Dear Deborah,
A few years ago, we inherited two couches. There’s an antique love seat that my mom let her bulldog use as a dog bed, until the dog got too fat to make the three …

Hmmm. How do I start? Anyway, I’ve always considered myself as pretty much a level-headed, cheerful and friendly person. But lately the pressure (for lack of a better word) of being nice and “trying to …

Dear Sars,
Why are Jesus and Moses the only two exceptions to the apostrophe-S rule? Does God just love them more than everybody else?
Lauren
Dear Lauren,
Garner states that this exception is made for all Biblical and classical …

Strictly speaking, this isn’t my problem, but I’m a little more involved than I’d like to be, and I’d just like to have your refreshingly bullshit-free take on what my responsibilities are here. It’s quite …

Hi! I love your website, and your advice, so I’m hoping you can help me with something. It’s not a huge problem, but it’s one of those little niggling things that you can’t get rid …

Thanks for all the responses on “octopodes.” The consensus seems to be that it’s a word adopted from the Greek “octopous,” so it’s really the only word to which the rule applies in re: a …

Hi Sars,
I have a big ol’ 20-pound maine coon named Frank. He’s 6 and a half and
loves to rule the household. He has lived with a cat before, but it never
especially agreed with him.
I’m pretty …

To The Grammar Goddess,
Someone in my office insists that everyone use the word “finished” when a
task is complete. Every time one of us says, “We’re done,” she says, “Meat is
done. You are finished.” We’re all …

Hi Sars!
A couple of months ago I was browsing in a used
bookstore and bought a massive, unabridged, library-style dictionary.I cannot tell you how many hours I
have spent looking up words and being a big dictionary
dork …

Dear AB Chao,
I have a shoe question that’s been troubling me for some time now.
I’ve been invited to be a bridesmaid in a wedding this summer, for which we
have to wear rather horrible “banana”-yellow tea-length …