Bryan A. Garner

LawProse Lesson #210: Collective vs. Mass Nouns

By / LawProse Lessons /
Collective vs. Mass Nouns.      In last week’s lesson on and/or, one of the examples used this sentence: The team of lawyers, paralegals, and mediators resolved the case quickly for their clients. One reader wrote and asked why the correct wording isn’t “its clients” instead of “their clients.” It’s an arguable point—but one with a preponderance …

LawProse Lesson #210: Collective vs. Mass Nouns Read More »

LawProse Lesson #209: Ban “and/or”

By / LawProse Lessons /
Ban and/or. And/or dates from the mid-19th century. Although lawyers and courts have vilified and/or for most of its life, this bit of legalese continues to infest legal writing and create ambiguity. The literal sense of and/or is “both or either,” so that A and/or B means (1) “A,” (2) “B,” or (3) “both A and B.” Since and/or has a …

LawProse Lesson #209: Ban “and/or” Read More »

LawProse Lesson #208: “Graduate,” vb.

By / LawProse Lessons /
Graduate, vb.      Last week, at a performance of The Originalist in Washington, D.C., the stage actor Ed Gero—in a superb portrayal of Justice Antonin Scalia—delivered the small gaffe of having the Justice say “she graduated Harvard College.” After receiving a friendly suggestion later that evening, Mr. Gero assured me that in future performances, …

LawProse Lesson #208: “Graduate,” vb. Read More »

LawProse Lesson #207: Three ways to improve a statement of facts.

By / LawProse Lessons /
Three ways to improve a statement of facts. First, let it progress naturally from beginning to end—almost invariably in chronological order. Just tell the judge your story of the relevant events that gave rise to this legal dispute. Presenting the facts in order gives the judge a more coherent picture of the case. Second, remove …

LawProse Lesson #207: Three ways to improve a statement of facts. Read More »

LawProse Lesson #206: Statutory and Contractual Interpretation.

By / LawProse Lessons /
What important skill is most generally lacking among law-school graduates? Almost certainly this: the ability to develop, hone, and deliver arguments about the interpretation of contracts and statutes. Lawyers often spend months working on text-based cases without realizing that their best argument is the ordinary-meaning canon, the negative-implication canon, the last-antecedent canon, the surplusage canon, …

LawProse Lesson #206: Statutory and Contractual Interpretation. Read More »

LawProse Lesson #205: Lay, v.t. vs. lie, v.i.

By / LawProse Lessons /
Lay, v.t. vs. lie, v.i. These two short verbs can cause tall trouble. Let’s lay down some helpful guidelines so we won’t be accused of lying down on the job. Lay means “to put down, place, or arrange.” It’s always transitive—it needs a direct object {Please lay the purchase contract on Stan’s desk.}. Lie means “to recline, be …

LawProse Lesson #205: Lay, v.t. vs. lie, v.i. Read More »

LawProse Lesson #204: “Lay of the land” or “lie of the land”?

By / LawProse Lessons /
Lay of the land or lie of the land? Literally, the phrase means “the arrangement of an area’s terrain; topography.” Figuratively, it refers to “the facts of a given situation; the current state of affairs.” The phrase is an Americanism dating from the late 18th century. From the beginning, it’s been lay of the land—although as …

LawProse Lesson #204: “Lay of the land” or “lie of the land”? Read More »

Garner’s Usage Tip of the Day: Miscellaneous Entries.

By / Garner's Usage Tip of the Day /
Miscellaneous Entries. libido. Although dictionaries once recorded /li-BIY-doh/ as the preferred pronunciation, /li-BEE-doh/ is now the established preference in American English. licorice (/LiK-uh-rish/) is the standard spelling. “Liquorice” is a variant form. This word shouldn’t be confused with its uncommon homophones, “lickerish” (= lascivious, lecherous) and “liquorish” (= tasting like liquor). lie/lay/lain. So inflected (except …

Garner’s Usage Tip of the Day: Miscellaneous Entries. Read More »

LawProse Lesson #203: “Lie low” or “lay low”?

