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0:52

Girl here. I'm Mignon Fogarty, your friendly

0:54

guide to the English language. We talk

0:56

about writing, history, roles and other cool

0:59

stuff. Today, we're going to

1:01

talk about how to use political words

1:03

like President Elect and lame duck. And

1:05

then I have my favorite kind

1:07

of hot grammar news about a German

1:10

apostrophe kerfuffle. It's

1:12

hard to miss a United States presidential

1:14

election year. You're bombarded with political ads

1:17

every time you turn on your TV.

1:20

On social media, heated debates about

1:22

who should run the country suddenly

1:24

outnumber your best friend's cat pics.

1:27

Campaign signs have sprouted like

1:29

dandelions on lawns across your

1:31

neighborhood. Well, today

1:33

we're actually going to have a little

1:35

respite from all that. Instead

1:37

of arguing about who deserves your vote,

1:39

we're going to dig into the world

1:41

of election terminology. When does

1:44

a regular Joe or Jane turn into

1:46

a presumptive nominee? At

1:48

what magical moment does one candidate

1:50

earn the title President Elect? And

1:53

why on earth do we

1:55

call outgoing presidents lame ducks?

1:58

Spoiler alert, it has nothing to do with their

2:00

waddling abilities. So

2:04

ever wonder how our

2:06

beloved yellow snail Squiggly

2:08

becomes presumptive nominee Squiggly?

2:11

Well setting aside he's clearly not

2:13

responsible enough to get that far,

2:15

let's dig in. Presumptive

2:18

nominee is political speak for we're pretty

2:20

darn sure this person's going to win

2:23

the party's nomination but we

2:25

don't want to jinx it. Still

2:28

the term presumptive is important because

2:30

nothing's a sure thing until after

2:33

the party's national convention. And

2:36

given that presumptive nominee isn't

2:38

a title so much as a descriptor,

2:40

it isn't capitalized. And

2:44

although we're past the presumptive stage for the

2:46

current election, journalists are typically

2:48

careful about when they apply the term

2:50

to a candidate. They

2:52

don't presume someone's a nominee

2:55

until it's mathematically inevitable. For

2:58

example, the Associated Press only

3:00

uses presumptive nominee once

3:02

a candidate has earned enough delegates to

3:04

win a majority vote at their national

3:06

party convention. And in

3:08

case you're wondering, it's the same for

3:10

the vice president. A candidate's running mate

3:13

is also considered presumptive after the primary

3:15

votes are tallied but before

3:17

the party's national convention. Now

3:20

in the United States, presidential elections

3:22

happen every four years in November.

3:25

But the newly elected president

3:27

doesn't take over immediately. That

3:30

happens after the inauguration. That

3:32

happens on January 20th or the 21st if

3:35

January 20th happens to be on a Sunday. So

3:38

before the inauguration, an incoming

3:41

president is referred to

3:43

as president-elect. For

3:45

the Associated Press, that designation kicks in as

3:48

soon as it's clear who won and the

3:50

race has been called. But

3:52

here's a word of caution. This declaration

3:54

can sometimes take a few days

3:56

or even longer to happen, especially

3:58

in close elections. So,

4:01

let's say it's November, and the

4:03

presidential race has been called and

4:05

Squiggly will take office in January.

4:08

As part of Squiggly's new

4:10

title, you capitalize President, but

4:12

lowercase the suffix elect, and

4:15

always use a hyphen. Today,

4:17

President-elect Squiggly announced his

4:20

Cabinet picks. Capital

4:22

President, hyphen-elect. If

4:25

the term stands alone or follows

4:27

a name, you use lowercase. The

4:30

President-elect scheduled a press conference tomorrow.

4:34

President-elect, lowercase, and hyphenated.

4:37

President Aardvark will appear

4:40

alongside Squiggly, comma, President-elect.

4:43

Also President-elect, lowercase, and hyphenated.

4:47

After the inauguration, a President-elect

4:49

officially becomes President, and their

4:51

running mate becomes Vice President.

4:54

In both AP and Chicago

4:56

styles, you capitalize President and

4:58

Vice President only when they're

5:00

used as a title. For

5:02

example, President is capitalized in this

5:05

sentence. Yesterday, President

5:07

Squiggly expressed a desire to

5:09

make Tuesday the nation's official

5:11

taco-eating day. In

5:14

all other cases, President and Vice

5:16

President are lowercase. For example, it's

5:18

lowercase in this sentence. The

5:21

National Taco Appreciation Society

5:23

applauds the President's initiative.

