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“Least,” “Less,” “More,” and “Most” The adjectives  least ,  less ,  more , and  most  present difficulties for writers when the words are paired with other adjectives: Should hyphens be employed? And what about when  little ,  much , and similar terms are involved? Generally, do not hyphenate such constructions. The following examples are all correct: “She bought the least expensive shampoo.” “I’ve never heard a less interesting story.” “That wasn’t the most regrettable part.” “We have a more likely explanation.” But use these words cautiously in such sentences. For example, “He made several more successful efforts” is ambiguous: Does it mean that the person added a few successful efforts to his record of previous successful ones, or that the person’s efforts were more successful than previous ones? Some writers choose to hyphenate “more successful” when appropriate in such a context, but such a strategy leads to inconsistency when the hy...

3 Disagreements About How to Use “Either” and “Neither” Use of  either  and  neither , and their associated words  or  and  nor , is complicated by disagreements about proper usage. Here’s a discussion of the words and the opinions about their appropriate use. An “either . . . or” or “neither . . . nor” construction can include more than two elements, but some grammar guides advise writers to restrict the usage to reference to two choices: “I’m going to wear either blue or green” but not “I’m going to wear either blue, green, or red.” If you agree with that restriction (I don’t), delete  either  from the latter sentence — and it’s optional in the first one, for that matter. Omitting  neither  is not an option in the sentence “I’m going to wear neither blue nor green,” but the idea can also be rendered “I’m not going to wear blue or green.” The proscription against using  or , rather than  nor , with  neither ...

3 Functions of the Comma The general purpose of a comma is to separate closely related but distinct elements in a sentence. Discussion of three specific functions of the comma follows: 1. Place Names and Dates A pair of commas sets a more widely encompassing place name off from the more specific designation of a place within the other location, as in “She was born in Pensacola, Florida, in 1980.” Likewise, a reference to a year is set off from the rest of the sentence when it follows a reference to a month and day (but not to the month alone), as in “She was born on January 1, 1980, in Pensacola” (but “She was born in January 1980 in Pensacola”). When the items in a list of locations require internal commas, the items should be set off by semicolons: “I’ve participated in events with him in Kansas City, Missouri; Rapid City, South Dakota; and Oak Park, Illinois.” However, if only one of the items requires an internal comma, place it last in the series and rely on commas to dist...

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