“Every outfit I tried on was either too casual, too loud or too frumpy.” A funny thing about language: When you use it without thinking, you usually do just fine. It’s only when you stop and question ...

Stressed words or syllables are said more forcefully – they can be louder, higher or longer and the vowel sound is clear. We can use stress to show what the most important words in the sentence are.

Grammar expert June Casagrande has written this column for 20 years and has never written about why she avoids using the word ...