words on a page
10 things I bet you didn’t know about the English language
English is arguably the most confusing language in the world. That’s why we love it (perhaps I speak for myself – that’s why I have a language blog.) Nonetheless, I’m…
Dogs
Don’t dis my dogs: origin of words
With ‘must love dogs’ embedded in my LinkedIn profile, you might guess that I am rather distressed to learn that the origin of the word ‘doggerel’ originates from a time when people thought dogs were less than honorary human beings.
Can you just imagine living in such a heartless age, with “mean, contemptible” associations of dog in Middle English dating as far back as the 1600s?
Zeitgeist: origin of words
“The general moral, intellectual, and cultural climate of an era; For example, the Zeitgeist of England in the Victorian period included a belief in industrial progress, and the Zeitgeist of the 1980s in the United States was a belief in the power of money and the many ways in which to spend it.”
Avoid traffic lights but use breaks to prevent a crash
Grammar: Prevent or avoid
For instance, I can say, to avoid the morning rush hour traffic, I usually leave my house an hour early. In this context, prevent is a misfit. However, if I say “to prevent heat stroke on hot summer days, drink plenty of water and stay out of the sun”.
Both shelves are lined with books
Why I find both bothersome
Both is often unnecessary in a sentence. When it is used to stress the joining of two nouns it really is a waste of a word. Grammar. Please.
Give yourself 3 months. Set daily goals
Basic English: Four of the most common mistakes
As a purist of the English language I frequently tear my hair out when I hear or see basic grammar mistakes, particular from those in the profession of news casting…
Authors share thoughts on self-publishing
So you’ve put the final full stop on the last sentence of your first novel. What a mammoth task that was. Now you are ready to get that masterpiece published so that your reading market can experience your well-crafted creativity.
A quiver full of arrows
Thanks to prolific author Jeffrey Archer the idiom ‘a quiver full of arrows’ penetrated our language to a great extent after 1980 when he published a book with this title.…
Pic by Johan Pettrich, unsplash
Can you count to 10? – idiom
Can you count to 10? Good then you can help with the untelling of the decuplets saga. In the Financial Mail today, a staff writer says Iqual Survé, the owner of the newspaper, that shared the story, would reveal all.
Relative and relevant: word usage
Relevant, according to the Oxford English Dictionary means “closely connected to or appropriate to the current matter”. Relational; compare Relative, in the same source is explained as “considered in relation or in proportion to something else; existing only in comparison to something else: months of relative calm ended in April.
