Resume or Résumé?

Second panel. He’s correct about the spelling, but incorrect about his companion.

Do you know how to make those accents?

Instead of typing the “e,” hold down the Alt key then type 0233 on the numeric keypad then release the Alt key.

On a Mac: Hold down the Option key, and while holding it down, type the letter e; then release those keys and type e again. In Mac notation, this is written Opt+e, e.

This post first appeared on The Writing Rag.

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People commonly put “only” at the beginning of a clause when the word actually modifies a word within the clause (for example, in the first panel below). The rule is that adjectives (such as “only”) modify the word following. Putting that “only” too early can lead to nonsense.

On the second try, this guy gets it right. Third panel. Think what he’d be saying if he had placed the “only” one word earlier, in front of “helps.” In this case still true, perhaps, but not his point.

By the way, in the fourth panel, that’s a rectangular prism, not a cube. But I digress.

PS—Here’s another typical incorrect “only.” Second word balloon. It should be “only last week.” (Ignore the “only” in the first word balloon. It shouldn’t even be there.)

(n.b.: When you say “another repeat,” you’re implying the existence of at least three of whatever you’re talking about, the original, the repeat, and the another.) Anyway, I’m sure I mentioned this solecism in the past, but I can’t find a single post about it. So maybe I need to, um, repeat the lesson!

Don’t say, “try and [do something]” 
Say “try to [do the something].”

Here are a couple comics. One gets it right and one gets it wrong. 

Maybe the rabbit needs better grammar more than he needs a shower!

Try to google n.b. if you don’t know what it means. 

Here’s the comic. Read carefully.

Here’s the quiz: How many mistakes did they make? I got nine.

—in English, anyway.

First, Pearls Before Swine will illustrate:

We don’t call it an umlaut in English, either. We call it a diaresis (pronounced dee-AIR-ah-sis). The diaresis serves a different function than an umlaut does, too.

The umlaut changes the pronunciation of a letter. For example, you pronounce Ü and ü by shaping your lips to say “ooo” but shape your tongue to say “eee.”

The diaresis changes a diphthong (two vowels pronounced as one) into two separate vowel sounds. For example, coop (think chicken coop) changes to coe-op when you spell it “coöp” (think co-operative). And “naive” technically would be pronounced almost like “knife” and “naïve” is the two-syllable word for someone without experience.

Yeah, yeah, I know—we usually leave off the dieresis in English. Mainly, I think, because we don’t have easy access to the punctuated  letters on our keyboards. But at least now you know how they work when you see one.

In case you want to use a letter with a diaresis, here’s a handy little chart. Position the cursor where you want the letter to go, then hold down the Alt key while you type the numbers on the numeric keypad, then release the Alt key.