Grammar Girl Quick and Dirty Tips for Better Writing 'Y' plurals. Bill Labov's linguistic legacy. Choo-choo
1101. Do you know when to change a "y" to an "ies" for a plural, and when to just add an "s"? Today, we look at the rules. Then, we look at linguist Bill Labov's famous department store study, which shows how social class relates to speech patterns.
The 'y' segment was written by Samantha Enslen, who runs Dragonfly Editorial. You can find her at dragonflyeditorial.com.
The segment about Bill Labov was written by Valerie Friedland, a professor of linguistics at the University of Nevada in Reno and the author of "Like Literally, Dude: Arguing for the Good in Bad English." You can find her at valeriefridland.com.
π Share your familect recording in a WhatsApp chat.
π Watch my LinkedIn Learning writing courses.
π Subscribe to the newsletter.
π Take our advertising survey.
π Get the edited transcript.
π Get Grammar Girl books.
π Join Grammarpalooza. Get ad-free and bonus episodes at Apple Podcasts or Subtext. Learn more about the difference.
| HOST: Mignon Fogarty
| VOICEMAIL: 833-214-GIRL (833-214-4475).
| Grammar Girl is part of the Quick and Dirty Tips podcast network.
- Audio Engineer: Dan Feierabend
- Director of Podcast: Holly Hutchings
- Advertising Operations Specialist: Morgan Christianson
- Marketing and Video: Nat Hoopes
| Theme music by Catherine Rannus.
| Grammar Girl Social Media: YouTube. TikTok. Facebook.Threads. Instagram. LinkedIn. Mastodon. Bluesky.