June Casagrande

Pasadena

June Casagrande's Grammar Underground, cutting through the grammar bull to help folks make the best choices in usage, sentence structure, punctuation & more.

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Articles

A Word, Please: Beefing over how we use hyphens and adverbs

1 week ago | latimes.com | June Casagrande

The beef had been aged dry for 30 days, and it changed my life. Not the way you’re thinking. I didn’t eat the life-changing meat. I just read about it in an article I was editing — and my relationship with hyphens has never been the same. Before then, I thought I had hyphens all figured out. Most of the time, they connect two words that work together to describe a noun, as in “heat-seeking missile.” The hyphen makes clear it’s not a heat missile. It’s not a seeking missile.
A Word, Please

2 weeks ago | polkio.com | June Casagrande

In the Netflix series “Umbrella Academy,” Aidan Gallagher plays Number Five, a 58-year-old assassin and theoretical physicist trapped in a 13-year-old’s body. A naturally brainy teen and gifted actor, Gallagher has no trouble convincing me Five is a late-middle-aged genius unlocking the mysteries of space-time to stop a world-ending apocalypse. In his performance, I believe every word — well, every word but one: nuclear.
Casagrande: 'Anemone' just one linguistic gaslighting word that falls under the term 'metathesis'

2 weeks ago | latimes.com | June Casagrande

Pronouncing (or even spelling) the word “anemone” challenges grammarian June Grande. And don’t get her started on how people say “nuclear.” But it’s all good. In the Netflix series “Umbrella Academy,” Aidan Gallagher plays Number Five, a 58-year-old assassin and theoretical physicist trapped in a 13-year-old’s body.
A Word Please

3 weeks ago | theworldlink.com | June Casagrande

A lot of language experts will tell you to avoid the word “re,” as in, “I’d like to speak to you re scheduling.” It’s pretentious, they say, to use this Latin derivative instead of good old plain English — it’s “tasteless as a gold toothpick,” according to Theodore Bernstein’s 1965 guide “The Careful Writer.” All of us outside the legal profession should “leave this one to the lawyers,” he wrote. Way ahead of you, Bernstein and friends. I’ve been avoiding “re” my whole life.
A Word Please

1 month ago | theworldlink.com | June Casagrande

“It makes me mad when people say ‘literally’ when they mean ‘figuratively’ as it does sound stupid and confusing,” a poster on Quora wrote recently. “Is this normal?” In the replies, the top answer is from a self-identified bot called Assistant: “Yes, it’s completely normal to feel frustrated when people misuse words, especially a word like ‘literally,’ which has a specific meaning.
A Word Please: Do you say 'car-a-mel' or 'car-mel'? Turns out, they're both right

1 month ago | latimes.com | June Casagrande

Several three-syllable words are pronounced as having two syllables, June Casagrande explains. For example, she just learned the pronunciation “carmel” with two syllables is every bit as acceptable as the three-syllable pronunciation of “caramel.”People think that, because I write about grammar, I must have grown up in one of those we-value-education families, probably in a good school district. Nope.
'A Word, Please'

1 month ago | newportnewstimes.com | June Casagrande

By June CasagrandeA lot of language experts will tell you to avoid the word “re,” as in, “I’d like to speak to you re scheduling.” It’s pretentious, they say, to use this Latin derivative instead of good old plain English — it’s “tasteless as a gold toothpick,” according to Theodore Bernstein’s 1965 guide, “The Careful Writer.” All of us outside the legal profession should “leave this one to the lawyers,” he wrote. Way ahead of you, Bernstein and friends. I’ve been avoiding “re” my whole life.
'A Word, Please'

1 month ago | thenewsguard.com | June Casagrande

By June CasagrandeA lot of language experts will tell you to avoid the word “re,” as in, “I’d like to speak to you re scheduling.” It’s pretentious, they say, to use this Latin derivative instead of good old plain English — it’s “tasteless as a gold toothpick,” according to Theodore Bernstein’s 1965 guide, “The Careful Writer.” All of us outside the legal profession should “leave this one to the lawyers,” he wrote. Way ahead of you, Bernstein and friends. I’ve been avoiding “re” my whole life.
A Word, Please: 'Because' and the reason it could wreck a sentence

1 month ago | latimes.com | June Casagrande

A wrecked Lamborghini was parked on Melrose Avenue in L.A. as part of the California Highway Patrol’s anti-street racing campaign launched in May 2023. The reason I’m writing this is because it may be helpful. See anything wrong with that sentence? Some will. The issue here: “the reason is because.” Many people say that “because” should be “that”: The reason I’m writing this is that it may be helpful. They have a point.
A Word, Please: White House makes unprecedented move to stifle the press

2 months ago | latimes.com | June Casagrande

President Donald Trump speaks as Tulsi Gabbard is sworn in as the Director of National Intelligence in the Oval Office of the White House on Feb. 12. If you’ve read this column before, you know about AP style. I’ve been writing about it for decades.