  10. Peruse Definition
  11. What Does Sacrilegious Mean?
  12. Nerve Wracking—Which Spelling Is Correct?
  13. What Does Presumptuous Mean?
  14. What Does Somber Mean?
  15. What Does “Autumnal” Really Mean?
  16. How Do You Spell Donut?
  17. How Do You Spell the Color Gray?
  18. Misnomer: Definition and Examples
  19. Until, Till, or ’Til
  20. Opossum vs. Possum—What’s the Difference?
  21. What Does Facetious Mean?
  22. How Should I Use Vice Versa?
  23. Sneaked or Snuck: Which Is Correct?
  24. What Is Comradery?
  25. Is Irregardless a Word?
  26. Therefore vs. Therefor

August 2016

  1. Affective vs. Effective: What’s the Difference?
  2. Empathetic vs. Sympathetic vs. Empathic
  3. Anymore vs. Any More
  4. Are Seasons Capitalized?
  5. How to Consistently Write Better and Faster
  6. Indubitably Definition
  7. Callous: What Does It Mean?
  8. Vis-à-Vis Meaning
  9. Eponymous: Definition and Examples
  10. Copacetic Definition
  11. Amicable: Definition and Examples
  12. Disdain: Definition and Examples
  13. What Does Demeanor Mean?
  14. Loquacious—What Does It Mean?
  15. Breath vs. Breathe—What’s the Difference?
  16. What Does Sic Mean?
  17. Albeit Meaning and Usage
  18. Schadenfreude–What Does It Mean?
  19. What Does Quid Pro Quo Mean?
  20. “Payed” vs. “Paid”: What’s the Correct Spelling?
  21. Regarding To: How It’s Used, With Examples
  22. Thrusted? The Past Tense of Thrust
  23. Kneeled or Knelt?
  24. Advance Notice―Is it Correct?
  25. Crumby or Crummy?
  26. How Do You Spell Lasagna?
  27. Photo Shoot vs. Photoshoot: Which Is Correct?
  28. Apologise or Apologize?
  29. Preventative and Preventive: What’s the Difference?
  30. For All Intents and Purposes—How to Use It
  31. Faux Pas: Definition and Examples
  32. Dragged or Drug—Which Is Correct?
  33. Modeling vs. Modelling

July 2016

  1. Why “the Internet” Shouldn’t Be Stripped of Its Proper Noun Status
  2. Happy Belated Birthday—Is It Right?
  3. Hyphens: The Punctuation Mark That Even Editors Can’t Get Right
  4. What Part of Writing Is Important at Work?
  5. Dreamed or Dreamt—What’s the Difference?
  6. Busses or Buses—Which Is Correct? | Grammarly
  7. What Does “De Facto” Mean?
  8. Loathe Meaning
  9. Loose vs. Lose—What’s the Difference?
  10. How to Use “Translucent”
  11. Everything You Want to Know About Poetic Apostrophe
  12. What Is “Mea Culpa”?
  13. Is Impactful a Word?
  14. How to Use “As of Yet”
  15. Which Is Correct: “Wintry,” “Wintery,” or “Winterly”?
  16. What Does It Mean to “Pore Over” Something?
  17. “Anytime” vs. “Any Time”—What’s the Difference?
  18. Disk vs. Disc
  19. What Kind of Writing Do You Use at the Office?
  20. Licence vs. License—Spelling Rules
  21. Entitled vs. Titled
  22. Recurring vs. Reoccurring—Which Should I Use?
  23. Retch vs. Wretch—What’s the Difference?
  24. Is it “Preferably” or “Preferrably?”
  25. Are Emojis Language?
  26. 11 Emoji Tips to Save Your Texts
  27. What Is “Spreaded”?
  28. Spatter vs. Splatter
  29. Different From or Different Than?
  30. What Is “Wilful”?
  31. Are You Sending Emoji or Emojis?
  32. “Advise” vs. “Advice”—What’s the Difference?
  33. “Farther” vs. “Further”—What’s the Difference?
  34. Is It Honor or Honour?
  35. What Is Verbiage?
  36. Lier or Liar—What’s the Difference?
  37. Bale of Hay or Bail of Hay
  38. Presume vs. Assume: What’s the Difference?
  39. What Is “Full Proof?”
  40. What’s the Singular of Dice?
  41. Fiancé vs. Fiancée–What’s the Difference?
  42. Crayfish vs. Crawfish
  43. How Is Grammar at Work Changing?
  44. “Principle” vs. “Principal”—What’s the Difference?
  45. Is “Undoubtably” a Word?
  46. “Got” vs. “Gotten”: Which Is Correct?
  47. Sherbet or Sherbert—What Is Right?
  48. Premier and Premiere: What’s the Difference?
  49. What Is a “Bad Wrap”?
  50. Co-worker vs. Coworker

