NPR

Is The Period Dead? One BuzzFeed Editor On How The Internet Has Changed Language

The rules governing language are beginning to dwindle. But Emmy Favilla, former BuzzFeed global copy chief, says there are still grammar cops.
"A World Without 'Whom,'" by Emmy J. Favilla. (Robin Lubbock/WBUR)

Emmy Favilla, former BuzzFeed global copy chief, has written a guide to language usage and how it’s been shaped by social media and the internet.

Favilla (@em_dash3) joins Here & Now‘s Robin Young to talk about “A World Without ‘Whom’: The Essential Guide to Language in the BuzzFeed Age.”

Interview Highlights

On grammar rules

“There are rules. I think that the number of hard-and-fast rules is dwindling a bit in this age of omnipresent technology. It’s funny to me how everything else in our world evolves — technology, the food we eat, our fashion — but for whatever reason, language is this one thing that people are such sticklers about.”

On some common mistakes, and using the right words

“So a ‘hoard’ is a large collection of something, while a ‘horde’ is a large group of people, and as a copy editor, I feel like this is one of the top spelling mistakes that I see even from professional journalists and writers. And to be quite honest, sometimes I have to double check, too, because after

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