Grammar Quirks: Tupelo Hassman on Character Sound

Grammar Girl: What’s your favorite word and why?

Tupelo Hassman: "Apologize." I keep this word on my person because I make mistakes all the time, but not being afraid to use this word, knowing all that it admits and promises, it’s a tiny superpower. Like a mistake, an apology is something you make, and is work that shouldn’t wait.

GG: What’s a word you dislike (either because it’s overused or misused) and why?

TH: "Amazing." Can someone help me stop using this word? Is there a support group?

GG: What word will you always misspell?

TH: "Villain." Unless I think of it as itself and know that it is out to get me with its treacherous “ai” pairing.

GG: What word (or semblance of a word) would you like to see added to the dictionary? Why?

TH: All the slang and off-color language, please, but I’ll pick one: "chingy." As a kid, I spent a lot of evenings in my dad’s machine shop watching him gamble with his friends (like all kids do). Dad’s friends, Jewish, Saudi Arabian, Korean, Mexican, owned the neighboring shops, and there was so much language, so much slang, and I absorbed a lot of that (and can kick ass at backgammon). "Chingy" is one of my favorites, short for "chingadera," Spanish for that f***ing thing, I can’t remember what it’s called. I love how "chingy" reveals the emotional state of the speaker. When I say, “Hand me that chingy,” you know how I feel. Thank you for handing me the "chingy."

I love how "chingy" reveals the emotional state of the speaker.

GG: Any grammar pet peeves we should know about?

TH: The temptation to correct someone’s grammar in an argument… it is classist and colonialist and all the things and if an argument is sinking this low, really, it’s time to walk away. I wish people, including myself, were more focused on ideas than on whether those ideas are properly made-up.

GG: To what extent does grammar play a role in character development and voice?

TH: I think a lot about sound when I’m finding a character. Rory Dawn, the protagonist of "girlchild," lives in the "r’s", she’s gravelly, like the roads where she lives. Helen Dedleder, of...

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