We have updated the News & Observer blogs. That means the grammar guide has a new URL. If you have a bookmark (thanks!), you'll need to update it. This is the new URL http://blogs.newsobserver.com/grammar/home

If you are looking for something that was on the blog before June 17, you can find it here.

The new blog has a different comments system. If you are not a registered user of The News & Observer online, your comment will go into a queue for approval. I will check for comments regularly, and, unless you use foul language or violate standards in some other way, I will approve your comment for posting. If you want to register (it's free), you can go here.

If you don't wish to register but still wish to comment, you can send me e-mail and I will post your comment, with your permission. My e-mail address is pam.nelson@newsobserver.com.

On Tuesday afternoon, the News & Observer blogs will be moving to a new system and a new server. This change will make getting to our blogs quicker and easier. Most of the blogs will change their appearance, while blogs like Taking Stock and Under the Dome will remain the same.

This change requires nothing from the reader. There will be a link to the older posts, and you won't need to change your bookmarks. If you have trouble finding your favorite blog or you have a comment, please email feedback@newsobserver.com.

— Rachel Carter

In response to a post Sunday, a reader sends this photo of the navigation display in a new Lexus hybrid.

This should be the possessive "its," of course. The spelling "it's" is the contraction for "it is."

Nick, the reader who sends this photo, also sent it to the Society for the Promotion of Good Grammar. Maybe Lexus will get the message for future models.

A reader asks:

Can you cover the proper use of fast and slow as adverbs? People often say, "drive slow." Should it be "drive slowly"?

Both "slow" and "fast" can be either adjectives (a slow drip, a fast computer) or adverbs (The nervous student turned the knob slow. The car goes fast.) As adverbs, "slow" and "fast" describe how an action was taken.

=> Read more!

I had a reason to visit the National Park Service site this morning, specifically the Canaveral National Seashore (mentioned in today's Travel section). The site has interesting facts at the bottom of various pages. The site could use editing, though.

The possessive form its is needed in these sentences.

A disclaimer notice that The News & Observer posts on the new story comment system sent me to the dictionary Wednesday. (I added the red circle to show what word stopped me.)

Here is what the notice says, in part:

However, the interactive nature of the internet makes it impracticable for our staff to monitor each and every posting.

=> Read more!

A reader asked for a post about using apostrophes to make possessives. Here are the basic rules:

* Add 's to all singular common nouns and to plural common nouns that don't end in s: the boy's toys, a day's time, the boss's husband, the children's clothes.

* Add ' (apostrophe only) to plural common nouns that end in s: the boys' toys, the churches' disagreement

The Associated Press Stylebook notes this exception: Add 's to singular nouns that end in s EXCEPT when the next word begins with s: the boss' specialty, the witness' story. Not all style guides agree with that.

For proper nouns, here are the basic rules:

* Add 's to proper nouns that don't end in s: Pam's blog, Mr. Smith's class, Carolina's team, Martinez's car, Foxx's campaign, the Children's Defense Fund
* Add ' (apostrophe only) to proper nouns that end in s: the Kennedys' compound, the Smiths' mailbox, Reynolds' seats, Descartes' theories, Chris' Web site.
* But many style guides (and standard British practice) say to add 's to singular proper names that end in s: Chris's Web site, Charles's books, Reynolds's seats.

You can apply these rules almost every time you need to make a noun possessive.

As a copy editor, I understand and sympathize about typos and other errors. I've made some doozies over the years, and I've let others slip past me. I once edited temblor, a synonym for earthquake, to trembler. (What was I thinking?!?) But a typo on the television screen this morning baffles me. I don't want to go all Eats-Shoots-And-Leaves on everyone, but a person would have to go out of his or her way to insert an apostrophe here.

For the folks outside the Triangle, the building is Reynolds Coliseum in Raleigh, named for a member of the Reynolds family.

Some readers were sure we'd made a typo in this headline:

They thought we surely meant to write "beats" instead of "bests." One reader wondered if "best" could be a verb. Indeed, a check of the dictionary finds that "best" can be an adjective, an adverb, a noun or a verb. Although "bests" might not be the best choice for a verb to mean that someone defeated another in a contest, I think the headline writer made the best of the situation here ("beats" would have had unsavory overtones when the subject of the verb is male and the object of the verb is female) and we'd best be moving on.

