Generally, we use “bad” to refer to something negative. If we’re writing or speaking, we’ll sometimes want to refer to something as worse or “more bad,” but how do we do that? The word “badder” is incorrect. “Bad” is an irregular adjective, so you cannot double the consonant and add an -er to create the …
Dr. Patrick Capriola
Perhaps you have seen a movie “based on” a book, or you’re a fan of “buttermilk-based” pastries. Maybe you dream of building a business “based at” your home, but what does “based in” mean? Is it even correct? “Based in” is correct to use. It is an adjective followed by a preposition to describe the …
English is chock-full of words with a more dramatic twin we might reserve for special occasions. There isn’t always a rhyme or reason why these word-twins exist, but they exist and are still usable. Case in point: “irregardless” versus “regardless.” It is correct to say “irregardless” during an informal conversation, though it is not correct …
Learning a language can be difficult, especially when people who speak the same language use different words depending on where they live. For example, in the case of the terms “got” or “gotten,” is “gotten” correct? It is correct to say “gotten” because it is the past participle of “get,” which means “to receive.” However, …
We will sometimes hear someone use the phrase “my dear” to address another person. While it is common to hear this for one person, it is less common to hear “my dears” in the plural. Is “my dears” grammatically correct? Since “dear” is a countable noun, the plural “my dears” is grammatically correct. We might …
There are many strange word pairings in the English language, and “by way of” is no exception. One way you might see this word combination is in the phrase “by way of introduction,” but is this phrase grammatically correct? What exactly does it mean? It is correct to say “by way of introduction.” We most …