In a recent TED Talk, Phuc Tran talks about his love for grammar, particularly the use of the subjunctive and indicative. He uses these two types of verbal moods as a tool to look at the world and one ...

READING a story on the fate of European newspapers, your columnist was drowning in bad news—newsrooms decimated, advertisers fleeing—but then a strange sentence appeared: Even Rupert Murdoch, who ...

One of the most fascinating things about language is that we can use it so well, so expertly, without understanding how we do it. The following two sentences are perfect examples. If the burglar was ...

Why is Christian Science in our name? Our name is about honesty. The Monitor is owned by The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and we’ve always been transparent about that. The church publishes the ...

In "Fiddler on the Roof," the poor but patriarchal Tevye muses upon pleasures beyond his reach. "If I were a rich man," he sings. Today's profoundly perplexing question is: Should the beloved fiddler ...

IT won't be surprising at all if this basic grammar question still stumps not just a few English writers and speakers among us: "How do you know if a sentence that uses 'were' is indicative or ...

It won’t be a surprise if this basic grammar question still stumps not a few among us: “How do we know if a sentence that uses ‘were’ is indicative or subjunctive?” I say this because this happens to ...