This Week: Apostrophe talk on the podcast (part 1) + visually impaired + Paul Brians’ latest blog post

visually impaired 
 Many people mistakenly suppose that “visually impaired” is a more polite term than “blind.” But the distinction between these two is simpler: a person without eyesight is blind; a person with vision problems stopping short of total or legal blindness is visually impaired.


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On the podcast this week, we give some background on the apostrophe and talk about its use.

Paul Brians’ latest blog post takes measure of how we use language to describe large areas.

This Week: Going nuclear (part 3) on the podcast + Confusionism/Confucianism

Confusionism/Confucianism
This spelling error isn’t exactly an English error, but it’s very common among my students. Confucius is the founder of Confucianism. His name is not spelled “Confucious,” and his philosophy is not called “Confusionism.” When you spot the confusion in the latter term, change it quickly to “Confucianism.”



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On the podcast this week, we conclude our discussion of the bomb and the arts.

This Week: Going nuclear (part 2) on the podcast + ya’ll/y’all

ya’ll/y’all
“How y’all doin’?” If you are rendering this common Southernism in print, be careful where you place the apostrophe, which stands for the second and third letters in “you.”

Note that “y’all” stands for “you all” and is properly a plural form, though some southern speakers treat it as a singular form and resort to “all y’all” for the plural. Most southerners reserve “all y’all” to mean “each and every one of you.” Then there is the occasional case in which the speaker is addressing someone representing a store or other institution composed of several people: “Do y’all sell shop vacs?”

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On the podcast this week, Paul Brians talks about his work studying the bomb and the arts.

This Week: The podcast goes nuclear + you can't have your cake and it it too/you can’t eat your cake and have it too

you can’t have your cake and eat it too/
you can’t eat your cake and have it too

The most popular form of this saying—“You can’t have your cake and eat it too”—confuses many people because they mistakenly suppose the word “have” means “eat,” as in “Have a piece of cake for dessert.” A more logical version of this saying is “You can’t eat your cake and have it too,” meaning that if you eat your cake you won’t have it any more. The point is that if you eat your cake right now you won’t have it to eat later. “Have” means “possess” in this context, not “eat.”

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On the podcast this week, Paul Brians talks about his work studying the bomb and the arts.