5:27

And one fun fact for trivia night. If

5:29

you follow the Chicago Manual of Style, one

5:32

government office is always capitalized.

5:35

Speaker. That's true whether

5:38

it's used as part of a title or not.

5:41

For example, Speaker is capitalized

5:43

every time in this sentence.

5:46

It's likely Speaker Zippy will call

5:48

the Taco Day Declaration into question.

5:51

It's widely known that the Speaker is more

5:53

of a hot dog fan. The

5:56

distinction likely exists for clarity's

5:58

sake. legislative institution

6:00

like the House of Representatives, where

6:02

everybody has something to say and

6:05

the things they say are recorded

6:07

for posterity, using the

6:09

word lowercase speaker could be

6:11

confusing. Are we talking about

6:14

the speaker of the house or just the

6:16

speaker currently holding the floor? It's

6:19

not a universal rule though. If

6:21

you follow AP style, then speaker is

6:24

only capitalized as part of a title,

6:26

even when you're talking about the speaker of the house.

6:29

As in the speaker has expressed

6:31

resentment over his hot dog Friday's

6:34

initiative failing to pass mustard, mustard.

6:38

Presidents who have left office are referred

6:41

to as former and you shouldn't

6:43

capitalize former even when it's part of a title.

6:46

It turned out the sandwich left

6:48

in the Oval Office belonged to

6:50

former president Aardvark, lowercase

6:53

former. Finally,

6:55

again, why on earth do we

6:57

call certain presidents the lame duck

6:59

presidents? Well, the

7:01

term refers to a president who's either

7:03

chosen not to run for reelection or

7:06

has been defeated in an election and

7:08

is serving out the remainder of their

7:10

term. But lame

7:12

duck isn't just for presidential elections.

7:15

According to Edam online, it originated in 1761

7:19

and referred to any disabled person

7:21

or thing. It was

7:24

also stock exchange slang for a

7:26

defaulter. The modern

7:28

use of lame duck to refer to a

7:30

defeated or retiring candidate serving out their term

7:33

didn't hit the American English scene until 1863.

7:38

A few years later, Abraham Lincoln's

7:40

friend and biographer, Noah Brooks, told

7:42

of Lincoln showing his annoyance with

7:44

politicians by saying that, quote, a

7:47

senator or representative out of business

7:49

is a sort of lame duck.

7:51

He has to be provided for.

7:55

So there you have it, a crash course

7:57

in political lingo that'll make you sound like

7:59

a Washington insider. at your next

8:01

dinner party. Go forth and impress

8:03

your friends with your newfound electoral

8:05

eloquence. That segment was

8:07

written by Karen Lund-Hertzberg, a former Quick and

8:10

Dirty Tips editor who's crafted hundreds of articles

8:12

on the art of writing well. She

8:14

was an online education pioneer, founding one

8:17

of the first online writing workshops. These

8:20

days, she provides writing tips

8:22

and writing coach services at

8:24

helpmerightbetter.com. Imagine

8:30

what's possible when learning doesn't get in the way

8:32

of life. At Capella University,

8:34

our game-changing FlexPath learning format lets you set

8:36

your own deadline so you can learn at

8:38

a time and pace that works for you.

8:41

It's an education you can tailor to your schedule.

8:43

That means you don't have to put your life

8:46

on hold to pursue your professional goals. Instead,

8:48

enjoy learning your way and earning a

8:50

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8:53

different future is closer than you think

8:55

with Capella University. Learn more

8:57

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LinkedIn, the place to be, to

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be. I

10:05

was absolutely delighted to see a

10:07

story this week about Germans getting

10:09

all upset about apostrophes. I love

10:12

stories like this. Usually

10:14

it's the French Academy going off

10:16

about how much they hate English

10:18

words like email sullying their language.

