For the verb meaning to work or act together, American writers use the unhyphenated cooperate. Outside the U.S. co-operate, with a hyphen, is preferred. Neither spelling is better than the other. There is good justification for the hyphen (it prevents pronunciation confusion), but fluent English ... Read more
Sow wild oats
Sow is an agricultural term meaning to scatter seed over the ground for growing. This is the sense borne by the verb in the idiom sow [one's] wild oats---though of course it's metaphorical. The metaphor, which means to indulge in adventure or promiscuity during youth, traditionally applies only ... Read more
United States (plural or singular?)
United States is a singular noun and takes singular verb forms; for example, we say "The United States is in the Western Hemisphere," not "The United States are in the Western Hemisphere." This has been the case for over a century. Think of United States as the name of a country like any other. ... Read more
For heaven’s sake
By the normal rules of grammar, for heaven's sake should have a possessive heaven's and a singular sake. But this is the sort of colloquial expression that tends to flout the usual rules, and alternative forms such as for heavens sake, for heaven sakes, for heaven's sakes, for heavens' sake, for ... Read more
Period (full stop or full point)
In modern English, the period (or full stop, as it's known in British English, and sometimes full point) has two main purposes: 1. A period ends a sentence that is not a question or an exclamation. The period at the end of this sentence is an example. 2. Periods follow abbreviations ... Read more
Commas
In modern English, the comma ( , ) has a few conventional uses. Uses of commas Listing Commas are used to separate items in a list. When there are only two items, there is no comma: Hilda was back in a few moments wearing a long gray squirrel coat and a broad fur hat. [Alexander's Bridge, ... Read more
Dates and commas
Style guides differ on how to use commas with a month-day-year date (the American style) in the middle of a sentence, but the standard practice in U.S. publications is to place a comma after the day and another after the year---for example: The vote on March 7, 2010, began with a barrage of blasts ... Read more
Online vs. on-line
Although a few stodgy editors and style guides still recommend the 1990s-style on-line (with a hyphen) for the computing-related adjective, the trajectory of the language favors online. The latter is now considered acceptable by most dictionaries and English usage guides, and most major publications ... Read more
For God’s sake
By the usual standards of English grammar, the irreverent utterance of exasperation should be for God's sake, with an apostrophe to show that god's is possessive and with sake in the singular form, but the phrase appears idiomatically in several other forms---for example: He's a third-stringer ... Read more
Rock ‘n’ roll, rock and roll, rock’n'roll, etc.
Rock 'n' roll is the most common spelling for the genre of music, but rock-and-roll, rock and roll, rock-'n'- roll, rock & roll, and rock'n'roll also appear often. Rock 'n' roll has a breezy and colloquial look that reflects the spirit of the music, while rock-and-roll and rock and roll are a ... Read more
