Against popular belief, the spelling -ize in the word organize was first used in England in the 1400s, centuries before the Pilgrim Fathers landed in America. Nowadays this spelling is considered American, while British English has the form with -ise. That last statement is not completely true. The so-called Oxford spelling uses the z, which […]
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What’s the difference between price and prize? PRICE Price refers to the amount of money you pay when you buy something. The price of coffee had gone up by 12%. Price is also used figuratively in the sense of consequence or cost: He had to pay a high price for his support of the party’s […]
How to use comprise and consist is a problem to many writers. COMPRISE Comprise means to include, contain, constitute, make up. Asian students comprise a fairly large part of the university’s student union.It’s a small book, comprising just about 60 pages.The management group comprises economists and lawyers. Since comprised means composed of, comprised of, which […]
Should you write practice or practise? PRACTICE In British and American English, practice is a noun with the following meanings: 1. custom, method, tradition, habit–Practice is the process of doing something as opposed to theory 2. exercise, work-out–Practice is the repeated exercise to acquire a skill 3. profession, work, career, occupation–I was looking for a […]
A word in one language may be quite innocent but in another language it has an offensive meaning or may even be a taboo word. It is not difficult to find such words in English and Swedish. They are usually about sexuality or body functions. Fart is such a word. Fart in English is what […]
When I worked at the university, one day a visiting professor came by my room and asked, ’Is there a restroom somewhere here?’ I knew there was a small room where staff could lie down if taken ill or just to relax, so I told him that there was a restroom at the end of […]
The similarity of these three words can be confusing. Adopt and adapt are verbs, while adept is an adjective or a noun. ADOPT Adopt means to take or acquire as your own. This can refer to adopting a child (which usually involves legal formalities) or adopting an animal as a pet. It didn’t take long […]
In my job as copyeditor I notice that writers tend to overuse different when they should write various instead. Different, as you know, means that something is not the same as something else. One thing is different from another thing, or two or more things are different, not alike. Various implies that there is a […]
We use grateful and thankful to express our thanks for something. Even if the two words are often used interchangeably, there is a difference between them. So, what is the difference between grateful and thankful? GRATEFUL Grateful is used to express our gratitude when somebody is kind to us or helps us in a way […]
An idiom is an expression that means something else than its separate words might suggest. Many idioms are peculiar to a specific language. Therefore, you should be careful when you try to translate an idiom from your own language into another. There is a children’s game called follow the leader. One child is the leader […]
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