10:21

But this time it's actually

10:23

the Permissive Council for German

10:25

Orthography telling the citizenry that

10:27

it is fine to use

10:29

apostrophes to make names possessive,

10:32

which is a decidedly English practice,

10:35

and German sticklers getting all upset about

10:37

it. So let's

10:39

back up. What is orthography and

10:42

why does Germany have a council

10:44

about it? Well,

10:46

the word itself means correct writing,

10:48

and it's usually thought of as

10:50

the rules for spelling, but it

10:52

also covers things like whether properly

10:55

spelled words are capitalized, of

10:57

apostrophes and hyphens, and

10:59

in German umlauts. So

11:01

I started reading about German orthography, as

11:04

one does, and realized that oh no

11:06

no, this is not at all something

11:08

new. It turns out

11:11

controversial changes to German spelling rules

11:13

go back to at least 1996

11:17

when an international group that included

11:19

people from multiple German-speaking countries, Germany,

11:22

Switzerland, Austria, and Liechtenstein,

11:25

signed an agreement making changes to

11:27

the language that people then fought

11:29

about for years, especially

11:32

teachers. The

11:34

biggest changes were about when to use

11:36

the double S symbol called the S-set

11:38

or the sharp S that looks a

11:40

lot like a capital B. But

11:42

there were also some capitalization changes

11:44

and changes that involved breaking apart

11:46

some of those long compound words

11:48

that German is known for. And

11:51

people have been talking about German

11:54

spelling reform for decades before these

11:56

changes were actually made. So

11:58

in 2004, our

12:01

apostrophe-loving Council for German Orthography

12:03

seems to be what emerged

12:05

on the other side of

12:07

these battles. And it

12:09

is also an international group, including

12:12

members from seven different countries. So

12:15

I ran almost the whole website for the

12:17

Council through Google Translate to figure out that

12:20

the members meet twice a year with some

12:22

breakout working groups, and then

12:24

they set orthography rules and also publish

12:26

a dictionary. Since their

12:28

formation, I believe they've published official updates

12:30

to the language three times in 2011,

12:33

2017, and now again in July

12:38

of 2024. And it's

12:40

this most recent update approving

12:42

what Germans actually call the

12:44

Idiots Apostrophe, the Deppen-Apostraaf,

12:47

that caused the uproar.

12:49

So here's the

12:51

deal with the apostrophe. Germans

12:53

don't use it to make words possessive

12:55

like we do. If they

12:58

want to write that this is Eva's

13:00

Flour Shop, they just put an S

13:02

on the end of Eva. There's no

13:04

apostrophe like we do it. Or at

13:06

least there wasn't officially until now. But

13:09

apparently Germans have been doing their own

13:12

thing and writing names this way for

13:14

a while, which is why there's a

13:16

derogatory name for it. And

13:18

which is why the Council finally said

13:21

fine. This thing is widespread. People obviously

13:23

want it or feel like they need

13:25

it, so fine. But it

13:27

turns out even this isn't completely

13:30

new. Going all the

13:32

way back to the first set

13:34

of rule changes, the Council said

13:36

it was okay to use the

13:38

apostrophe in proper nouns to clear

13:40

up possible confusion between names like

13:43

Carlo and Carlos. For

13:45

example, the difference between Carlos'

13:47

Tavern and Carlos' Tavern. So

13:50

the change is really just to say that

13:52

you can do it for any proper noun,

13:54

not just when leaving it out might be

13:56

confusing. And as you might have

13:58

noticed, it's still a complicated because

14:01

it's only for proper nouns,

14:03

names, and not for other

14:05

nouns. So Germans

14:07

can now properly use an

14:09

apostrophe to make Peter's tavern

14:11

possessive, but they still aren't

14:13

supposed to use apostrophes to

14:15

make something like that man's

14:17

tavern possessive. Now

14:20

there are a couple of things I find

14:22

particularly interesting about this story. First,

14:25

it's fascinating that in English,

14:27

the thing about apostrophes that

14:29

causes the kind of outrage

14:31

and news stories that Germans

14:33

are currently enduring is

14:36

official bodies not using

14:38

apostrophes. For example,

14:40

North Yorkshire Council dealt with all

14:42

kinds of backlash when it said

14:44

it was going to remove apostrophes

14:46

from place names like St. Mary's

14:49

Walk to avoid problems with computer

14:51

systems. It became

14:53

an international story and caused such

14:55

a problem that they actually later

14:57

said they were going to keep

14:59

the apostrophes after all. Other reasons

15:01

companies give for dropping apostrophes

15:03

are for domain name consistency,

15:05

since you can't have an

15:07

apostrophe in something like Pete's

15:09

tavern.com, for search

15:12

engine optimization, and

15:14

just for cleaner branding. For

15:16

example, some people think the

15:18

logos for companies like Papa

15:20

John's, Starbucks, and TGI Friday's

15:22

look better, cleaner, without the

15:24

apostrophe. And when I was a professor,

15:26

a shocking number of my

15:28

students would spell the contraction can't

15:30

without the apostrophe, as if

15:33

it were can't the word for private

15:35

language used among criminals instead of a

15:37

contraction for cannot. And I

15:39

have no idea why. I asked

15:41

them and nobody could tell me. But

15:44

the trend in English definitely seems

15:46

to be away from the apostrophe.

