Like many others, I turned to various creative pursuits for a welcome distraction during lockdown. One of these was rediscovering a favourite childhood pastime: jigsaws. Not only has this helped take my mind off other things these past few months,…
In order not to confuse the reader, it’s important to avoid ambiguity in your writing – unless, of course, it’s a deliberate literary technique. One area of grammar that seems to cause a lot of ambiguity is the thorny subject of dangling modifiers… Dangling modifiers defined So what exactly are dangling modifiers? A dangling modifier […]
I’ve blogged on the subject of names a few times. But thus far I’ve neglected to cover the singular most important one to me: my own. So this post aims to put that right. Even if it is a little indulgent. In… Have you ever met someone whose surname was a perfect fit for the job they […]
Having just spent a week in France – which required me to once again summon up my rusty French – it struck me that there are numerous French words and phrases we use in everyday English. As a linguist I thought it would make an interesting topic for this week’s blog post… Food and drink Knowing […]
One of the many differences between British English and American English that’s always intrigued me is autumn vs. fall. We use winter, spring and summer on both sides of the pond. Yet we can’t seem to agree what to call this time of… Posted in Language Tagged with: AmE, autumn, BrE, fall, terms
Following on from my previous post on names for plimsolls, attention now turns to what we Brits call the humble bread roll. As I suspected, there’s a far greater variety of names for bread rolls than there is for elasticated… Posted in Names Tagged with: bread, rolls
I’ve a confession: I loved the ’80s. The music, the fashion, the hair… Well, OK, maybe not the hair! But even though that decade is now a dim and distant memory, I’m still an ’80s girl at heart. Nostalgia FM The other day I was introduced to a website that shows the No. 1 records in […]
Well, it’s certainly all hotting up in the GBBO* tent ahead of this year’s final… Hopefully there won’t be a soggy bottom in sight! The art of baking covers a wide range of culinary delights, from bread, cakes and biscuits… Posted in Idioms Tagged with: baking, cake, phrases, sayings, tv
After visiting two delightful gardens last weekend – one belonging to the National Trust and a private one open under the National Gardens Scheme – I was inspired to research gardening idioms for this week’s post. As with most idiomatic…
I’ve a confession: I loved the ’80s. The music, the fashion, the hair… Well, OK, maybe not the hair! But even though that decade is now a dim and distant memory, I’m still an ’80s girl at heart. Nostalgia FM The…
In order not to confuse the reader, it’s important to avoid ambiguity in your writing – unless, of course, it’s a deliberate literary technique. One area of grammar that seems to cause a lot of ambiguity is the thorny subject…
After visiting an eye-popping Op Art exhibition on the weekend, I felt inspired to research idioms about colours, shapes and patterns. In fact, I’m surprised I haven’t covered them already as part of my series! It turns out there are so…
With so much competition in the dynamic health & beauty sector – both online and on the shelves – the first priority of your marketing collateral is to attract customers’ attention. Once you’ve achieved that, you need to convince them of your product’s merits. And persuade them to switch from their usual brand. Finally, whether your business […]
If you’ve been following my blog, you’ll be familiar with my idioms series. This features everyday phrases and sayings in the English language that have strange meanings – and often even stranger origins. Each post in the series focuses on a different topic. Today it’s the turn of financial idioms and phrases, courtesy of the good folk […]