Welcome to the Grammar Minute, where we’re saving the English language sixty seconds at a time! I’m Lauren Smyth, and once a year I visit a certain restaurant in Montana which allows no pets whatsoever. That’s literally what the sign on the door says—except “whatsoever” is spelled in a very unusual way. It’s split into three words: “what’s,” “so,” and “ever.”
This is completely wrong. Don’t do this. It does draw attention to the sign, so maybe it’s serving its purpose, but “whatsoever” is always one word. No hyphens, no spaces. Remember, if you say it out loud—“whatsoever”—you don’t hear any of those natural, slight vocal pauses that signal there needs to be a space or a punctuation mark.
Written and spoken English mirror each other. You can hear grammar in the way someone speaks, and you can hear speech in grammatically correct writing. That can be a litmus test for your own writing and speaking to gauge how clearly you’re communicating.
That’s your Grammar Minute! Visit thegrammarminute.com for more tips and tricks.