Fowler's New Pocket

"We have our eyes... on the... Englishman... who wants to know 'Can I say so-&-so?... Is this use English?..." Henry Fowler's aim was to produce a book that laid out clear recommendations for the common man about usage of the English language, a helpful set of instructions that would become an authoritative guide on grammar and style. And today, it is not just the 'Englishman' who reaches for Fowler's Modern English Usage when in need of a little help or reminder of how to write effectively and correctly. Fowler's guide has become world-famous and the updated edition of Pocket Fowler's Modern English Usage (out this month) offers everyone an invaluable source of the best advice on current English usage.

The publication of this second concise edition (edited by experienced lexicographer Robert Allen) coincides with the 150th anniversary of Fowler's birth. Henry Watson Fowler was born on 10th March 1858 in Tonbridge, Kent. After graduating from Balliol College, Oxford, he taught at schools in Scotland and Yorkshire before moving to London to work as a journalist and writer. In 1903, Fowler moved to Guernsey to live close to his brother Francis. Here, his link to the Press became established as he and Francis compiled the first edition of the Concise Oxford Dictionary (derived in part from the Oxford English Dictionary), which was published in 1911.

1926 saw the publication of A Dictionary of Modern English Usage. Fowler worked to lay out guidance for written and spoken use of the English language sanctioned by long practice, common sense, and, where appropriate, the rules of the classical languages of Greece and Rome. A second edition was edited by Sir Earnest Gowers in 1965, and a third by Robert Burchfield in 1996. Our 2008 concise version reflects the needs of today by using the unrivalled modern resources of Oxford's English Dictionaries programme and language monitoring, including data from the two-billion-word Oxford Corpus, yet is still faithful to Fowler's original format. It aims to answer the common niggling questions; can you use a split infinitive or a preposition at the end of a sentence? Is it infer or imply? Who or whom? What are the main differences between British and American English? Click on the links below to see some helpful tips on a few of the above questions, plus more.

Click on the following links to see what the latest Fowler says on split infinitives, emails, oxymorons, parking attendants, prepositions, and lychgates.

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