The words technique and technology are related to each other, but it is important to understand the difference between them.
TECHNIQUE
Technique refers to how you carry out a particular task, an efficient way of achieving something or the skill needed to do so. In order to swim fast, for example, you need a good technique. The corresponding adjective is technical.
Technique
TECHNOLOGY
Technology is applied science, the use of scientific knowledge and methods to accomplish a task. Technology is used to improve products and services. The corresponding adjective is technological.
Technology
To sum up, technology gives us the tools and technique determines how the tools are used.
What’s the difference between biannual and biennial?
The two words biannual and biennial are easily confused.
Both come from Latin bi-, twice, and annus, year.
Biannual means occurring twice a year, and biennial means occurring every second year – think of the Venice Biennial (in Italian la Biennale di Venezia).
Perhaps you polish your car or clear out your garage twice every year – then that is a biannual activity. If you go to a conference that is held every two years, you attend a biennial conference.
Biennial can also refer to a plant that blooms or bears fruit in its second year and then dies.
Instead of biannual, you can write semiannual; both words refer to something happening twice a year or every half year.
Biweekly and bimonthly don’t have this distinction – there is no vowel as in annus that could show the difference. Biweekly could mean both twice a week and once every second week. A bimonthly magazine could be one that is published twice a month or every two months. As a writer, you need to make it clear what you intend to say.
The Venice Biennial is one of the most prestigious cultural festivals in the world
There is a difference between connect to and connect with.
CONNECT TO
Use connect to when you talk about a physical link between one object and another.
Make sure the printer is connected to your computer. My Wi-Fi works but I’m not connected to the internet.
CONNECT WITH
Use connect with when you talk about a relationship, a non-physical link.
These are typical symptoms connected with appendicitis. He immediately connected with his therapist. She is extremely good at connecting with her audience.
This, of course, also applies to the noun connection.
A man is being heard by the police in connection with a burglary last night.
He is extremely good at connecting with his audience
The words in and within often cause confusion. Some writers use the word within in places where it is inappropriate or wrong. I once saw an advert from a university that was inviting applications for the position of Professor within Economics. If you know that within often can be replaced by inside, it is clear that the ad looked slightly ridiculous.
In my job as copyeditor of scientific texts, I see within more often than I would like. Perhaps those who write within may think the word makes a text more scholarly. As you can see from the example above, within may look ludicrous.
IN
In is used about place or time:
He was in the kitchen. My daughter lives in Italy. This happened in late September. See you in a minute. I haven’t felt this happy in years.
WITHIN
Within often means inside a certain area, according to particular limits or rules, or during a certain period of time:
An angry voice was heard from within. After she had left, I had a warm feeling withinme. Don’t place this medicine within the reach of children! Delivery is free of charge within a thirty-kilometre limit. From your hotel, the picturesque gardens are within easy reach. I am not sure we can do this within budget. Within minutes of arriving at the railway station, I heard a loud voice calling my name. They had had three burglaries within six months.
Just within reach
IN AN HOUR OR WITHIN AN HOUR?
I’ll be back in an hour means that I ’ll be back in about one hour, perhaps fifty, sixty, or seventy minutes from now.
I’ll be back within an hour means that I’ll be back at any time before an hour has passed but in one hour at the latest.
I hope this has helped you understand the difference between in and within.
The phrases at the beginning and in the beginning seem to mean the same thing, but there is a difference.
AT THE BEGINNING
At the beginning refers to a point in time, an instant, a specific time (or place) to describe the start of something. It is often followed by of.
At the beginning of his lecture, the speaker put an apple on the lectern. The national anthems of the two teams were played at the beginning of the match.
At the beginning I thought there would be a lot more blood.
IN THE BEGINNING
The phrase in the beginning refers to a period of time:
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth (Genesis 1:1).
The phrase is often used to contrast two situations in time:
In the beginning, I couldn’t understand what he meant, but when he showed a diagram, things got clearer.
And, since we have come to the end of this post, let me remind you that you can read about at the end and in the endhere.
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 before they regretted having adopted a Great Dane.
You can also adopt, for example, a certain lifestyle, a strategy or a habit.
She had adopted a vegetarian diet.
Adopt is also used to say that one language has borrowed a word from another language.
From Swedish, English has adopted the word smorgasbord, meaning a buffet of hot and cold dishes.
ADAPT
Adapt means to modify, to adjust or become adjusted to new conditions, to make something suitable for a new use.
The spare room had to be adapted into a small office.
The film was adapted from a Pulitzer-winning novel.
Our dog quickly adapted to the new environment.
The corresponding nouns are adoption and adaptation.
ADEPT
As an adjective, adept means skilled, talented, good at doing something difficult, and as a noun it refers to an expert, somebody who is skilled or talented.
To everybody’s surprise, Grandma turned out to be adept at using a computer.
We all considered him an adept at cooking.
We all considered him an adept at cooking
In Swedish, adept means pupil, disciple or novice, beginner. Thus, in spite of the word having the same Latin background as the English one, the Swedish word has the opposite meaning.
Isolated and insulated both come from Latin insula, island.
The Latin word insulatus, made into an island, became isolato in Italian and both insulated and isolated in English.
The two English words have different meanings:
ISOLATED
Isolated means separated or set apart from others. You can be in a remote place without contact with anybody. Even with a lot of people around you at a party, you can feel isolated when you feel as if nobody notices you or makes contact with you.
You can also isolate something, identify, for example, a problem, in order to deal with it.
And scientists can isolate a virus from an infected host.
INSULATED
Insulated is used to indicate that something is covered or wrapped in a material that protects from loss of heat, an electric shock, etc.
Without being isolated, children that grow up with overprotective parents may be insulated against and unprepared for the harsh realities of life.
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