By / LawProse Lessons /
Lie low or lay low?      Both phrases could be correct—it depends on the tense you are using. Use lie low in the present tense; lay low in the past tense. Ex.: The celebrity is lying low for a few weeks to avoid news reporters. Ex.: Last month, that same celebrity lay low to avoid the paparazzi. Ex.: He has …

LawProse Lesson #203: “Lie low” or “lay low”? Read More »

LawProse Lesson #200: Which is standard: “toward” or “towards”?

By / LawProse Lessons /
Which is standard: toward or towards?       In American English, toward has been the usual form in print sources since about 1900. Many usage authorities since then have expressed a strong preference for toward, without the final –s. The s-less form of the word is consistent with analogous (though less common) directional words …

LawProse Lesson #200: Which is standard: “toward” or “towards”? Read More »

Garner’s Usage Tip of the Day: load, n.; lode.

By / Garner's Usage Tip of the Day /
load, n.; lode. Although they have similar etymologies, their meanings have fully diverged. “Load” (in its basic senses) means “a quantity that can be carried at one time” or, by extension, “a burden” {a load of work} {a load off my mind}. “Lode” carries the narrow meaning “a deposit of ore,” as well as the …

Garner’s Usage Tip of the Day: load, n.; lode. Read More »

Garner’s Usage Tip of the Day: literally.

By / Garner's Usage Tip of the Day /
literally. “Literally” = (1) with truth to the letter; or (2) exactly; according to the strict sense of the word or words. “Literally” in the sense “truly, completely” is a slipshod extension — e.g.: “Behavioralists and postbehavioralists alike, literally or figuratively, learn what they know of science from the natural sciences, from the outside.” (Read: …

Garner’s Usage Tip of the Day: literally. Read More »

Garner’s Usage Tip of the Day: lip-sync, vb.; lip-synch.

By / Garner's Usage Tip of the Day /
lip-sync, vb.; lip-synch. To lip-sync, of course, is to move one’s lips silently in synchronization with recorded vocals, whether one’s own or someone else’s. Although the dictionaries are split between the “sync” and “synch” forms, the incontestable leader in print is “lip-sync” by a 2-to-1 ratio. But the agent noun is “lip-syncer,” pronounced anomalously with …

Garner’s Usage Tip of the Day: lip-sync, vb.; lip-synch. Read More »

LawProse Lesson #198: Commas with coordinating conjunctions.

By / LawProse Lessons /
Commas with coordinating conjunctions. Many writers struggle with whether to use a comma in a compound sentence whose clauses are joined by a coordinating conjunction (and, but, or, nor, for, yet, so). Although some examples may be tricky or complicated, most of the time some basic rules apply. Here’s a refresher on the fundamentals: 1. …

LawProse Lesson #198: Commas with coordinating conjunctions. Read More »

Garner’s Usage Tip of the Day: Miscellaneous Entries.

By / Garner's Usage Tip of the Day /
Miscellaneous Entries. know, through careless error, is sometimes written “now” — e.g.: “Gempler said he didn’t now [read ‘know’] why the union produced the report.” Hannelore Sudermann, “Teamsters Attack Apple Industry Over Core Issues,” Spokesman-Rev. (Spokane), 23 July 1997, at A10. knowledgeable. So spelled – not ‘knowledgable.’ known /nohn/ is often mispronounced /NOH-uhn/, as if …

Garner’s Usage Tip of the Day: Miscellaneous Entries. Read More »

Garner’s Usage Tip of the Day: like (2).

By / Garner's Usage Tip of the Day /
like (2). Today: “Like” as a Conjunction. In traditional usage, “like” is a preposition that governs nouns and noun phrases, not a conjunction that governs verbs or clauses. Its function is adjectival, not adverbial. Hence one does not write, properly, “The story ended like it began,” but “The story ended as it began.” If we …

Garner’s Usage Tip of the Day: like (2). Read More »

Scroll to Top