Writers know it instinctively: Verbs make a sentence zing. Grammar gurus agree: Drama in writing emerges from the interplay of a subject (noun) and a predicate (verb).
In her new book, Vex, Hex, Smash, Smooch: Let Verbs Power Your Writing , Constance Hale (the best-selling author of Sin and Syntax: How to Craft Wickedly Effective Prose) zooms in on the colorful world of verbs and marches us through linguistic history to paint a layered picture of our language—from before it really existed to the quirky usages we see online today.
Constance Hale is a San Francisco based journalist with a particular interest in the interesting edges of language.
