As a linguist, I’m always fascinated by how people in other countries use completely different words to effectively say the same thing. For this week’s blog post, I’ve therefore rounded up the many versions of Merry Christmas, Happy Christmas or Season’s Greetings that will be seen and heard around Europe over the festive period. You’ve […]
Than or then? These two words might look – and even sound – quite similar, but every day I see people mix them up. Not only is this a grammatical howler, but it can also give a totally different meaning to their sentence.… Posted in Grammar, Tips Tagged with: than, then, words
Do you ever wonder what job or profession you might be doing now if your career had taken a different direction? Perhaps if you’d got better grades at school or had accepted job offer A versus job offer B? From time to time, I’ve pondered what alternative career path I might have followed. After all, […]
As someone who loves social media and cakes, I enjoyed this recent article on PR Daily featuring four fabulous social network-inspired creations. And it got me thinking: what word or writing-related edibles are out there? The answer is loads. Here’s…
Most people are familiar with acronyms, homonyms, pseudonyms and synonyms. But there are several other words with the suffix –onym that I’ve only recently discovered. As a linguist and bit of a word nerd, my natural instinct is to investigate further…
Losing the hammer. Blanking an end. Staying in the house. What on earth does it all mean? It can only be one thing… curling lingo. If, like me, you’ve been enjoying watching the British curling teams in action at the…
The English language is positively brimming with acronyms, such as ASAP, B2B, FAQ and TLC. And OMG, don’t even get me started on text speak, like BRB, LOL, ROFL et al! But did you know that what many people refer to as acronyms are, in fact, abbreviations or initialisms? What are abbreviations? Abbreviations are a […]
Whether you’re after stocking fillers for teenage students, a Secret Santa present for an office colleague or something special for a full-time writer, you can find loads of gorgeous gift ideas for writers, readers and literature fans online. Here are a few suggestions to point you on your way… It might be a bit kitsch, but this Shakespeare […]
Following the historic EU referendum result, I keep hearing – and reading – that “the UK is leaving Europe”. Or that “Britain is leaving the EU”. Both of these statements are, in fact, incorrect. And difficult for a pedant like me…
Let me start by saying that I’m rather fond of semicolons. But I’m not so enamoured when they’re used incorrectly or ineffectively… Out of all the punctuation marks in English, the one that seems to catch most people out is the…
As anyone who knows me will verify, I’m rather partial to the occasional glass of dry white wine – preferably a zesty Sauvignon Blanc from Down Under. As I’m also a word nerd, a glossary of wine terms seemed to… Posted in Language Tagged with: glossary, lingo, terms, wine
Most people are familiar with acronyms, homonyms, pseudonyms and synonyms. But there are several other words with the suffix –onym that I’ve only recently discovered. As a linguist and bit of a word nerd, my natural instinct is to investigate further…
This week’s blog post was inspired by an email I received from a work contact. After recently leaving an in-house position, she’s now dipping her toes into the world of freelancing. So she asked if I had any advice for people starting out or…
As a copywriter with a linguistic background I am – unsurprisingly – more than a little bit interested in language. Not just the finer points of grammar, spelling and punctuation, but also its etymology, usage and evolution. Following on from previous blog posts featuring quotes about writing and words, it seems only logical therefore to produce one […]