If you want to be grammatically correct, is it "geez" or "jeez"?

“If you want to be grammatically correct, is it ‘geez’ or ‘jeez’?”

The question has less to do with grammar than it has to do with the roots of the exclamation itself. It’s derived from “Jesus” and used as profanity, and its current iteration became popular in the early 20th century. Similarly, “gosh” is a milder variant of the oath “God.” There’s no official spelling, and these words generally have more punch to listeners than they do to readers, as the typical use is to exclaim surprise in a manner that’s more socially acceptable and less offensive to people of faith.

“If you want to be grammatically correct, is it ‘geez’ or ‘jeez’?”

Other, more humorous variations include “Jeez Louise,” as well as various bastardizations of the name Jesus Christ: “Cripes,” “Crikey,” “Jeepers Creepers,” “Jinkies,” “cheese and crackers,” “Jiminy Crickets/Christmas,” and very recently, “Jibbers Crabst.” There are many regional variations; most of my examples are drawn from the American Midwest and South.

When it comes to its use in literature, the word is commonly spelled both “geez” and “jeez,” sometimes interchangeably, from what I can recall

Anytime you talk about slang terms, they evolve rather informally, and it’s hard to think of anything as stable enough to be “correct.” In this case, “Jeez” (more common spelling, in my opinion) is based on the proper name “Jesus,” which is itself a Greek/Latin corruption of the Hebrew Yeshua (יֵשׁוּעַ), which, even in Hebrew, has a few different spellings through different biblical books. The “J” sound/letter doesn’t appear in the name until the name comes into English by way of Greek, translating it as something like “Iesous.”

The point is that people can declare this or that version as “correct” or as an offensive corruption of the name, but I’d say we’re a bit far down the line for all that, wouldn’t you? In the case of a common exclamation like “Jeez,” just use whatever looks right to you, but also be careful about how and where you use colloquialisms and jargon in your writing because it will rub some people the wrong way. I would say, if you’re going to use it in more formal writing, I’d put it in quotes, like if I were to say:

“You might be asking yourself by now, ‘Well jeez, what has this got to do with the original question?’ And you’d be right.”

How would you react when someone calls you an uncle?

While most of you hate being called “Uncle,” I feel rather pleased.

It is so much better than being called Grandpa or Dadaji!

Hey, I’m only 68! Can’t I be just an Uncle for some more years?

To call me Grandpa, please wait until I use a walking stick or get false teeth.

What baby name immediately makes you lose all respect for the parents, and why?

I once met a woman who had a very cute little girl in a stroller. I complimented the woman on such a pretty child and asked for her name.

Mother: “Her name is See-ann.”

Me: “What an interesting name. How do you spell that?”

Mother replied, “S E A N.”

Me: “Isn’t that Sean?”

Mother: “AUUUUGGGGGGGGGG!!!!!!!! Why do people keep saying that!? So many ignorant people in this world!!!!!!”

And she storms off in a huff.

What baby name makes you want to punch the parents in the face?

I PROMISE I AM NOT FABRICATING THIS ANSWER.

My cousin was at a general check-up at her pediatrician’s office – 17 and not ready to pick a GP – and was waiting her turn to be called back.

A nurse with a clipboard stepped into the waiting room and – with a VERY guilty look on her face – said, “I’m sorry. Is there a Shit Head?”

Everyone sat up and looked around, shocked. A rather disgruntled mom (Is her ethnicity relevant? I omitted it on purpose) stood up with her newborn in her arms and said, annoyed and condescending, “It’s Sh-the.” FYI: My cousin asked and was told it was spelled SHITHED.

Everyone in the waiting room exchanged lols like it was as cringe-worthy as my cousin said she felt.

Inappropriate names.

Once upon a time, it was acceptable to name your child ‘Gay’ or ‘Dick.’ In this day and age, though, things like that are inappropriate.

Initials that spell out other words.

If you want to name your child ‘Betty Emily Aimes,’ go ahead. Don’t name your child something like ‘Fred Antonio Richard Turner’ or ‘Poppy Ophelia Olivia Pearson.’

Yoo-unique (Pronounced unique) Names

I’ve met several people with regular names spelled in awful ways. I know a girl named ‘La-a,’ pronounced ‘LaDasha.’ I know another girl called ‘JLove’ and another with the incredibly unfortunate name ‘Airplane.’ Yes, her name is actually ‘Airplane.’