June 2016

  1. What Does “Duly Noted” Mean?
  2. Lite vs. Light—What’s the Difference?
  3. How to Use “In This Day and Age” Correctly
  4. Carmel vs. Caramel—Which Is Correct?
  5. Catalog vs. Catalogue—Which Is Correct?
  6. Pleaded or Pled?
  7. How to Use “Calves” and “Calfs” Correctly
  8. Despite vs. In Spite Of—What’s the Difference?
  9. Yea, Yeah, or Yay?
  10. Fish vs. Fishes—What’s the difference?
  11. Political Correction: How “PC” and “Reclaimed” Words Got Their Start
  12. How to Spell Email (or E-mail)
  13. Rack vs. Wrack
  14. What Is “Forgo”?
  15. Imbed Vs. Embed
  16. Should You “Be Patient” or “Have Patience”?
  17. Invoke vs. Evoke
  18. Treasure Doving? The Past Tense of Dive
  19. Awhile vs. A While
  20. Realise or Realize—Which Is Correct?
  21. Cue vs. Queue—What’s the Difference?
  22. What Does Double Entendre Mean?
  23. OK vs. Okay
  24. Burnt or Burned?
  25. What Does “A Whole ’Nother” Mean?
  26. Judgement or Judgment—Which is Correct?
  27. “Than” vs. “Then”—What’s the Difference?
  28. How do you beat the midweek slump?
  29. Among vs. Amongst: What’s the Difference?
  30. Blond or Blonde?
  31. “Alumna,” “Alumnae,” “Alumni,” “Alumnus,” “Alum,” “Alums”: What’s the Difference?
  32. Discrete vs. Discreet: What’s the Difference?
  33. Everyday vs. Every Day
  34. “Complement” vs. “Compliment”: What’s the Difference?
  35. Is It Flier or Flyer?
  36. Is It Favorite or Favourite?
  37. Empathy vs. Sympathy
  38. Get It vs. Got It–What’s the Difference?

May 2016

  1. What Is the Difference Between Acknowledgement and Acknowledgment?
  2. Ax vs. Axe—What’s the Difference?
  3. Interjections in English Grammar–What Are They?

April 2016

  1. Confusing Sentences That Actually Make Sense
  2. Have you discussed grammar with educators?
  3. Just Memorize These Irregular Verbs
  4. How to Use “Alike” and “Same” Correctly
  5. 15 Words Invented by Shakespeare
  6. Bring vs Take
  7. Why Grammar Still Matters in Today’s Digital Age
  8. How Grammar Influences Legal Interpretations
  9. When to Use “Which” and “Who”
  10. How to Fix Incomplete Comparisons
  11. How to Write Negative Verbs Correctly
  12. 7 Weird, Rare Words, Illustrated
  13. Can You Spell The 25 Most Commonly Missed Words In English?

March 2016

  1. “Barking up the wrong tree” and Other Funny Idioms
  2. Grammar Basics: What Are Nondefining Clauses?
  3. How To Use “Do” with Modal Verbs
  4. Grammar Basics: What Are Defining Clauses?
  5. Grammar Basics: What Is Grammar Case?
  6. How to Use the Word Ought
  7. How to Use Adjectives with Sense Words
  8. What Is Verbing?
  9. The Tough (But Necessary) Job of Cutting Your Own Writing
  10. Grammar Basics: What Is Pronoun-Antecedent Agreement?
  11. Looking to “Get Lucky” This Saint Patrick’s Day? These Idioms May Help
  12. From Pens to Speech: How Writing Tools Have Evolved
  13. Grammar Basics: When to Use I or Me?
  14. How to Make Your Writing Digital and Save Hours a Week
  15. Grammar Basics: What Are Transitive and Intransitive Verbs?
  16. 9 Adorable Animal Collective Nouns
  17. Grammar Basics: What Is the Correct Word Order in English?
  18. 10 Best Grammar Resources for English Language Learners
  19. Definitions of Key Grammar Concepts
  20. #GrammarDay Celebrity Personality Quiz: Is Your Grammar Like a Pop Star or a Comedian?
  21. President Obama and Comedians Dominate Top 5 for Grammar on Twitter, Grammarly Research Finds

February 2016

  1. 5 Ways to Write Smarter
  2. A Brief History of National Grammar Day
  3. Why Do We Need Style Guides?
  4. 4 Ways to Use the Internet to Improve Your English
  5. Improving Your Writing Will Improve Your Thinking
  6. The Rise of the Helping Verb
  7. 5 Tips for Writing an Amazing Thank-you Card
  8. 10 Phrasal Verbs That Are Useful for Business
  9. The Essentials of Transitive and Intransitive Verbs
  10. 5 Ways to Abuse a Comma
  11. Latin Abbreviations Every Professional Should Know
  12. 6 Times Authors Broke the Rules
  13. The Essentials of Conditionals
  14. The Basics of Verbing Nouns
  15. 10 Essential Words for University Success
  16. Who Drives Linguistic Change
  17. How to Write Better Reviews

