Transcripts

June Casagrande:
Some grammarians make a case for "try and" but grammatically speaking it is kind of non-sequiter. It doesn't make sense.

June Cassagrande, author of the book, Grammar Snobs Are Great Big Meanies…

The way we form compound verbs, is we add infinitives to other verbs; "I want to go to the store." You can't say, " I want and go to the store" because that's simply not how the language is constructed.

The sign in the supermarket that says, " Ten items or less" is incorrect. It should be "Ten items or fewer." What's the difference?

Less applies to singular things and fewer applies to plural things. When you go into the express lane you have ten items or fewer but if you have eleven items in your cart and you remove one you do not now have one fewer item you have one less item-because "less" is the word that you apply to singular things.

And a very common grammatical mistake is illustrated by the sentence…

" If you have any questions, come talk to Bill or I." And using "And I" is technically wrong but the reason people are making this choice is because they've been conditioned to doubt their own instincts on this subject. You would never say, " Thanks for spending the afternoon with I." You would never say, " Come talk to I." In both those cases you would say, " Me."

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