15:50

And second, the Germans who don't

15:52

like the change grumble about English

15:54

corrupting their language. And that

15:56

may be the influence today. But the possession...

15:59

Possessive apostrophe actually isn't

16:01

our invention. In

16:04

old English, which remember is a

16:06

Germanic language, we just used S

16:08

and ES for possessives the same

16:10

way the Germans still do it.

16:13

The possessive apostrophe infiltrated our

16:15

language from either Italian or

16:18

French, depending on whom you

16:20

ask, and people called it

16:22

a mistake in English for a long time.

16:25

Shakespeare barely used them for possessives,

16:27

for example. When I

16:29

talked to Eamonn Che about apostrophes, he

16:32

told me that in Shakespeare's first folio,

16:34

about 96% of the

16:37

words we'd put apostrophes in

16:39

today didn't have them. So

16:41

my German friends, we are

16:43

together, all victims

16:46

of apostrophe-pushing Italian or

16:48

French printers. We

16:50

just succumbed hundreds of years earlier than

16:52

you did. Finally,

16:58

I have a familect story from Karen, who

17:00

shared this with me as a voice recording

17:02

on threads. Hi, Grammar Girl.

17:05

I have a familect story for you from

17:07

my favorite show. In The West

17:09

Wing, there's a scene where speechwriter

17:11

Sam Seaborn tells Leo McGarry that

17:13

he is acting like a nervous

17:16

olealia. Everyone looks at him

17:18

really perplexed and he says, it might not be

17:20

a real word, it's just something his mother used

17:22

to say. I've always wanted to

17:24

know where the writers got that. Maybe

17:27

it's a Sorkin family familect? Anyway,

17:29

I thought it'd be a good one to look into.

17:32

Thanks Karen. I love a good mystery and

17:34

when I tried to search, I couldn't find

17:36

anything about this word. So maybe

17:39

someone in the audience can help. Who

17:41

knows about being a nervous olealia? Let

17:43

me know. If you want

17:45

to shed some light on this or share your

17:47

own familect, you can do it in a voice

17:49

chat on WhatsApp or send me a voice message

17:51

on threads like Karen did or you can still

17:53

call the voicemail line at 83-321-4GIRL. And

17:58

all of those are in the show notes. Next,

18:01

later this week, I have an extra

18:03

special interview with writing inspiration extraordinaire Anne

18:06

Lamott, who talks about her life in

18:08

writing and how you can shed your

18:10

demons and become the writer you want

18:12

to be. And she's also

18:14

involved in a writing retreat that's coming up fast

18:17

and I don't want you to miss it. It's

18:19

called Writers Rising and it's October 25th

18:21

to 27th in Hollywood. But

18:25

there's also a really well thought out online version

18:27

too. So even if you can't make it in

18:29

person, you should check it out. Besides

18:32

Anne, speakers also include Cheryl Strayed

18:34

and Marlon James. And

18:36

besides craft advice and inspiration, you'll have

18:39

time for your own writing and meeting

18:42

other writers and making professional

18:44

connections with Penguin editors and

18:46

literary agents. It sounds amazing.

18:48

And if you use my code, you'll get 10% off.

18:52

So check it out. Go

18:54

to writersrising.com, that's writersrising.com and

18:57

use the code GRAMMARGIRL10, that's

18:59

GRAMMARGIRL10. And

19:02

you'll hear a little more about it in a couple

19:04

of days in my interview with Anne Lamott. I

19:07

swear after I finished talking with her, I felt like

19:09

I could write anything. Grammar

19:11

Girl is a quick and dirty tips

19:13

podcast. Thanks to Davina Tomlin and Nat

19:16

Hoopes in marketing, Holly Hutchings in digital

19:18

operations, Dan Fireabend in audio, Morgan Christensen

19:20

in advertising, and Brannon Goetchess, director of

19:23

podcasts, who just had his 20th high

19:25

school reunion. And I'm Mignon

19:27

Fogarty, better known as Grammar Girl, an author of

19:29

the tip of day book, The Grammar

19:31

Daily. That's all. Thanks

19:34

for listening. So

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That means you don't have to put your life

20:13

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enjoy learning your way and earning a

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at capella.edu.