January 2016

  1. Annoying Writing Habits That Many People Have
  2. 7 Ways You Can Become a Better Writer
  3. The Authors Who Contributed the Most to the English Language
  4. 5 Fascinating Word and Language Facts
  5. Why Do We Call It That?
  6. 5 Books That Explain the Evolution of the English Language
  7. Why English Is a Germanic Language
  8. 5 Ways to Write Better Arguments
  9. 4 Ways You Can Make Your Writing More Professional

2015 49

December 2015

  1. Anyway, Anyways, or Any Way—What’s the Difference?
  2. 9 “Smart” Words and Phrases That You’re Mispronouncing
  3. I Before E Except After C: 9 Helpful Spelling Rules
  4. How to Use “Such As” and “As Well As” in Professional Writing
  5. 5 Amazing Winter Idioms and Their Etymologies
  6. Germanic vs. Latinate Linguistic Purity in English
  7. The 3 Most Common Writing Mistakes on Holiday Greetings
  8. 4 Unique Ways to Greet People During the Holidays
  9. You Better Watch Out: Christmas Carols Aren’t as Grammatically Correct as You Might Think
  10. The Top Cities in Pro Sports . . . Grammatically Speaking
  11. When Do You Indent a Paragraph?
  12. Top 10 Student Writing Mistakes: Finals Edition
  13. Is it “On point” or “En Pointe”?
  14. 14 of the Longest Words in English

November 2015

  1. Uptalk? and Vocal Fry? An Epidemic?
  2. Five Tools Dyslexic People Can Use To Improve Their Writing
  3. Survival Tips for Writing a Novel
  4. Eight Uncommon Typography and Punctuation Marks
  5. Slang to Standard: How Casual Language Can Become Acceptable
  6. 7 Ways to Tell Someone They Are Beautiful
  7. The Shortest Words in the English Language

October 2015

  1. Words That Are Not Pronounced How They Are Spelled
  2. 6 Spooky Stories to Read for Halloween
  3. Why Being Good at Language Arts Means That You Can Do Math
  4. 10 Tricks to Help Your Child Remember Tricky Spelling Words
  5. 10 Wonderful Words to Learn for Dictionary Day
  6. The Most Common Grammar and Language Questions
  7. 10 Trending Internet Slang Acronyms

September 2015

  1. Bear minimum vs. bare minimum
  2. Common Prefixes and Suffixes for Learning English
  3. Introducing the Snark Mark and Why You Should Use It

August 2015

  1. How to Prepare for the Demands of College Writing
  2. The Meaning Behind a Semicolon Tattoo
  3. Five Ways to Write Better Text Messages
  4. 16 Surprisingly Funny Palindromes
  5. 10 Words Every College Student Should Know

July 2015

  1. Say Hello to the Exclamation Comma: The Punctuation Mark You Never Knew You Needed
  2. Introducing Grammarly Insights

June 2015

  1. 5 Writing Rules that Should Be Ignored
  2. Running Lisp in Production

May 2015

  1. 10 Interesting Facts About the English Language that You Didn’t Know
  2. 7 Fundamental Rules of Poetry
  3. Pear, Pair, and Pare

April 2015

  1. Confusing Words: Versus vs. Verses
  2. Double Negatives: 3 Rules You Must Know

March 2015

  1. 5 Interesting Words That Perfectly Describe Fridays
  2. 13 Expressions with Origins that You Would Never Have Guessed

February 2015

  1. A Sneak Peek at the Correct Ways to Spell and Use These Words

January 2015

  1. Nauseous vs. Nauseated: What’s the Difference?

2014 10

November 2014

  1. 7 Novels to Read for a Better Vocabulary
  2. Gone vs. Went—Learn the Difference
  3. The Dirty Little Secret of Constituency Parser Evaluation

October 2014

  1. How to Eliminate Dangling Modifiers from Your Writing

September 2014

  1. Knowledge is Power: Using Idioms To Give Power To Your Writing

July 2014

  1. Duking it Out: Parentheses vs. Dash
  2. The Declaration of Independence: A Lesson in Language History

April 2014

  1. How to Split Sentences

March 2014

  1. 10 Verbs That Are Contronyms
  2. You’ll Never Guess the Origins of These 3 Bizarrely Spelled English Words

2013 2

January 2013

  1. Bear vs. Bare—What’s the Difference?
  2. Cold Weather Idioms and Phrases

2012 1

June 2012

  1. How the English Language Is Shakespeare’s Language

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