Garner's Modern English Usage

Garner's Modern English Usage

Author	Bryan A. Garner
Country	United States
Language	English
Subject	Style guide
Publisher	Oxford University Press
Publication date	1998–2022
Media type	Print (Hardcover)
Pages	1,312 (fifth edition)
ISBN	9780197599020
Website	global.oup.com/academic/product/garners-modern-english-usage-9780197599020

Garner's Modern English Usage (GMEU), written by Bryan A. Garner and published by Oxford University Press, is a usage dictionary and style guide (or 'prescriptive dictionary') for contemporary Modern English.^{[1][pages needed]} It was first published in 1998 as A Dictionary of Modern American Usage, with a focus on American English, which it retained for the next two editions as Garner's Modern American Usage (GMAU). It was expanded to cover English more broadly in the 2016 fourth edition, under the present title. The work covers issues of usage, pronunciation, and style, from distinctions among commonly confused words and phrases to notes on how to prevent verbosity and obscurity. In addition, it contains essays about the English language. An abridged version of the first edition was also published as The Oxford Dictionary of American Usage and Style in 2000 and a similar version was published in The Chicago Manual of Style 16th edition in 2017. The latter includes three sections titled "Grammar", "Syntax" and "Word Usage", each with several subcategories.^[2]

In a study that compared Garner's usage guide to Henry W. Fowler's, Robin Straaijer said that the two have many similarities. He pointed out that Garner (who had expressed his admiration for Fowler's work) had organized his book in a similar format and agreed with Fowler on many usage debates.^[3]