Names that are spelled strangely.

If you want to name your child ‘Christina’ but don’t like how common that spelling is, don’t make up some strange new way to spell the name. ‘Kry$$teenuh’ is not going to earn that child any popularity points.

Common names.

There are enough names out there that you don’t need to call your child “Bob” or “Jim.” Even things like ‘John’ and ‘Harry’ are super common. Your child will constantly be turning around when someone says ‘John’ because fifteen other kids in his class are also coincidentally named ‘John.’

Celebrity names.

If you call your child ‘Donald Trump,’ they will be made fun of their entire life. No doubt about it. Don’t call your child ‘Ted Bundy,’ either.

Names that are the same as/close to their siblings’ names.

I also know a girl named ‘Maria’ who has fourteen sisters named ‘Maria.’ She must always learn what ‘Maria’ her parents are talking to/about. If you name one child ‘Emily,’ don’t call the other child ‘Emilee.’

All it takes to name a child is some common sense.

Shine Bright,

Jackson

“It’s pronounced…” It’s probably not.

Any name where they made up a pronunciation out of nothing. I’m not talking about names from different countries or cultures; I can respect that. But names where they just decided that “the B is silent” when there’s no phonological rule in their language for Bs to be silent. Or where they just, in other ways, decided to make up their own rules and have the rest of the world follow them.

La-a. That would be pronounced La ah, right? Oh, no, no. I’ve heard some say it should be pronounced LaDasha. Because it’s a dash, you know. But by that same logic, it could be LaHyphena or LaMinusAh. LaDasha is the only thing it wouldn’t be pronounced as because it’s not a dash; it’s a hyphen. A dash is longer (—).

X Æ A-12. Okay, in Denmark, where I’m from, we use the Æ, and I could pronounce the letters Ek-say-ah. That’s pretty. But Elon Musk (who created this name) said it was supposed to be X Ash Archangel. I’m sorry, what? Æ is supposed to be Ash because of its elvish spelling. As a Danish person, I’m offended that you use a made-up language’s pronunciation over ours. And a-12 is “pronounced like archangel”? No, it’s not. It may be short for archangel. But it’s not pronounced like it like PIN is pronounced pin, not personal identification number.

We have phonological rules to make languages easier. When those rules are broken, it’s probably because it’s a loan word, and it is perfectly reasonable in the phonology of its original language. Stop thinking you can change that.

Edit:

A few people have pointed out that the pronunciation of æ as Ash is not elvish but old English. My apologies; my sources were incorrect. I still think Xæa would sound better in Danish, though.

What is the name of your least favorite child?

Kathleen.

It’s the name of my youngest stepdaughter. Now, before you jump all over me, let me explain.

This girl has been toying with my husband ever since we got together. When she learned we made it official, she stopped visiting her dad. When he asked why, she told him to ask me. I had no idea what was going on. Her best friend’s sister told us she didn’t like me.

A few years later, we got engaged. She called him, for the first time since we had gotten together, crying and saying she didn’t want him to marry me. She said she wanted him to return with her mom when he asked why. Normally, I would understand that, but I wasn’t his first girlfriend since he got divorced, and she never said that to her.

Then she tried to blackmail him. She said she would start visiting him again if he kicked me out of the house. She didn’t want to see me. He refused, so she hung up.

My fiancé keeps trying to reach out to her, but she still refuses to see him unless he dumps me. She has two children he has never met and will never meet unless he dumps me.

This has destroyed my fiancé. He lost a daughter because he loves me. I’ve offered to leave if she wants to come over, but he won’t hear. He says she needs to accept me and be polite to me.

How do you respond when a good friend names their yet-to-be-born child the same name as your 3-month-old?

I would say:

That’s awesome! We’re going to have so much fun! Just wait until we yell <<insert name>>, and they BOTH come running! We’ll keep the little buggers confused for years!

What do you think of parents who give their children oddball names?

I did it. Occasionally, I tell my daughter that I’m sorry. I wasn’t trying to make things harder for her; really, I wasn’t.