I have a new Triangle Grammar Guide quiz. Choose the better of two words (or the best of three in one case) in each of five sentences. Click here or on the question mark icon to begin.

The Under the Dome blog refers to grammar types who are irked by the phrase "first annual." I think it's the journalist types (subset copy editors) who are most irked by the phrase. We are taught that an event should not be referred to as the "first annual" because it hasn't become "annual" until it has occurred in several consecutive years.

The people who use "first annual" are optimistic organizers who expect the event they plan to occur again, year after year. We journalists are compelled to hold them to account. We can't buy into their rosy outlook. We can't write that an event is "annual," let alone "first annual," until it happens again a year or so later. I don't even like second annual. That's not good enough for me. I will hold off granting "annual" until it has happened for, say, three consecutive years. Of course, by then, the event could be the "last annual."

Minnesota Public Radio has a podcast called Grammar Grater. Writer and producer Luke Taylor and his crew, being radio folks, do a good job of presenting grammar and usage issues in an audio format. I liked the radio drama in Episode 44 about using further and farther. Grammar Grater also has a Gather site where listeners can weigh in. Listeners can subscribe to the podcast on iTunes.

From Grammar Grater Episode 42, I learned about the Typo Eradication Advancement League, made up of Jeff Deck and other fun-loving folks who go around documenting and sometimes correcting bad public signs. The TEAL site has a cool map of the country with clickable sites. Check out two in North Carolina (Morehead City and Williamston).

I need to tell TEAL about this sign at Five County Stadium. Go, Mudcats!

Today's Triangle Grammar Guide quiz contains five sentences. In each one, you will choose the proper form of who/whom or whoever/whomever.

I hope you enjoy it and either learn something or reinforce your skill at choosing the right case. Send a comment or leave one below.

Click here or on the question mark icon to begin.

This lead on newsobserver.com confused me this morning:

A person was killed just before 11:30 p.m. Wednesday when they were hit by a train in Four Oaks, Johnston County dispatch officials said late Wednesday.

Who is "they"? Was more than one person on the tracks?

As I read the rest of this short report, I realized that the writer had used "they" to refer to a single person because the sex of the victim was not known. So what is the alternative? Some would recommend writing "he or she," but others would find that silly and unwieldy. The writer could have repeated "person," and, indeed, the rest of the brief uses a noun ("victim" or "person") to avoid having to choose a gender- or number-specific pronoun. An editor might have recast the lead entirely (provided the editor had time!) to:

A person was struck by a train and killed just before 11:30 p.m. Wednesday in Four Oaks, Johnston County dispatch officials said late Wednesday.

In instances such as this one, I wish English had a singular pronoun that was not gender-specific -- like "it," but for human beings.

I was watching MSNBC's "Morning Joe" this morning with the closed captions on. As host Joe Scarborough talked to David Axelrod of the Obama campaign, Axlerod said the Latin phrase "ad nauseam," which means something that continues to the point of nausea. Here is how this phrase was rendered in the captions:

Add gnaws eum

Go to dictionary.com to hear a pronunciation of "ad nauseam."

Go here for a interesting article about closed captioning from the Atlantic.

Here is an article from the National Captioning Institute about how real time captioning is created.

By the way, I am a big fan of closed captioning, and this post is not meant to denigrate the people who do these captions.

Finally, I have a new Triangle Grammar Guide quiz for you to try. I have upgraded to a full-featured version of the freeware I had been using. I will be able to make quizzes with different kinds of questions. But for today the quiz is five simple multiple choice questions. You might notice that the background and the buttons are slightly different. I hope the quiz works well for you. If not, please send me a note. You will see a print button on the results page, so if you are a student who is getting extra credit for taking the quiz, you can take the printout to your teacher. Also, at the end of the quiz your browser will automatically send you back to the grammar blog.

Click on the question mark icon or here to begin. Have fun.