What Do You Call This?

First panel first line, last word.

It means “trying to” but you know that. Should we call it an an apostropheless contraction? I think there’s a linguistic name for this kind of word combination…

Maybe “word merger.” If you know, tell me!

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Last panel. He mentions two things, then uses a singular verb. Is he wrong?

English is flexible. Sometimes we combine more than one thing into a single group. We often use a word for the group. For example, “the class is seated” but “the students are seated.” But sometimes we use the number of the verb to tell how we refer to the number of something. Be careful, though—doing this can mess up your sentence.

It has to do with vocabulary, so I like it. Can you add to the row?

Thesaurus, by the way, is descended from the Greek word for “treasure.”

Sometimes, anyway; depends on the dispute.

Myself, I never noticed someone mispronuncing “Pamphlet.” Her good solution is to change the root of the dispute. Be creative! When you enter a dispute, change the root.

But he’s the boss, right???

Here are the definitions:

• “dumb” means non-speaking, such as animals.
• “stupid” means low intelligence, as in IQ. This applies only to humans.
• The correct word is “unwise,” which describes the value or appropriateness of a decision.

So don’t be dumb or stupid—be wise.