A Word, Please:

Around holidays past, I have written about grammar and language books that I think make great gifts. But this year, times are tough. For example, all the preparations I’ve made for a posh retirement flush with macaroni and cheese and network TV look like they’ll net me nothing more than macaroni, hold the cheese, and no TV (I’ll have to sell it to buy the macaroni).

So this year, instead of grammar resources that cost a whopping $10 or $12, I’m suggesting you check out some of my favorite free grammar resources.

My favorite website for learning grammar basics is probably “The Tongue Untied” at www.grammaruntied.com. It’s a good overview of grammar nuts and bolts, including the parts of speech and important issues like subject-verb agreement. It’s very well-organized and user-friendly. And very beginner-friendly, too.

Another beginner-friendly resource comes in audio form. Grammar Girl’s Quick & Dirty Tips are online in podcast form at grammar.quickand dirtytips.com. Point of disclosure: Grammar Girl Mignon Fogarty is an e-mail friend of mine. The podcasts are free, so there’s nothing in it for me even though there’s plenty in them for you.

Another free treat for the ears, “A Way With Words” is a San Diego-based public radio program dedicated to grammar and language. Hosts Martha Barnette and Brad Garrett banter while taking listener calls and questions. You can listen at www.waywordradio.org.

Here’s a fun one. Atlantic Monthly magazine editor and “Word Court” columnist Barbara Wallraff maintains a blog at barbarawallraff.the atlantic.com. In case you’re not familiar with her column, she often runs a feature called “Word Fugitive” in which she asks readers to make up words for heretofore unlabeled phenomena. For example, what would you call “the seemingly universal, irresistible impulse, when faced with a dishwasher that someone else has loaded, to rearrange the dishes”? Her readers’ suggestions include “obsessive- compulsive dishorder” and “redishtribution.”

For those with some basic knowledge of grammar who are interested in some of its finer points, Washington Post business copy desk chief Bill Walsh offers professional insights at the “Sharp Points” section of his blog, at www.theslot.com/ sharp. Here you can learn what the pros do when confronted with tricky issues such as parallel construction and “a” vs. “an” before words like “historic.”