Recommendations from our site
“Yes, it’s a dictionary too, but also a grammar guide: disputed usages like whether ‘like’ can be a conjunction (‘Tastes good like a cigarette should’) are included. AHD takes a unique approach: a ‘Usage Panel’ with a hundred members, well-known editors, writers and language people (and, full disclosure, not so well-known me) vote on whether a usage is acceptable. This is a kind of conservative but also radically descriptive approach: ‘73% of our hand-picked experts say that this is OK; that’s up from 64% in our last edition.’ The names of the Usage Panel are printed in the frontmatter, so you know exactly whose advice you’re following.” Read more...
Grammar Books That Prove What They Preach
Lane Greene, Journalist
Our most recommended books
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Garner's Modern English Usage (5th edition)
by Bryan A. Garner -
American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language
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Spunk & Bite: A Writer's Guide to Bold, Contemporary Style
by Arthur Plotnik -
The Sense of Style
by Steven Pinker -
Merriam-Webster's Dictionary of English Usage
by Merriam-Webster -
Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary
by Merriam-Webster