Macmillan Holdings, LLC. Grammar Girl, Grammar Girl's, QDnow, and Quick and Dirty Tips are all trademarks of Macmillan Holdings, LLC. Does anyone know what these words mean? Jennifer Talsma grammar I'm not sure if this item doesn't do more to confuse the biannual, biennial, semiannual issue. The first commenter referred to a written "biannual" which he thought should have been "semiannual". Well, according to my dictionary, biannual does mean the same as semiannual, while biennial means "every other year". Apparently, this is one of our language's rule exceptions. Perhaps you could specifically mention this in an episode to prevent people making the same error as the first commenter above. http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/biweekly-versus-semiweekly.aspx?commentid=16343#Comments http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/biweekly-versus-semiweekly.aspx?commentid=16343#Comments Thu, 02 Apr 2009 22:08:23 GMT FredFromLongIsland grammar I noticed the use of "biannual" in a document, and I asked my manager if maybe the author meant semiannual. "Aren't they the same?" I asked the author, and he said it too! Thanks for providing this reference. http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/biweekly-versus-semiweekly.aspx?commentid=15519#Comments http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/biweekly-versus-semiweekly.aspx?commentid=15519#Comments Wed, 28 Jan 2009 18:17:05 GMT Eric grammar In the mortgage industry, it's fairly codified that bi-weekly payments are made every two weeks and bi-monthly payments are made twice a month. Check out http://www.loan.com/truth-about-loans/biweekly-and-a-bimonthly. http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/biweekly-versus-semiweekly.aspx?commentid=14234#Comments http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/biweekly-versus-semiweekly.aspx?commentid=14234#Comments Wed, 08 Oct 2008 10:06:36 GMT Mindi grammar We don't hear "fortnight" much in the U.S. I'm going to start using it. It makes me feel like Jane Austen. http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/biweekly-versus-semiweekly.aspx?commentid=13264#Comments http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/biweekly-versus-semiweekly.aspx?commentid=13264#Comments Wed, 30 Jul 2008 21:06:50 GMT Hiker grammar There is another solution adopted in English English which is to use the word fortnight in preference to biweekly. Using just fortnight and semiweekly is much clearer. It is really biweekly which is confusing and which well all deprecate. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fortnight http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/biweekly-versus-semiweekly.aspx?commentid=13247#Comments http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/biweekly-versus-semiweekly.aspx?commentid=13247#Comments Tue, 29 Jul 2008 15:19:37 GMT Tanya Emerson grammar I think that saying twice a week or every two weeks is much easier to remember. Why make things more confusing or complicated. http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/biweekly-versus-semiweekly.aspx?commentid=13230#Comments http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/biweekly-versus-semiweekly.aspx?commentid=13230#Comments Mon, 28 Jul 2008 23:55:02 GMT Peter Schuman grammar Your grammar quiz widget asks one to choose "the best" of three sentences, all of which describe the speaker as "more proud" of the addressee. Having this ungrammatical wording makes all three sentences "more bad" than they should be. http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/biweekly-versus-semiweekly.aspx?commentid=13189#Comments http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/biweekly-versus-semiweekly.aspx?commentid=13189#Comments Fri, 25 Jul 2008 04:16:24 GMT Charles Carson grammar Ben, you write that dictionary.com says "biweekly" and "semiweekly" "can be used interchangeably." It should be noted that most dictionaries are descriptive in nature, not prescriptive -- that is, they describe how words *are* used, not how they *should* be used. However, you're right that it clouds the issue, thus the style manuals' recommendations to avoid ambiguity by saying "twice a week" or "every two weeks." http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/biweekly-versus-semiweekly.aspx?commentid=13144#Comments http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/biweekly-versus-semiweekly.aspx?commentid=13144#Comments Thu, 17 Jul 2008 15:09:03 GMT Ben grammar Apparently, according to dictionary.com the two words can be used interachangeably. While looking up the definition of "biweekly" you are given definitions that mean both twice a week (with semiweekly in parathesis after it), and also every two weeks. http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/biweekly-versus-semiweekly.aspx?commentid=13143#Comments http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/biweekly-versus-semiweekly.aspx?commentid=13143#Comments Thu, 17 Jul 2008 14:53:01 GMT Grammar Girl grammar Apparently I misspoke in the podcast and said "Bi-weekly is every two *months,* and semi-monthly..." Biweekly means every two *weeks,* of course. Sorry. (I'm on the road for the next two weeks and can't fix the audio.) http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/biweekly-versus-semiweekly.aspx?commentid=13134#Comments http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/biweekly-versus-semiweekly.aspx?commentid=13134#Comments Tue, 15 Jul 2008 22:41:20 GMT Thu, 02 Apr 2009 22:08:23 GMT http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/biweekly-versus-semiweekly.aspx feedback@quickanddirtytips.com (Managing Editor) feedback@quickanddirtytips.com (Webmaster) en-us