Grammar Girl Quick and Dirty Tips for Better Writing

Why the heck does 'score' mean 20? How we subconsciously know how to pronounce different plurals.

May 23, 2023

18:25

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Episode notes

Introduction

2min

The Meaning of Score

3min

How to Use Score to Mean 20

3min

How to Learn a New Language

2min

How to Pronounce a Noun in English

3min

The Differences in Vocal Vocal Fold Vibration

2min

How to Properly Pronounce Words With S or Z

7min

929. While we were looking into why we use the word "score" to mean "twenty," our minds were blown by how many languages still have remnants of a base-20 counting system. And then we learned the secret rules that explain why some plurals end with an "s" sound and others end with a "z" sound. It was quite a week!

| Transcript: https://grammar-girl.simplecast.com/episodes/score-dogz/transcript

| The "score" segment was written by Susan K. Herman, a retired U.S. Government multidisciplined language analyst, analytic editor, and language instructor.

| The "Cats and Dogz" segment was written by Valerie Fridland, 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

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