Some books can't sit still. They get fidgety and restless, mumbling to themselves and elbowing their authors in the ribs. "It's that time again," they say. "I need some attention here."
Books about English grammar and usage are especially prone to this kind of behavior. They're never content with the status quo. That's because English is not a stay-put language. It is always changing — expanding here, shrinking there, trying on new things, casting off old ones.
Woe Is I: The Grammarphobe's Guide to Better English in Plain English (Fourth Edition) ~ by Patricia T. O'Conner, 2019, grammar guide, 320 pages
In this expanded and updated edition of Woe Is I, Patricia T. O'Conner (former editor at The New York Times Book Review) unties the knottiest grammar tangles with the same insight and humor that have charmed and enlightened readers of previous editions for years. With fresh insights into the rights and wrongs of English grammar and usage, O'Conner offers plain-English explanations to the language mysteries that bedevil all of us.
In this fourth edition, O'Conner explains how the usage of an array of words has evolved. For example, the once-shunned "they," "them," and "their" for an unknown somebody is now acceptable. And the battle between "who" and "whom" has just about been won, and not by "whom." Then there's the use of "taller than me" in simple comparisons, instead of the ramrod-stiff "taller than I." "May" and "might," "use to" and "used to," abbreviations that use periods and those that don't, and the evolving definition of "unique" are all explained here by O'Conner. The result is an engaging, up-to-date and jargon-free guide to every reader's questions about grammar, style, and usage for the 21st century.
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