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6/23/2022 0 Comments Sneaked vs. SnuckIt is with great sadness I must admit that "snuck" is a word. My proofreading software doesn't think it is, because I'm staring at a red squiggle under that word, but alas, it has found its way into dictionaries. The general consensus now is that both words are interchangeable, and the grammar world as a whole has reluctantly embraced this new word. Some people claim that "snuck" is transitive--it needs another word to dump its action onto--while "sneaked" is intransitive--the sentence could stop with it (although it usually has prepositional phrases dangling after). I snuck food onto the plane. Much to my chagrin, this word has sneaked into dictionaries. I know I used one as a simple past and the other as past participle, but that is beside the point. Both words can be used as both types of past. Or so they say. I for one will never be caught using this word, for in the creative description of a random grammarist.com commenter, "‘Snuck’ sounds like an onomatopoeia for someone sucking snot back up his nose." 
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4/23/2022 3 Comments Hyphens What would English grammar be without exceptions? Apparently nothing, because the rules for the correct use of hyphens include exceptions!
Rules for compound adverb/adjective modifiers: 1. The two-word modifier comes before the noun (just like in this sentence!). 2. Both words function together to modify the noun. The hot, red car was fast. Hot car. Red car. But the red-hot car was fast. Red almost is like an adverb describing hot in that sentence! 3. Speaking of adverbs, when the first of the two words ends in -ly, no hyphen is needed. Observe: I am a heavily praised editor. (It's just an example sentence. I promise! 😂) Rules for compound adjectives or nouns: |