Ellen is at the Grammar Table @GrammarTable Twitter profile

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Ellen is at the Grammar Table

@GrammarTable

3 years

@agustinavcid It's an odd headline, but not for comma reasons. I'm including my explanation in case anyone REALLY likes details.

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Ellen is at the Grammar Table

@GrammarTable

6 months

I got back from Arizona this week and my first night back thought, Yay, maybe I’ll hear Flaco tonight. I didn’t hear him, though. A few hours later I learned he had just died after crashing into a building about three-fourths of a mile north of us. 1/2

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Ellen is at the Grammar Table

@GrammarTable

4 years

If you were stumped in a spelling bee as a kid, what was the word you went out on?

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Ellen is at the Grammar Table

@GrammarTable

13 days

I'm seeing mistakes on the internet. I hope this Grammar Table table helps.

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Ellen is at the Grammar Table

@GrammarTable

2 years

I just got my first question in Hawaii—about semicolons! In complex lists! It’s now official. The Grammar Table has now answered questions in all 50 states!!!!!

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Ellen is at the Grammar Table

@GrammarTable

2 years

Every generation’s language habits are annoying to members of previous generations, and then we die and someone else annoys someone else. It's all part of the marvelous cycle of life, so if you are cranky, great job!

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Ellen is at the Grammar Table

@GrammarTable

3 years

In the universe of English spelling errors, "Please bare with me" is one of the more delightful ones.

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Ellen is at the Grammar Table

@GrammarTable

8 months

Is this Flaco? At around 7:45 tonight, this owl was one floor below our living room window in the West 70s. We could see him, but it was too dark to get him on video. This is sound my husband @BrandtWJohnson recorded. #birdcpp

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Ellen is at the Grammar Table

@GrammarTable

2 years

I now regularly receive complaints about grammatical errors in which the errors complained about are not errors but the complaints about the non-errors do contain actual errors.

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Ellen is at the Grammar Table

@GrammarTable

3 years

Today I met a 9yo girl & her dad on 72nd St. She landed in front of me & said, "Grammar Table! Do you know what nomenclature means?" She already knows all the words on her 4th grade vocab lists. As they left she said, "This isn't the last or the penultimate time you will see me."

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Ellen is at the Grammar Table

@GrammarTable

3 years

Please don’t be mad.

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Ellen is at the Grammar Table

@GrammarTable

22 days

This is a very exciting day for anyone who loves forming possessives and plurals of proper nouns ending in sibilants.

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Ellen is at the Grammar Table

@GrammarTable

2 years

I don’t have my copies yet, but here is photographic evidence that it exists.

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Ellen is at the Grammar Table

@GrammarTable

6 months

Flaco inspired me and thrilled me and touched me. He belonged to everyone and also definitely belonged to absolutely no one. @BrandtWJohnson and I will miss having him as a neighbor. Goodbye, beautiful Flaco. 2/2

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Ellen is at the Grammar Table

@GrammarTable

4 years

The short essay below, by me, is entitled "The Day the Vocative Comma Died." I just received a message from a dear friend that read "Thanks for listening to me bitch," and I thought "bitch" was being used as a noun.

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Ellen is at the Grammar Table

@GrammarTable

4 years

- hyphen – en dash — em dash

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Ellen is at the Grammar Table

@GrammarTable

7 months

We were hearing Flaco for a while tonight and were recording him but couldn't see him. It was only when @BrandtWJohnson saw him fly off a building on West 72nd St. between Broadway and West End that he realized Flaco had been hiding in plain sight in the last nine clips he took!

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Ellen is at the Grammar Table

@GrammarTable

4 years

Things have gotten out of control.

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Ellen is at the Grammar Table

@GrammarTable

2 years

I needed it.

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Ellen is at the Grammar Table

@GrammarTable

3 years

I wonder how many editors are also people who check that doors are locked and ovens are off an above-average number of times per year.

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Ellen is at the Grammar Table

@GrammarTable

3 years

A beautiful evening in New York for discussing punctuation!

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Ellen is at the Grammar Table

@GrammarTable

3 years

Setting up the Grammar Table for the first time since early March 2020. Lots of errant hair.

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Ellen is at the Grammar Table

@GrammarTable

3 years

Wasn't there an article somewhere recently about the articles used before "flu," "cold," and "covid"? I can't find it. The idea was, we say: 🌡️ They have THE flu. 🌡️ They have A cold. 🌡️ They have [no article] covid.

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Ellen is at the Grammar Table

@GrammarTable

2 years

Over the past five years, these three things made me laugh so hard I hurt myself: 1. Robert Kelly's wife and kids accidentally photobombing his BBC interview 2. The Four Seasons Total Landscaping press conference with Rudy Giuliani 3. The "I'm not a cat" attorney on Zoom

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Ellen is at the Grammar Table

@GrammarTable

7 months

In Dallas last week I visited @BryanAGarner and his private library full of grammar books. I am talking about a collection so large that it includes many dozens of copies just of influential grammarian Lindley Murray's work. This was an absolute library feast.

