“He is one of the people who consistently supports our positions.” That’s how Jim Sedlak, director of public policy for the American Life League, described John Ashcroft, President-elect George W.

A friend emailed recently to ask about the grammar on a T-shirt that read: “The only minority destroying the country are the billionaires.” His question: “Am I wrong or is the grammar on her T-shirt ...

“Every one of us have a role to play” or “Every one of us has a role to play”? “A bunch of students were waiting outside” or “a bunch of students was waiting outside”? “It is I who am here” or “It is ...

What is happening to the English language? I learned the difference between singular and plural nouns while in elementary school. That was reinforced during middle school, high school and college. It ...

Subject-verb agreement means that your verb must be conjugated, or changed, to fit (or agree) with the subject. Subjects can be singular or plural. Think of singular and plural as mathematical ...

Last week I discussed subject-verb agreement. Many of you wrote and asked about sports teams, particularly sports teams whose names don’t end in “s”: are they considered singular or plural? Would you ...

However, there are many types of noun and noun phrase in English, and it can be difficult to know if a particular noun takes a singular verb (such as DOES / HAS / AM / IS ) or a plural verb (DO / HAVE ...

Written for THE NEW YORK TIMES SATUR- DAY REVIEW By the Hon. John W. Foster. Formerly Secretary of State, United States Minister To Russia, Spain, &C. TimesMachine is an exclusive benefit for home ...

As terse as they normally are, newspaper headlines are designed to get your attention by, as much as possible, summarizing the main body text. Two words in last week’s headline of this column; ...