Grammarphobia

Q: Why is the present tense, not the past, used in this sentence: “I hear you’re leaving the country”? And why are “see” and “hear” now dynamic, not stative, on TV news? Grammar books say you can’t use progressive tenses with stative verbs, but I often hear reporters say things like “We are seeing a forest in flames.”

Q: I was discussing well-being this morning and wondered about its antonym. AI says “the opposite of wellbeing is often considered to be illbeing, which refers to a state of poor health or unhappiness.” Do you have any thoughts about this?

A: You can find “ill-being” in several standard dictionaries. Merriam-...

Q: Where or when did the phrase “cutting corners” show up?

A: When the usage first appeared in writing in the early 19th century, it had to do with riders and drivers who made their horses take corners and bends in the road too sharply. And as far as we know, it was first used in the United States.

‘Q: I am used to reading older texts that use “my” before consonants (“my love”) and “mine” before vowels (“mine eyes”). But once in a while I see them used the same way. In the King James Version, Psalm 119 has “my affliction” (verse 50) and “mine affliction” (verses 92 and 153). Were “my” and “mine” somewhat interchangeable at the discreti...