Wacky Word Choice: Give My Regards to Broadway

Keep the “wacky words” coming! Thanks to all of you who have been commenting and adding to our wacky-word conversation these past few months. Please continue to post your questions and share your examples. This week’s winner is regard/regards.

Last week’s post about toward/towards sparked this question from a reader: Is it “with regard to” or “with regards to”?

Before you scroll down for the answer, ask yourself, “Which way do I say it?”

With your answer firmly in mind, now consider this sentence:

Judy Brooks said that the week of October 12 would be better for her with regards to a trip to Starkville.

Before we even tackle the word choice, we can agree this sentence is wordy. Already we can remove words such as that and for her to tighten the writing style. With the phrase with regards to, we need to remove the “s” from regards. It is grammatically correct to say with regard to. No regards. The only time you use it is when you want to give your regards to Broadway! So, the correct answer is “with regard to.” And, if we really want to tighten our writing style and improve this sentence, perhaps we should remove the entire phrase and replace it with for: 

Judy Brooks said the week of September 28 would be better for a trip to Starkville.

We successfully removed seven unnecessary words from the original sentence without changing its meaning whatsoever.

 

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Certified Speaking Professional Mandi Stanley works with business leaders who want to boost their professional image by becoming better speakers and writers through interactive high-content keynotes, breakout sessions, workshops, technical writing seminars, and fun proofreading classes. 

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