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When You Catch an Adjective, Kill It
Ben Yagoda
The Parts of Speech, for Better And/Or Worse
Broadway
February 2007
On Sale: February 13, 2007
256 pages
ISBN: 0767920775
EAN: 9780767920773
Hardcover
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Non-Fiction
What do you get when you mix nine parts of speech, one great
writer, and generous dashes of insight, humor, and
irreverence? One phenomenally entertaining language book. In his waggish yet authoritative book, Ben Yagoda has
managed to undo the dark work of legions of English teachers
and libraries of dusty grammar texts. Not since School House
Rock have adjectives, adverbs, articles, conjunctions,
interjections, nouns, prepositions, pronouns, and verbs been
explored with such infectious exuberance. Read If You Catch
an Adjective, Kill It and: Learn how to write better with classic advice from writers
such as Mark Twain (“If you catch an adjective, kill it”),
Stephen King (“I believe the road to hell is paved with
adverbs”), and Gertrude Stein (“Nouns . . . are completely
not interesting”). Marvel at how a single word can shift from adverb (“I did
okay”), to adjective (“It was an okay movie”), to
interjection (“Okay!”), to noun (“I gave my okay”), to verb
(“Who okayed this?”), depending on its use. Avoid the pretentious preposition at, a favorite of real
estate developers (e.g., “The Shoppes at White Plains”). Laugh when Yagoda says he “shall call anyone a dork to the
end of his days” who insists on maintaining the distinction
between shall and will. Read, and discover a book whose pop culture references,
humorous asides, and bracing doses of discernment and common
sense convey Yagoda’s unique sense of the “beauty, the joy,
the artistry, and the fun of language.”
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