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”.
I offer my singular condolence: Grammar
English demands that its users know more than just the meaning of a word. They also must know how it’s used. It’s not okay to slap just any words together.…
I never knew children came in blue
Inspired by Sue de Groot’s column in the Sunday Times, I am writing about my own grammar gremlin findings of the past few days. In this period I read a…
Debug your grammar gremlin
In my job, as sub-editor at a community newspaper, I had to reprimand a reporter for shoddy work. His report was submitted for subbing with several repeated paragraphs. When I…
Black swan, a label for COVID-19
In much of my research for clients in the past couple of months I have often seen the term black swan. As I know swans to be white in most…
Through the eye of the needle: biblical idioms
The English language is so rich and diverse that one lifetime is just not enough to master all of it. But I have discovered that as much as English owes…
English idioms: how they get distorted
The other day, a friend asked, “How do you spell towing the line as in the sense of complying? Is it toing or towing? This is just one of many…
Five word pairs to increase your word power
Today I’d like to share these word pairs that always confuse new writers. Not to sound arrogant there are plenty words in the English language that I need to check…
Theft and larceny: correct usage
With so much exposure to people’s dirty legal laundry and equal amounts of televised fictional dramas – Law and Order my personal favourite – I often heard the charge of…