I was 18 when I got pregnant with my oldest. She was born in September, so I was pregnant all summer and tended to stay indoors and read when I wasn’t at work or going to appointments. So I was reading one of the MANY cheesy romance novels my aunt had given me, and the main female character was named Persephone and called Sepha. Well, I LOVED it! Persephone is the Greek goddess of spring and rebirth and, yes, the queen of death, but you can’t escape it, so it’s better to rule it, right? Plus, the name is just so pretty. That was going to be her name. Everyone hated it! No one could pronounce it or spell it. I refused to give up the name I loved but decided to make it the middle name to be easier on her. My friends and I spent hours and hours trying to come up with a name that would work and flow with the middle name Persephone. We tried out name after name, and we were on one of those baby name sites and stumbled across Cairo. I had never thought of this as a person’s name before. Cairo Persephone. I liked it. They are definitely from different areas but rolled off the tongue nicely. Ok. That’s what I’d name the baby if it’s a girl. At this point, I didn’t know what I was having and didn’t know until delivery. I was trying to make it easier on her by hiding what I saw as a potentially problematic name in the middle.

I didn’t think everyone would think Cairo was a boy’s name. I thought people would correctly pronounce it CONSTANTLY. It’s Cairo. It’s a very well-known city in Egypt. It’s not kayo, as in corn syrup, people! She’s not a curiosity or a cheerio or a churro! It’s CairO, not CairA. I’m sorry sweetie. I LOVE your name. I didn’t imagine ALL the ways it could/ would go wrong.

My second kid is my son. His name is Alexander. We call him Xander. We already had an Alex in the family. His middle name is my dad, and his brother’s middle name is Hale. He got off easy.

My baby is another girl. She’s named after a fictional character on a TV show. We LOVE Game of Thrones; one of our favorite characters is Arya Stark. I love the name but preferred the Aria spelling, so that’s how we chose her first name. Her middle name is a compromise. My husband desperately wanted to name her Valkyrie. I said no way in hell. We settled on Valyrie. It’s a real name spelled differently to give a nod to Norse mythologies.

To recap:

Cairo Persephone

Alexander Hale

Aria Valyrie

I shouldn’t be allowed to name people.

Why do people continue naming their kids common names such as Michael or Adam?

I dislike the trend for SooperUneek names*. The child doesn’t need an unpronounceable, unspellable moniker to be unique. They’ll be who they are, whether they’re called Bob or StarChildZingleZangleBooBob.

So, we intentionally chose a well-known name for our son. No one has ever misspelled or mispronounced it.

*Note: This may be because almost no one correctly pronounces/spells my surname on the first try. I get calls that start, “Can I speak to Clare See…Sel….Kell….”**

At which point I say, “Just Clare is fine.”

I cannot see why you’d intentionally do that to a child.

** It’s set-LAY-ah

My 12-year-old daughter Kevin says people bully her for her name. It’s very nice and common, so why do people bully her?

Kevin is a predominantly male name. You should have known that when you named her; This one is on you.

People bully her because while Kevin is a common name, it is not common for a girl to have that name, and some kids are mean.

Is “How’s you?” grammatically correct?

Since ‘is’ is a form of the verb ‘be,’ ” to quote the great Chandler Bing: “Could it be more wrong?” 😀

I’m so glad somebody put up this query! Many thanks! ‘How are you?’ is another one of pop culture’s grammatical evils! As a grammar coach, it infuriates me inside (albeit I maintain a calm countenance on the surface) to have myself enquired after in such a fashion!

‘How’s you?’ is essentially the contraction for ‘How are you ?’ Stating the universally known here that the pronoun ‘you’ never works with ‘is,’ making the usage ‘How’s you?’ absolutely wrong and invalid! Whatever happened to good old ‘How are you?’ that’s been around for as long as can be remembered?

‘You’ as a pronoun in English is always given plural treatment. Hence, the combinations of you with forms of being in the present and past tense are as follows :

Present tense :

You + are

Past tense :

You + were

The forms’ is’ and ‘was’ find no usage in conjunction with ‘you’ in legitimate grammar except for literature and motion pictures, where the characters deliberately use the combination in their speech to establish their rural or uneducated background.

What does “geez” mean?

Originally Answered: What does GEEZ mean?

It’s a polite expletive. It is very inoffensive in terms of other similar words that you could put in its place.

As already mentioned, it’s similar to “gosh.” Or, kind of like “wow,” but with a connotation that is more commonly negative. For example, you might say, “Geez, that’s horrible!” but probably not, “Geez, that’s wonderful!” (unless you are being sarcastic, maybe).

