Law & Order: Grammar Police

You know, I realize this will come as a shock to most of you, but this blog is not what conventional wisdom likes to call "influential" or "widely read." I tried, for a time, to carry myself with a certain dignity and refuse to pander to the lowest dregs of our society just to gain some temporary internet notoriety--but I gave that up when I realized that it wasn't increasing my hit count.

So now I'm pulling out all the stops and giving America what it wants--a series of lectures on grammar and usage!

This week, we'll start with a minor irriation that flared up for me just this past week as I was reading a popular webcomic, Ugly Hill.

Populous is not a noun, people.

"Populous" is an adjective. It modifies nouns. It is used to indicate the degree to which a place is filled with population. For instance, Chicago is a very populous city. Greater Metropolitan Virden is not a populous place.

"Populace" is a noun. The populace of a place is the population of that place, and it's usually only used to refer to a population of human beings. Both words sound like "POP-you-luss" when spoken aloud, but they're only homophones. Substitute at your peril.