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Ellen is at the Grammar Table

@GrammarTable

3 years

Life is chaos and inconsistent capitalization, and then we die.

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Ellen is at the Grammar Table

@GrammarTable

2 years

A grammatical feature I absolutely love in Italian and French, so sexy and cool, and why can't we have nice things like this: ENGLISH. I have five of them. ITALIAN. Ne ho cinque. FRENCH. J'en ai cinq. The ne in Italian and the en in French are the "of them." How chic is THAT?

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Ellen is at the Grammar Table

@GrammarTable

7 months

Flaco visited again tonight. I heard him for a bit and then @BrandtWJohnson actually spotted him, twice, in different locations. This is 73rd Street between Broadway and West End. He was on the Level Club water tower, and you can hear one faint hoo before he flies off.

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Ellen is at the Grammar Table

@GrammarTable

4 years

I just de-italicized a period in a sentence and boy am I unreasonably excited about it.

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Ellen is at the Grammar Table

@GrammarTable

1 year

I am currently acting as grammar consultant on a tattoo.

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Ellen is at the Grammar Table

@GrammarTable

4 years

What words do you deliberately mispronounce in your head while typing/writing in order to ensure you spell them correctly?

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Ellen is at the Grammar Table

@GrammarTable

10 months

A man just stopped at the Grammar Table in Central Park and asked, “What is this?” I said, “I answer grammar questions. Do you have any?” He laughed and said, “No, but I can answer them. Why don’t you ask me a few?” I had a few quiz questions with me, so I gave him this one. 1/

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Ellen is at the Grammar Table

@GrammarTable

4 years

I am 6 days from the deadline for the first draft of my book "Rebel with a Clause," about the adventures of Grammar Table across 47 states. (It would have been 50, but a pandemic happened.) It is being published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt and will come out in April 2022.

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Ellen is at the Grammar Table

@GrammarTable

11 months

Five years ago today was the first day I set up the Grammar Table.

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Ellen is at the Grammar Table

@GrammarTable

2 years

I just made this edit: "with three nine-year-old triplets" ➡️ "with nine-year-old triplets" Feelin' pretty good about that one. 💪

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Ellen is at the Grammar Table

@GrammarTable

3 years

28 years with @BrandtWJohnson

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Ellen is at the Grammar Table

@GrammarTable

8 months

@BirdCentralPark OMG I CAN'T BELIEVE FLACO VISITED US

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Ellen is at the Grammar Table

@GrammarTable

3 years

My book cover color has just been changed from a vivid turquoise-ish shade (or something like that; I'm bad at color names) to a gentle creamy color.

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Ellen is at the Grammar Table

@GrammarTable

2 years

I KNOW this is bothering some people, and I'm not even talking about the content right now! (From the New York Times.)

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Ellen is at the Grammar Table

@GrammarTable

4 years

Today a twentyish-year-old woman told me, "You look too young to be a gramma!" I said "Thank you!" and slid over the purse strap that had been blocking the letter r.

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Ellen is at the Grammar Table

@GrammarTable

3 years

Four consecutive days of outdoor Grammar Table achieved yesterday! New York is livening up.

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Ellen is at the Grammar Table

@GrammarTable

3 years

I don't mean to brag, but I can still spot a missing space after a comma on a menu in the dark of night without reading glasses.

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Ellen is at the Grammar Table

@GrammarTable

3 years

When I began freelancing, people were still writing "Web site"—two words, capital w. And I had to walk ten miles uphill in the snow to type it.

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Ellen is at the Grammar Table

@GrammarTable

11 months

Tonight a man passed by the Grammar Table. He glanced at it but did not stop. Then he returned. “I have scant time to engage in sesquipedalian conversation,” he said, and walked away again.

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Ellen is at the Grammar Table

@GrammarTable

6 months

I’m trying but not succeeding to not dislike the word “unpack” when not applied to luggage and boxes.

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Ellen is at the Grammar Table

@GrammarTable

3 years

When people announce that in English you must pronounce imported French words as French words (only some of them, though, because most words of French origin are totally ignored in these arguments) or use English words of Latin and Greek origin based on their ancient 1/

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Ellen is at the Grammar Table

@GrammarTable

2 years

My author copies of Rebel with a Clause arrived this afternoon! @MarinerBooks @LGRLiterary

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Ellen is at the Grammar Table

@GrammarTable

5 months

Joke I heard today at the Grammar Table: A man walks into a library and says, “Cheeseburger and fries please.” The librarian replies, “Sir, this is a library.” The man apologizes and whispers, “Cheeseburger and fries please.” 🍔🍟

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Ellen is at the Grammar Table

@GrammarTable

9 months

I am constantly frustrated by the decay of my unused language skills, but on my walk in Central Park today, I chatted with some Italian tourists and was complimented on my Italian subjunctive, so I am (temporarily) happy.

