Gramer Girl here. I'm Inyan Foggedy. This week I have a quick and dirty tip about the difference between being facetious, sarcastic, and sardonic.

In a meaty middle, about an unusual type of sentence called a cleft sentence. But first I have a correction and an announcement.

In last week's episode about whether it's okay to call ships she, we said that Noah's Ark from the Bible was gender neutral and it.

But I got multiple messages from learned people including a PhD and a rabbi who told me that although the Ark is referred to as it in the English translation,

in Hebrew the word used for Ark is feminine and takes feminine verbs and pronouns.

I thought that was super interesting so I'm passing it on to all of you and it shows how detailed in subtle the choices are that translators make every day.

Next I have a webinar coming up. I'm working with Regan.com to do an advanced AP style training session with a live Q&A at the end.

I'll cover tricky apostrophe rules, advanced comma rules, new additions to the AP style book, common questions such as whether a cat in a tree is a she, it or he, and more.

The webinar is on Thursday September 13th from 1 to 230 central time and will also be recorded so you can watch it later if you can't make it at that date and time.

To learn more and sign up go to bitly slash grammar webinar that's b-i-t dot L-y slash grammar webinar and now on to the quick and dirty tip.

A listener named Carrie asked what's the difference between facetious sarcastic and sardonic.

Facetious sarcastic and sardonic all have similar meanings and in practice many people use them interchangeably but I'm sure enterprising teenagers, comedians and political commentators can find uses for all three kinds of comments.

The roots of the words may help you remember which is which.

Facetious comes from a Latin word that means just. A facetious comment is a joking comment often an inappropriate joking comment.

Think of a gesture or a joker making a funny face at you and remember the first part of facetious is spelled face F-A-C-E.

Sarcastic comes from a Greek word that means to speak bitterly or to sneer out. A sarcastic response is less funny than a facetious response and more bitter and harsh.

Think of a sarcastic person sneering at you and remember that both words sneer and sarcastic start with the letter S.

Sardonic also starts with S but some dictionaries actually list sardonic as a synonym for sarcastic but sardonic still has an interesting history.

Try to associate it with the Greek island of sardinia because the Greeks coined the word sardonic from the name of that island which is now part of Italy.

A plant was said to grow on sardinia that if eaten would force a person's face muscles into a grimacing smile, not a smile of happiness but a smile of pain, a sardonic smile.

Scientists in Italy recently reported that they believe a sardinian plant called water celery is the lethal herb the Greeks had in mind.

Sardonic means cutting, cynical and disdainful and is often used to describe that kind of humor.

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