The Grammar Diva Blog - Bites of Grammar and Such

Every year thousands of new words are added to various dictionaries. Here are some of this year’s words. (And “hella” was actually added years ago: it is now 15 years old!)

Colons and semicolons look a lot alike, but they are not siblings in the family of punctuation. They are probably not even first cousins.

At the end of the Great Depression, about 25% of American adults made New Year’s resolutions. At the beginning of the 21st century, about 40% did. How many people keep them? And where did the tradition come from?

I usually write a holiday post, often with quotes about some aspect of the season. This year I have chosen quotes about hope, and I have “stolen” the title of the post from President Obama’s book and famous speech.

Should I use a capital letter after a colon? This is a common question, and today’s blog post answers that question.