language

An Em Dash Appreciation Post (Or: How AI Ruined Punctuation)

[hushed Attenborough voice] In the lush literary jungle, we observe the em dash in its natural habitat. Notice how it moves with remarkable agility, seamlessly connecting two related thoughts that a comma simply cannot hold together. Watch… there. See how it creates that perfect pause? Not quite a period’s full stop, but far more dramatic […]

The Extinction Of The Genitive & Strange Reflexive Pronouns

Question [paraphrased]: “I read that the Genitive case is going extinct in German, but it seems  alive and well in some Netflix series and your books. What gives?” That’s an excellent question! First of all, it’s definitely true that the Genitiv is generally fading out of fashion. However, it’s doing so in a very uneven way, […]