“Every outfit I tried on was either too casual, too loud or too frumpy.” A funny thing about language: When you use it without thinking, you usually do just fine. It’s only when you stop and question ...

In the late 1990s, a friend told me she had used the word “exponentially” in a debate with her brother-in-law. “That’s not a word!” her brother-in-law insisted. “Of course it is,” my friend replied.

Ellen Jovin is not the grammar police. She's more like a grammar guru, a gentle, nonjudgmental guide who knows English isn't etched into a linguistic stone, rigid and unchangeable. Instead, she knows ...