It comes from shortening the name “Jesus” to make a simpler, less offensive expletive. It’s sometimes spelled “geeze,” “jeeze,” “jeez”…

Edit: On a similar note, the word “gee” has a similar meaning to “wow” or “gosh,” but with a more positive connotation. It is also commonly used in sarcastic expressions. “Gee, that was nice of her!” or “Gee, I wonder!” (sarcastic).

What is your thought when you hear that someone’s first name is ‘Fanny’? In Indonesia, it is quite a common name, but in English, the meaning is rather taboo.

Originally Answered: What is your thought when you hear that someone’s first name is ‘Fanny’? It is quite a common name in Indonesia, but in English, the meaning is rather taboo.

In US English, it means buttocks, and in British English, the female genital mound. But it’s also a perfectly ordinary if old-fashioned girl’s name.

It’s just like Dick and Willie are ordinary pet forms of ordinary boy’s names, but they also mean “penis.”

Is it grammatically incorrect to use ‘me too’?

Hi!

“Me too” is accepted in spoken contexts as a reply to mean, roughly, ‘also.’ It indicates addition or agreement and has the sense of “include me, too” in whatever is being done/said or going to be done.

Example:

“I badly need a cup of coffee.

“Me too(!)”

2. “I fully agree with what Mr Rao did/said.”

“Me too.”

A comma is not necessary since it is used only in spoken/conversational registers.

Too is an adverb and has various meanings in different contexts. It can have the sense of addition (as in the above); it can be used to show excess, as in “The suitcase is too heavy.” The excess adverbs are usually followed by a to-infinitive clause or a for clause: too early to judge her; too heavy to lift; too heavy for the lad. In the latter, the too implies a comparison with an unstated standard (say, against the length of time one should take to judge a person, the weight that a lad can normally lift, and so on.) It can imply that something else has the same attribute, as in “This camera, too, is old” (another camera/other cameras you showed me are also ancient/primitive) – this meaning is like the ‘addition’ meaning. Compare this with “This camera is too old.” You see that the placement of too (like the placement of many other adverbs) makes a difference in meaning.

Also, as a substitute for too, can be ambiguous. Compare:

I also have a dog with I too have a dog. The former can mean that you have other pets besides a dog. It can also imply that, like you, I, too, have a dog for a pet. Therefore, ‘also’ has to be used with caution. “Also, I have a dog” is awkward – he also seems to hang unsupported in mid-air. The best way to correct this last construction is to substitute the adverbials “In addition” or “Additionally” for “Also.” (I think you now understand why I used the adverb ‘roughly’ in my first sentence at the beginning of this post.)

So, coming back to the beginning, if you’re talking in formal grammar, ‘me too’ is wrong; if you’re talking of informal contexts, ‘me too’ is accepted. When we talk of informal/conversational contexts, we talk of what could be acceptable, not what is ‘grammatically correct.’

Are “geez,” “jeez,” “sheesh” and “yeesh” etymologically related?

Yes, they are all sanitized corruptions of “Jesus”!

Just like Blimey! It is a corruption of God bless me! And in the UK, “bloody” comes from “by the blood of Christ!”

Blasphemous exclamations laundered over the centuries.

What does ‘Geez’ mean in English, and in what context is it used?

What does ‘Geez’ mean in English, and in what context is it used?

It can differ in meaning in different parts of the world. It’s spelled differently, too. To some, it is short for Jesus. It is a loophole for taking the ‘Lord’s name in vain.’

Urban dictionary Geez
Jeez

Is papa an English word or a Hindi?

The first sounds a kid make are usually simple like baa, maa, aaa, kaa, paa, daa, etc.
Initially, they can’t mimic the word father as “faa” as it’s a bit complex.
The closest sound similar to “faa” is “paa,” so kids stick to “paa” for referring to their father.
In Hindi, in earlier times, it was “pitra,” modified later to “pita-shree,” then to “pita ji.”
There was cultural exchange throughout history, so borrowing words can’t be denied.
Similarly, “matr” in Hindi and mother in English sound similar, and “bhatra”/” bhrata” in Hindi and brother in English sound similar.
Therefore, we can’t answer this question, so I told you a diplomatic answer inspired by the politicians.

Is this sentence grammatically correct? “Last night, I kept playing that song till I fell asleep.”

This question has been drastically changed several times, to the point that the question — when combined with the 38 answers displayed with it —cannot make any sense at all.

