How’s your grammar? And I don’t mean the person married to your grandfather.

I’ve been a word person most of my life. My parents established that base, and I’ve built on it for eight decades.

English is an evolving language, and it’s easy to find many differences between the English spoken in Great Britain and the American English written and spoken here. Both versions have changed substantially through the generations.

I think you’ll find it easy to understand the points I’m making, regardless of whether you agree with them. I’m not going to cite lots of rules and grammatical terms such as nominative, objective and possessive cases. Bear with me.

My first premise is to omit needless words. That was a major theme in a book, The Elements of Style, written in 1919 by William Strunk Jr., a professor at Cornell University. I recently reread the third edition revised and updated in 1979 by one of Strunk’s students, E.B. White.

I find television broadcasters to be among the worst offenders, especially sportscasters. They’re always recognizing record performances and enthusiastically exclaim that something has happened “for the first time ever.” What does ever add to the phrase that for the first time didn’t already convey?

The same sportscaster may also assert that “the Seattle Mariners are presently in first place in their division of the American League.” We most often use present tense as we speak and write, followed most closely by past and future tenses, and an additional variety of conditional tenses.

But stating that the Mariners are in first place succinctly says what is happening in the present, and it doesn’t need an extra word such as presently, currently or now. Only is a word that many people place improperly, and they don’t even realize it. Take this sentence as an example, and move the word only around to different places and see how it changes the meaning:

Only I went to the bank on Monday to cash a check. Nobody else did.

I only went to the bank on Monday to cash a check. I didn’t drive around it.

I went only to the bank on Monday to cash a check. I didn’t go anywhere else.

I went to the bank only on Monday to cash a check. I didn’t go back Tuesday or later.

I went to the bank on Monday only to cash a check. I didn’t make a deposit, too.

I went to the bank on Monday to cash only a check. No CDs nor bonds.

I went to the bank on Monday to cash an only check. Only one check.

And then there are the Liberty Mutual Insurance television commercials. Every time I hear “only pay for what you need” I bury my head. Please change it to pay for only what you need!

Another four-letter word, last, should often be replaced with past. “I went to the bank five times in the last week.” How do you know it was the last week and that there will never be any more weeks? Is Armageddon near? Substitute past for last and the sentence is much more precise.

Strunk also advises that we put statements in positive form, and such structure usually omits needless words. Don’t forget should become remember, replacing two negatives and omitting a needless word.

Unique stands alone, just like pregnant. Neither needs nor should have a modifying adjective. If something is unique, it stands alone, not very unique or moderately unique. There may be different phases of a pregnancy, but very pregnant is a needless modification.

Euphemisms should be avoided. After death one’s body is buried or cremated or both, but not laid to rest! How restful can burial be for the deceased?

Avoid useless words. “At this moment in time” gained popularity during the Kennedy administration, and sadly it survives. At this moment, ok. At this time, ok. Together? Not necessary, just redundant.

Yes, English is a changing language, and many of the changes might be common in one part of the country but not another. Then we have colloquialisms to further muck things up. How many times have you read or heard that the bar or restaurant closed for good? Whose good? Certainly not the owner, the employees nor the landlord. Wouldn’t closed permanently say it more succinctly, save a word and eliminate the judgment factor?

Is avoiding criticism of sexism a worthy writing goal? Strunk states that “the use of he as pronoun for nouns embracing both genders is a simple, practical convention rooted in the beginnings of the English language. He has lost all suggestion of maleness in these circumstances.”

But many feminists and others take issue with that precept by substituting a he or she, him or her, or plural them when he has traditionally carried the load efficiently.

I hope my ramblings have made you think about your language skills, even though we haven’t broached the superfluous “like” or “you know.”

At this moment in time, don’t forget to make those skills the best ever and share them with your friends. Hopefully, he or she will lay their bad habits to rest. Only one can hope.