I fielded a question recently about “minding your p’s and q’s.” I had used that expression in a column a few weeks ago, and it prompted an email from a reader named Christine who was curious about the ...

Apostrophes are the curly floating commas in sentences that usually indicate possession or a contraction. There are a few set phrases and holidays, however, that also use apostrophes. In fact, ...

Somewhere out there, in the teachers’ lounge at a teachers college, people are chatting and laughing and sipping coffee — blissfully unaware that they’re living exhibits in the Weird Punctuation Hall ...

After VERIFYING how to spell canceled (with one l or two), a viewer asked us to VERIFY another grammar inquiry you might have been breaking for years. Beth Miller from Guilford County asked, "Why ...

In the debate over whether the apostrophe should be eliminated, there may appear to be connection with real life. However, there isn’t—it can only be classified as a kind of journalistic kabuki. Not ...

Wednesday was a dark day for the apostrophe, used in the English language to indicate the possessive case ("Joe's Pub") or a contraction ("I'm here."). In New York, apostrophes took center stage in ...

This installment discusses the simple rules governing it's/its. Are you trying to say 'it is'?* Yes. Use an apostrophe. *Anywhere you need to indicate the omission of letters or numbers (a contraction ...