That said, I will attempt to answer the question as it exists today without referencing the 38 previous answers. But PLEASE quit modifying this question — issue a whole new question instead.

Now, there are a few things that could be improved with this sentence. The first is a matter of tense. You are talking about “last night,” and therefore, it should be “fell asleep” instead of “fall asleep” — past tense instead of present tense.

The second problem is the word “till.” That is a perfectly fine English word, but to be accurate, it does not mean what you think it means. The word you wanted here is “until,” not “till.” However, in casual speech, people often shorten the word “until” to only one syllable. If one wishes to mimic that casual usage in writing, it is customary to use an apostrophe and write “’til” instead of “till.” But this mistake — “till” — is made so frequently that it has become almost normal.

So what does “till” actually mean in standard English? There are three main meanings: first (countable noun), a cash drawer, typically in a cash register; second (uncountable noun), rocky debris left behind by a retreating glacier; third (transitive verb), to cultivate (soil or a field).

The third problem is the word “kept.” As used here, it is a colloquialism which means “continued.” However, the colloquial “kept” is not formal enough (when used in this sense) for good writing. “Continued” would be better.

Ciao, and quit re-using this question for inconsistent purposes.

How can “that” be used grammatically?

One of the “joys” of taking Anglo-Saxon (or Old English—yes, I was that geek) in college is memorizing the cases and inflections of the demonstrative pronouns. Just as we have masculine, feminine, neuter, and plural forms in two cases for personal pronouns these days, we had the same for demonstrative pronouns in Anglo-Saxon, only with five cases.

The only two that survive are the masculine nominative (as a demonstrative adjective) and the neuter nominative (those being the modern spellings). You may be cheered to know that many of the uses of that, even in modern times, are now rare or obsolete (this sentence shows why… I omitted its use to introduce the clause starting with “many of the”). That now exists as three separate words derived from the Old English demonstrative pronoun. Here’s how to use them all, plus some variations.

That (1) — you’d like to use that (3) word grammatically, and I can tell you that (4) much. Would you like that (2)? I’ll be the one that (5) you can turn to. It is likely that (6) your usage from here on will improve.

(1) Noun—any word can be used (usually with italics or quotation marks) to refer to itself as a word.

I. Demonstrative pronoun, adjective, or adverb

(2) Demonstrative pronoun

(3) Demonstrative adjective (modifies a noun)

(4) Demonstrative adverb (modifies an adjective or adverb)

There are many idiomatic uses of the word. “Screw that!”—used as an emphatic absolute. “That is,…” or “That is to say…” —introduces an elaborative phrase in the pronomial or adjectival sense. “I’ll take that one…”—used in opposition to this to suggest a more distant item. “…and a poor one at that”—an Americanism that intensifies some aspect of a statement already made. “…and all that”—et cetera. There are several others.

II. Relative pronoun (pronounced unstressed for this usage)

(5) Relative pronoun (except that strict grammarians—but never, it seems, songwriters—prefer the personal pronoun who when the relation is to a person).

III. Clause marker (some grammarians consider this a conjunctive use)

(6) Introduces clauses of a wide variety of types in a wide variety of situations (may also be used in phrases such as “not that” or “with that” or “such that”—”Not that I care about good grammar, but…”—though many such couplings (“because that”) are obsolete.)

That should give you all the major contemporary uses without getting into the weeds.

Is “Shall I accompany you?” grammatically correct?

It depends on the context. If you’re the only brother of someone and he said to you, “I hope to travel next month to Florida, and I want my brother to follow me,” you would be “grammatically correct” to tell him, “Shall I accompany you?”.

Is “How are you?” grammatically correct?

Since ‘is’ is a form of the verb ‘be,’ ” to quote the great Chandler Bing: “Could it be more wrong?” 😀

‘How are you?’ is essentially the contraction for ‘How are you ?’ Stating the universally known here that the pronoun ‘you’ never works with ‘is,’ making the usage ‘How’s you?’ absolutely wrong and invalid! Whatever happened to good old ‘How are you?’ that’s been around for as long as can be remembered?

‘You’ as a pronoun in English is always given plural treatment. Hence, the combinations of you with forms of being in the present and past tense are as follows :

Present tense :

You + are

Past tense :

You + were

Is “how much am I owing you” grammatically correct?

