31 Words and Phrases You No Longer Need

Close your eyes. Imagine words as people in an office setting. The verbs scurry about, active and animated, getting things done. The adjectives and adverbs conjure ideas and images in the marketing department. But there’s always that one guy. See him? He’s over by the water cooler, leaning against the wall. He’s omnipresent, and yet nobody really knows what he does. He may be hanging around, but he sure doesn’t seem to be pulling his weight.

What Was the Best New Word Added to the Dictionary in 2017?

Thanks to the fine folks at Merriam-Webster, our dictionaries continue to get heavier and even more robust than they were twelve months ago.

As language evolves and new words continue to flood our lexicon, it’s good to have more ammunition for any conversation or correspondence you encounter. When new phrases from popular culture get cosigned and introduced into our language, it’s important to recognize the terms that make you stop and think and appreciate our evolving forms of communication.

How to Adapt Your CV for an American Company

Many people dream of living and working in the USA, but no one would claim it’s easy. To secure a work visa, you’ll need a job offer before you leave – which means perfecting your CV is more important than ever. Don’t simply roll out the CV you’ve been using at home; there are a few key differences you’ll need to know first. Before you hit send, check through this list of tips to make sure American employers can easily see what a great candidate you are.

Introducing the Grammarly Mobile Keyboard

You asked, and today it’s here! The Grammarly Keyboard is now available on iOS. It’s your personal editor for texts, emails, tweets, Tinder messages, and everything else you write on your phone. (Don’t worry, Android is coming soon.)

For nearly a decade, Grammarly has helped people make their writing clear, effective, and mistake-free. Ten million users a day benefit from Grammarly’s feedback on their messages and documents.

5 Basic Proofreading Habits for a More Productive 2018

Well, here we are, a new year and a clean slate. That’s great news, particularly if you’re still holding onto some embarrassment about an ill-timed typo or grammar gaffe you may have committed in 2017. Fear not! Things can be different in 2018, especially if you commit yourself to developing these five proofreading habits.

1 Make a list of your personal bugaboos.

What trips you up?

Here’s How to Write a Perfect Letter of Interest

Your perfect job with the perfect company may not be advertised. So, how do you find gigs from within the hidden job market? You ask about them. Here’s how to write a letter of interest that will get you noticed . . . and maybe even result in a job.

Years ago, before I was the full-blown word monkey that I am today, I relocated to a new city. I’d left a job I loved—doing marketing for a dog grooming school.

How to Write a Follow-Up Email After a Job Interview (with Samples)

You want this job! It’s a perfect fit for your skills and you know you’d rock it. You send out an impressive résumé and cover letter and you’re thrilled when you’re offered an interview. You rehearse answers to the questions you might be asked, and by the time you meet with the hiring manager, you’re able to dazzle her with your articulate and well-thought-out responses.

Indefinite Articles: A and An

Indefinite articles are used when we are referring to an unspecified thing or quantity. We use them when we don’t know (or don’t care) which thing we’re talking about.

There once was a sheep.

Since I don’t know which sheep it was—that is, I don’t know its name, where it’s from, or anything about it—I can’t say the sheep.

How to Use the Indefinite Articles A vs. An

The two indefinite articles in English are a and an.

Everyday vs. Every day

• Everyday is an adjective we use to describe something that’s seen or used every day. It means “ordinary” or “typical.”
• Every day is a phrase that simply means “each day.”

Compound words, like anytime and any time, sometimes don’t have the same meaning as the individual words they comprise. It’s a case of the whole being different from the sum of its parts. Everyday and every day are like that—everyday (with no space) doesn’t mean the same thing as every day (with a space).

9 Easy Tips That Will Improve Bland Writing

Just like food, your writing needs spice. Keep these tips in your cupboard to take your writing from bland to scrumptious.

About a year ago, I got interested in cooking. For most of my adult life, I’d been making things like spaghetti with sauce from a jar, macaroni and cheese complete with powdered “cheese,” and the occasional boxed meal (just add ground beef!). Sometimes, I went a little wild and threw some canned tuna into the mac and cheese, or added real frozen broccoli to the boxed meal.

Passive Voice

The passive voice is often maligned by grammazons as a bad writing habit. Or, to put it in the active voice, grammazons across the English-speaking world malign the passive voice as a bad writing habit.

In general, the active voice makes your writing stronger, more direct, and, you guessed it, more active. The subject is something, or it does the action of the verb in the sentence.

Apostrophe Rules

Apostrophes can be tricky. Sometimes they form possessives. Sometimes they form contractions. Can they ever make something plural?

Apostrophe Use: Contractions and Omissions

A contraction is a shortened form of a word (or group of words) that omits certain letters or sounds. In a contraction, an apostrophe represents missing letters. The most common contractions are made up of verbs, auxiliaries, or modals attached to other words: He would=He’d.

Grammarly Insights 2.0: Better, Faster, Smarter

For a while now, we’ve been working on improvements for Grammarly Insights based on your feedback. But until recently, this was an undercover job.

So, it’s with great jubilation that we reveal some big changes making their way to your inbox next week.

1 Monitor Your Trends

Until now, the weekly emails summarized your activity over the previous seven days. Moving forward, we will graph up to four weeks’ worth of progress in the Productivity, Mastery, and Vocabulary sections.

Behavioral Interview: 11 Questions and Answers You Need to Know

During your job interview, your prospective employer is likely to ask you some behavioral questions. Unlike job-related questions that focus on past performance, behavioral questions help the employer get a better feel for who you are and how you’ll carry yourself on the job.

Here are some of the common behavioral interview questions you can expect, with advice and examples to help you answer them.

The State of Writing 2016

The first sentence can’t be written until the final sentence is written. — Joyce Carol Oates

With 2016 coming to a close, Grammarly’s team of writing analysts took a look at the biggest trends in writing in English this year. And we found some fascinating results! Below are the grammar and writing trends that dominated 2016, as well as our predictions for the next year in written English.

This Is the Best Way to Write a Memorable Restaurant Review

A great restaurant review can point you toward your new favorite spot—or help you avoid a dining disaster. Review sites like Yelp and TripAdvisor have an abundance of restaurant reviews to browse, but if you spend any time on these sites you’ll notice not all reviews are helpful.

Some reviews are positive, but are so vague that you question their legitimacy. Some might have helpful information, but are so poorly written they’re unintelligible.

Pronoun Reference Rules

Pronouns are words that stand in for a noun in a sentence. Whenever pronouns are used, it should be unmistakably clear which noun the pronoun is standing in for. A faulty pronoun reference will result in a muddled sentence and a confused reader.

A pronoun is like an actor’s double on a movie set: it is a simplified version of the noun it is standing in for.

The mother called the daughter.

11 Emoji Tips to Save Your Texts

Whether you like the tiny emotion-pictures or despise them, emojis are heavily used throughout messaging apps.

If you’re new to emojis, or you’ve long been expressing your joy with crying smiling faces and your sass with reception desk workers, you can up your game. Check out these tips to make your texts as emoji-filled as possible.

1. Know common emoji meanings.

Emojis may not be language, but some of the more commonly used symbols do have accepted meanings.

Three French Phrases English Loves to Borrow

For the third day of LitMas, we’re offering you three French phrases English speakers love to borrow. There’s something kind of glamorous about sprinkling foreign phrases into your conversations every now and then, don’t you think?

1 Joyeux Noël

’Tis the season of wondering what noel means. In French, Noël simply means Christmas. If you’re not sure about joyeux, go ahead and take a guess—you’re probably right.