Homophones: words which sound the same but are spelt differently, like “their” and “there”, and indeed “they’re”. They formed part of my 9-year-old daughter’s homework again at the weekend and we have been discussing them on the way to school. Most commonly there are pairs of homophones, like “pail” and “pale” – the former was… Continue reading Word of the week: homophone
There was a time when people used verbs of speech: talk, speak, say or tell. For people learning to speak English as a second or other language it is often difficult to tell the difference, and to remember that you tell somebody something, but you say something to somebody. I have spent a lot of… Continue reading Verbs of Speech
Brick: it’s now a verb, as in “iOS5 upgrade bricked my iPhone 4”, which means that someone’s Apple-made mobile phone has become about as useful as a brick. I remember when mobile phones were the shape of a brick, and just as heavy, so putting “brick” and “mobile phone” into the same sentence is rather… Continue reading Word of the week: brick
Last month I wrote about adverbs, as a Word of the Week, and mentioned how we used to make up playful sentences ending with adverbs, such as “I haven’t read that long book by Victor Hugo,” said Les miserably. My brother asked me about it at Christmas, and the idea has played on my mind… Continue reading More about adverbs
This is a post concerning the word “concerning”. It means “about”, or “regarding”. When I last checked it did not mean “troubling”, “worrying”, or “of concern”, but increasingly that is how people use it. I find this development mildly troubling. Words change meaning. I’m fine with that. People change, technology develops, new words come along,… Continue reading Word of the week: concerning
I like New Zealanders. I have met many of them over the last 40 years and can’t recall any that I didn’t like. Friends from work and school have landed up in New Zealand and are living good lives, from what I can see. I have spent many hours in conversation with Kiwis but still… Continue reading Kiwi pronunciation: pigs and pegs, badges and barges
Yes, the title says “Introdution”, not “Introduction”. If you didn’t spot it, don’t worry. Neither did the graphic designers at a training company I worked at in the 1990s. And it was the sort of thing that they were paid to notice. This piece touches on first impressions and attention to detail. It goes back… Continue reading Introdution
Mong. Spastic. Flid. When I was at school, in the 1970s, these were all insults used by other children, not by me or my friends. I don’t remember any of us using these words. Just typing them, nearly 40 years later, makes me feel uncomfortable. I thought that they had gone away in the 1980s,… Continue reading Mong. Spastic. Flid. And why I will never watch “Love, Actually”
I love this word, it hardly needs a description: a chair serving the function of a wardrobe. I’m not sure whether I made it up, and found that other people had made it up at the same time, or read it and then forgot about it. The first time I remember reading it was in… Continue reading Word of the week: chairdrobe
“Conflicted” was really my Word of the Year for 2012, the year that “The Iron Lady” was released in the UK. It features Meryl Streep’s Oscar-wining performance as Margaret Thatcher. I am a fan of Meryl Streep but was resolutely not a fan of Margaret Thatcher. I had to see the movie, like every other… Continue reading Word of the week: conflicted
The Compartments 