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Ellen is at the Grammar Table

@GrammarTable

3 years

People who studied Latin, can you tell me any stories about your Latin-studying experiences? Funny or nonfunny.

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Ellen is at the Grammar Table

@GrammarTable

4 months

In Central Park I just met a man who said he can’t reply “I am fine” to the question “How are you?” because his last name is Fine.

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Ellen is at the Grammar Table

@GrammarTable

4 years

Tonight I realized that we owe a debt of gratitude to all the introverts who have declined invitations and stayed home all these years, thereby keeping transmission rates of various diseases lower than they would have been otherwise. Thank you for your service.

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Ellen is at the Grammar Table

@GrammarTable

3 years

I think pizza with pineapple and ham on it tastes perfectly fine AND I don't care whether you use an Oxford comma or not AND I don't care whether you prefer your toilet paper over or under.

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Ellen is at the Grammar Table

@GrammarTable

9 months

What is a favorite word of yours? I like "intractable." It's usually used in a negative context, but I like it anyway. It sounds crunchy.

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Ellen is at the Grammar Table

@GrammarTable

3 years

When I tell someone "Comma, comma, comma!" I have to fight the impulse to add the word "chameleon."

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Ellen is at the Grammar Table

@GrammarTable

5 years

Book announcement! GRAMMAR TABLE: LANGUAGE TALES FROM AMERICA'S BIGGEST CITIES TO ITS BACK ROADS has been sold to Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, for publication in fall 2020.

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Ellen is at the Grammar Table

@GrammarTable

3 years

I've just enjoyed hearing this sentence on a TV show: "Fresh out of the oven, Tony and his wife immediately partake in the dessert."

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Ellen is at the Grammar Table

@GrammarTable

3 years

I handed in my book and it's off to production!

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Ellen is at the Grammar Table

@GrammarTable

3 months

Tonight I set up the Grammar Table in Riverside Park. A couple came by, and I asked them how many commas they’d put in the sentence “I ordered salad spaghetti and milk.” The husband said one and the wife said two. “Did you know this about each other?” I asked. 1/2

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Ellen is at the Grammar Table

@GrammarTable

3 years

When I see social-media comments such as "The advice from all my doctors was, don't get the covid-19 shot," I question the person's understanding of "doctors," "advice," "all," "shot," "from," "was," and "don't."

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Ellen is at the Grammar Table

@GrammarTable

8 months

There is an owl hooting one floor below our living room window. We can hear it AND see it.

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Ellen is at the Grammar Table

@GrammarTable

1 year

When I google “who has less apples,” I get 1,570 results. When I google “who has fewer apples,” I get 9 results.

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Ellen is at the Grammar Table

@GrammarTable

1 year

For April Fool’s Day I almost changed “grammar” to “grammer” in my Twitter handle, but I just couldn’t do it.

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Ellen is at the Grammar Table

@GrammarTable

2 years

It is not uncommon, when I wear my “I ❤️ Grammar” T-shirt, for a guy to yell out to me, “I love my grandma too!”

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Ellen is at the Grammar Table

@GrammarTable

10 months

A marathoner just stopped to talk to me at the Grammar Table after running 26.2 miles and that man deserves a second medal.

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Ellen is at the Grammar Table

@GrammarTable

3 years

I took the Grammar Table to Central Park today, and the first, second, and third visitors all asked about the Oxford comma. There is some serious pent-up pandemic demand for Oxford comma discussions.

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Ellen is at the Grammar Table

@GrammarTable

3 years

I am in an Oxford-comma-using stage of my life, and I also like to think I appreciate humor, but this just isn't an issue.

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Ellen is at the Grammar Table

@GrammarTable

3 years

The reason we keep seeing "that" used for people is that "that" is used for people.

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Ellen is at the Grammar Table

@GrammarTable

6 months

Happy National Grammar Day from the Pacific Ocean!

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Ellen is at the Grammar Table

@GrammarTable

1 year

This is one of the best illustrations I've ever seen of the problems of serial comma absolutism. The absence of an Oxford comma in this opening paragraph not only causes confusion but also zaps all the zing.

Jesse Sheidlower

@jessesheidlower

1 year

I appreciate that there are reasonable arguments against the Oxford comma (I'm Team Pro-OC), but can anyone justify this abysmal example? Genuine record-scratch level of confusing. From

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Ellen is at the Grammar Table

@GrammarTable

8 months

My sister just sent me photos of a journal from our 1976 family holiday, and now I have the answer I’ve been waiting for: Yes, I *was* taught to use Oxford commas in elementary school.

