This time last week I joined some 200 of my peers at Copy Cabana 2017 – the 2nd copywriters’ conference to be held in (not quite so sunny) Bournemouth. The event’s tagline is “Prepare to celebrate the life linguistic”. It certainly delivered on its promise. We were treated to a packed day of inspiring, enlightening and entertaining talks from […]
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
Ever find yourself with a burning grammatical question whilst away from your desk? Or need to settle a linguistic debate, such as whether to hyphenate coordinate? If so, help is at hand courtesy of a new writers’ app from London-based writing and brand language consultancy The Writer. Offering “Writerly advice on matters of (linguistic) style”, The Writer’s style […]
A paraprosdokian is a figure of speech in which the latter part of a sentence or phrase – or its follow-up – is surprising or unexpected in such a way that the first part has to be revisited in a new light. Some paraprosdokians not only change the meaning of an early phrase but also […]
As a self-confessed word nerd, I love learning new words. Whether it’s something I read online or a sneaky (some might say lucky) move by one of my opponents on Words With Friends, I get a buzz from expanding my vocabulary with words for things I never knew had names. Another great source for discovering new words […]
As a self-confessed word nerd I’m somewhat partial to discovering and collecting word trivia – I only wish that pub quizzes had a compulsory round on the subject (I might actually have a chance of answering some questions then!). Anyway,… Posted in Language, Lists Tagged with: trivia, words
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…
Seeing as it’s Mother’s Day today here in the UK – I know that other parts of the world celebrate it at different times of the year – I thought I’d dedicate my latest blog post to language-related facts, trivia…
Seeing as it’s Mother’s Day today here in the UK – I know that other parts of the world celebrate it at different times of the year – I thought I’d dedicate my latest blog post to language-related facts, trivia and idioms about mothers. Synonyms for ‘mum’ A quick search has thrown up 16 different […]
To help you feel in a suitably romantic mood for Valentine’s Day, I thought I’d collate some English expressions and idioms about love. How love came about As you might expect, love is almost as old as time… According to Oxford Dictionaries, the word’s ancient root – Indo-European shared by Sanskrit lubhyati ‘desires’, Latin libet ‘it is pleasing’ – […]
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… Whether or not you’ve been following the Commonwealth Games, or are a fan of sports […]
Turning down work as a freelancer is never easy, but I recently did just that. “What?” I hear you say. “You must be mad!” Perhaps. But I like to think it was a rational decision. And the right one for…
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…
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 be an obvious topic for a blog post! But, rather than just regurgitate all the […]