Originally Answered: Is “how much am I owning you” grammatically correct?

The only correct answer here is from Andrew McKenzie; however, he has left it brief, and I’m happy to elaborate more.

English divides verbs between dynamic and stative. See Stative verb – Wikipedia.

Dynamic verbs can be put in the progressive (be doing); stative verbs normally cannot.

So “how much am I owning you,” and for that matter, “how much am I owing you,” are not normally grammatical in English because own and owe are both stative verbs.

However, that ends up saying that you can’t put own or owe in the progressive because neither are verbs that you put in the progressive. Let’s tease this out a little more.

Dynamic verbs describe actions or activities, something that happens in the world. Stative verbs describe states’ situations that just are.

Actions and activities are situations that perceptibly start and stop, can keep going on, and can happen for a little while. Therefore, speaking of the difference between running and running or walking and walking is meaningful.

States are not situations that perceptibly start and stop and do not happen for a while; they continue. Therefore, it is not meaningful (normally) to speak of a difference between knows and was knowing or likes and keeps liking. They are states that already have built-in the notion of keeping on being true.

Owning and owing someone something are taken in English as states, not actions. They’re not stop–start, they’re not something you can do for a little while or continuously: they are ongoing states, just like knowing or believing or hearing.

Now, some verbs are dynamic, though they look like states. Sitting and sleeping, for example. Some verbs are stative, though they look like actions. And you can reinterpret a verb so that it turns from one category to another. You hear noises, you do not hear noises, but you can be hearing rumors about me because that kind of hearing is more about gaining intelligence than sensory perception. On the other hand, User-13568560369541403401’s example of I’m Owning You in this game works because that sense of own is not a state of possession; it is an action of defeating someone.

So, the grammatical division between the verbs needs to be more clear and contextual. But by default, both am owning and am owing are ungrammatical in English because both verbs are perceived as states.

Is “further develop” grammatically correct?

The simple answer is yes; it’s grammatically correct. However, further (additional) explanation than this mere response could help deepen your understanding.

The word “further” can be used as a verb, an adjective, and an adverb.

From your question, the further here is used as an adverb (meaning at a greater distance or to a greater extent), which could be placed before the verb or after it, depending on the occasion. A few examples will help:

Is “further develop” grammatically correct?

“After her basic education, she further developed herself by going to a college.”

“The need to develop themselves further was what led them into recruiting an expert.”

“I personally think that developing further in one’s career as a young person requires some external prodding.”

I hope you find this useful.

Is “further develop” grammatically correct?

Short Answer: Yes.

It is indeed grammatically correct. It’s interchangeable between “further develop” and “develop further,” depending on the sentence you may use.

For example,

“I wish to develop further on learning new languages.”

and

“It gave me the chance to further develop my English skills.”

Using “further” in “further develop” explains that you know about the topic and desire to continue.

Is “further develop” grammatically correct?

I need some clarification about your query. How do you want to use it? Further is a verb, an adverb, and a determiner of an adjective, too. If I only focus on these two words, the arrangement must be corrected. As I mentioned earlier, further is a determiner of an adjective; it means a noun must come after it while developing is a verb because an adjective is a word used just before a noun to qualify it or add something to its meaning. It should be further developed. Otherwise, it depends on how you use further in your sentence according to your needs.

Is “further develop” grammatically correct?

Absolutely. But I wouldn’t use ‘since’ In the same sentence as ‘Further.’ There are two different types of writing/speaking.

for example;

(The words ‘in this’ are my changes; I am trying to help.)

‘This scenario’ gave me the ‘Opportunity’ to ‘further develop’ my ‘grasp of the English language, a rather necessary Skill, as one in every three’ of our customers were foreigners.

Is “I will not make any more promises” grammatically correct?

Unlike Kathleen Watson, whose answer I just read, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with “any” in your sentence. Of course, I agree with Ms. Watson that the sentence is technically correct, but I would go further. I prefer “I will not make any more promises” to “I will not make more promises.”

Is “I will not make any more promises” grammatically correct?

So, how do I prove my point? Sadly, I can’t. It’s a matter of taste. I’m not bothered by the fact that “any” can be skipped without changing the meaning. The second sentence (without “any”) sounds slightly stilted. So, this omission would put the second sentence with Ms. Watson’s examples of awkward sentences. This is just a matter of my feelings for the language, and I’m not the Language Czar.