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Ellen is at the Grammar Table

@GrammarTable

2 years

View from the Grammar Table right now.

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Ellen is at the Grammar Table

@GrammarTable

5 months

Canadian friends, what is something you can tell us about Canadian English that people often don't know?

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Ellen is at the Grammar Table

@GrammarTable

4 years

Twitter friends and acquaintances, I'm feeling sentimental tonight! You have helped make this 2020 Covid year a nicer one. Thank you for the knowledge and the laughter.

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Ellen is at the Grammar Table

@GrammarTable

3 years

On social media I keep seeing people say "Do your own research." On covid? No! Please don't! That's what experts are for. The ability to source expertise wisely is one of life's most critical skills. Understanding limitations—in ourselves, in others—is a quiet, underrated power.

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Ellen is at the Grammar Table

@GrammarTable

4 years

If you subscribe to the ridiculous notion that "British English" is the only real English and that any departure from it is therefore "wrong," please stop subscribing to it. There are many articles, books, and classes available to help you catch up with reality.

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Ellen is at the Grammar Table

@GrammarTable

2 years

The cover of Rebel with a Clause for the UK edition (right) is going to be very different from (or to) the US edition (left), but it's really the same book!

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Ellen is at the Grammar Table

@GrammarTable

10 months

He easily got it right. I said, “Are you a professor or something?” He replied, “No, I just learned English where it was invented.” And walked off. 2/2

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Ellen is at the Grammar Table

@GrammarTable

4 years

I moved to NYC 30 years ago today. It was an excellent choice.

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Ellen is at the Grammar Table

@GrammarTable

1 year

I am interested in sentences in which you might or do use "off of." Thank you for your attention to this matter. 😜 (People who never use "off of," or who think they never use "off of" or any other double preposition, please refrain from overt expressions of revulsion.)

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Ellen is at the Grammar Table

@GrammarTable

2 years

Recently I commented about the weight of @BryanAGarner ’s new book, and the next thing I know, I am opening this gift—a Garner’s carrying case from Bryan’s wife, Karolyne Garner—and I am just extremely happy with this whole Garner experience. Thank you, Karolyne! Thank you, Bryan!

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Ellen is at the Grammar Table

@GrammarTable

3 years

Sometimes dirt on the screen looks like punctuation. And vice versa.

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Ellen is at the Grammar Table

@GrammarTable

4 months

Yesterday a 7-year-old picked out the correct spelling of "dinosaur" and determined that "lizzerd" was not right, so I wrote A+ on the back of a Grammar Table postcard and gave it to him. He asked if he could have three pluses, so I added two more and handed it back.

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Ellen is at the Grammar Table

@GrammarTable

2 years

I almost said "circle back" today. Maybe I have food poisoning.

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Ellen is at the Grammar Table

@GrammarTable

2 years

I've diagrammed my trip to Denver to attend the annual meeting of the @LingSocAm .

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Ellen is at the Grammar Table

@GrammarTable

8 months

May your 2024 be better than your 2023, even if you liked 2023. Thank you for the fun.

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Ellen is at the Grammar Table

@GrammarTable

3 years

Good copy editors are awesome, but I think we should also give a shout-out to the children of copy editors who keep them current on slang, thereby preventing writers from mistakenly publishing "Give me nuts" instead of "Give me knucks."

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Ellen is at the Grammar Table

@GrammarTable

10 days

@davidfolkenflik I hope you won't mind if I post this table here, David. I made it last week to help summarize the debate.

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Ellen is at the Grammar Table

@GrammarTable

3 years

The people whose nonnative English certain native speakers are snooty about here regularly speak at least three to four times the number of languages the native speakers speak, so it would behoove those native speakers to zip it.

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Ellen is at the Grammar Table

@GrammarTable

3 years

Grammar party in Central Park today!

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Ellen is at the Grammar Table

@GrammarTable

2 years

@MarjanKamali Next election when you show up to vote, maybe a volunteer will have one of your books on the table for reading during the slow periods!

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Ellen is at the Grammar Table

@GrammarTable

5 months

Whenever I am on college campuses with the Grammar Table, I have noticed that visiting parents seem VERY happy to see me. Therefore, colleges and universities, please consider inviting me to set up along your campus tour route and/or having me onsite for parent/family weekends.

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Ellen is at the Grammar Table

@GrammarTable

10 months

Before I got covid a week ago, I had 12,000+ emails in my inbox. Now I have less than (intentional word choice) 5,000 emails in my inbox, plus I'm testing negative! 🥳

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Ellen is at the Grammar Table

@GrammarTable

2 years

The view from the Grammar Table right now.