Grammatical vs Grammatic?

sassy-tassysassy-tassy
in Education & Reference

Hi there! I'm a writing tutor, and it irks me when I don't know the answers to questions regarding grammar. My latest annoyance has been the variations on the word 'grammar' as an adjective. Is it "grammatical" or "grammatic?" As in 'your paper has several grammatical issues' or 'your paper has several grammatic issues?' This has been bothering me for years, so I figured I would finally just ask. What is the difference, and when do we use each word?

Update:

If you could please include a source for your replies, that would be lovely.

Comments

  • freya-campbell_60ac418934d3afreya-campbell_60ac418934d3a

    I don't think grammatical is really a word.

  • dylan-griffiths_60ac4189cf7afdylan-griffiths_60ac4189cf7af

    Grammatic

  • redheadredhead

    I have never even heard the word "grammatic" until I read it in your question. "Your paper has several grammatical issues" would be the correct terminology. You can google "grammatic and see what you get, but I don't think it is a word.

    Even Yahoo Answers Spell Check didn't think it was a word!

  • elsie-mason_60ac418ad1ee9elsie-mason_60ac418ad1ee9

    I thought a prefix conjoins at the beginning of a word ie justice injustice

    and a suffix conjoins at the end of a word ie grammatic grammatical

    And sometimes the who ever writes the dictionary gets it wrong

    not necessarily in this case, but sometimes.

  • kaliesqkaliesq

    Dictionary.com lists both as adjectives, but all the "related forms" are of the word "grammatical:"

    Related forms

    gram·mat·i·cal·ly, adverb

    an·ti·gram·mat·i·cal, adjective

    an·ti·gram·mat·i·cal·ly, adverb

    an·ti·gram·mat·i·cal·ness, noun

    hy·per·gram·mat·i·cal, adjective

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