Welcome to the Grammar Minute, where we’re saving the English language sixty seconds at a time! I’m Lauren Smyth, and would you ever step foot into a restaurant that smelled like dead raccoon?
Of course you wouldn’t, but probably not for the reason you think. You’d never “step foot” anywhere because what you mean is “set foot.” That’s “set,” not “step.”
A whole nother problem is the invention and subsequent abuse of the word “nother.” Which is in fact not a word. That’s … a whole OTHER topic.
I have a sneaky suspicion—excuse me, SNEAKING suspicion—there are quite a lot of commonly abused phrases besides the ones I’ve mentioned here. Do you ever encounter an “escape goat” when you’re looking for a “scapegoat?”
Let’s nip this in the butt—that is, in the BUD—before things get out of hand.
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