You need to understand the difference between amount and number. There are things we can count and things we cannot count. With countable nouns we use number of and with uncountable nouns amount of. We can talk about the amount of time we work or about the number of hours we work. A large number […]
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The apostrophe is a punctuation mark in the Latin and some other alphabets. It is used to indicate quotations, to show that one or more letters are left out (contractions), to show the possessive form (genitive) of names and nouns, and to mark the plural of single letters. QUOTATION In UK English, single quotation marks […]
My book on false friends is a best seller on Amazon: False friends are words in two languages (in this case English and Swedish) that look and/or sound similar but have different meanings. Such words can of course be misleading, especially to those who think they have some knowledge of the two languages. Fart in […]
What is the difference between discrete and discreet? The two words sound the same and they look almost the same, but they have very different meanings. Discrete means separate, distinct, individual, disconnected. With the lens out of focus we get a number of discrete colour blobs. We can talk about the discrete parts of a […]
In the previous blog post we looked at some English idioms. Here are a few more. A ballpark numberA very inexact number, a rough estimate. A bed of rosesA comfortable, happy, trouble-free position or situation. A piece of cakeSomething that is easy to do. Back to square oneHaving to start from the beginning again because […]
Acronyms are a type of abbreviation. They are formed by the first letter of each word in a phrase and usually, but not always, written in capital letters. An acronym is pronounced as a word: Some words created as acronyms have become so common that people do not know they are acronyms. Some examples: There […]
Writers often say too much by adding unnecessary words. Phrases such as free gift and joint cooperation are examples of tautology (saying the same thing twice) or pleonasm (using more words than necessary). Words that do not add information are called redundant words. Get rid of redundancies! Here are some examples of unnecessary words: General consensus […]
Which is correct, less cars or fewer cars? Perhaps you find it difficult to sort out words such as little, much, few, a few, many, less, more, a lot of and plenty of. MANY AND MUCH Many is always used with the plural form of countable nouns (you can read about countables and uncountables here). […]
When two or more words are combined to form a new concept with a new meaning, we talk about a compound. A compound can be a combination of a noun and a noun (school nurse), an adjective and a noun (full moon), an adverb and a verb (far-reaching), a verb and an adverb (check-up), a […]
Can you sort out big, large and great? Generally speaking, big describes weight or extent, large is often related to dimensions or volume and great suggests something impressive. Great is often used with abstract nouns. BIG Big is used more often than large. In fact, big is one of the most frequent words in the […]
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