Hi, it's Mignon Fogarty, grammar girl.

And this week I have a quick and dirty tip about why you should say almost all and not

most all.

I have a meaty middle about how you can make your writing better by paying attention

to your sentence structure.

And finally I have a tidbit by Samantha Enslyn about why we call a person or an animal

a dark horse.

And now for your quick and dirty tip.

Alan Kay wrote quote,

There is a phrase or a pair of similar phrases to be precise that I have heard for years

that drives me absolutely crazy as it's grammatically incorrect.

But I have yet to ever hear one grammarian ever address it.

It's most every or most all.

To use for example the sentence, most every politician believes the president is clearly

grammatically incorrect and logically nonsensical.

In the same breath when is discussing most politicians and then every politician, two

different subsets of politicians.

I believe that what the users of this phrase are actually intending to say is almost every,

which makes perfect sense.

I hear this phrase into a lesser extent most all to an increasing degree.

Please help nip them in the bud.

Alan is correct.

...