As a noun, minute is pronounced /ˈmɪnɪt/.

A minute is a period of time, sixty seconds or one sixtieth of an hour.
They were twenty minutes late.

Minute can also refer to a distance, how far you can walk or drive in a minute.
Our house is just ten minutes from the bus stop.

Minute also indicates a very short time.
Sit down, please; I’ll be with you in a minute.

In geometry, minute is a sixtieth of a degree of an angle.

The noun minute comes from Medieval Latin pars minuta prima, first small part, from minutus, made small. (Second comes from pars minuta secunda, second small part.)

The plural noun minutes refers to a record of the proceedings of a meeting. It comes via French minute from Latin scriptura minuta, small writing.
The secretary read the minutes from the last meeting.

The adjective minute, pronounced /mʌɪˈnjuːt/, means extremely small. Just like the noun, it comes from Latin minutus, made small.
With such a high resolution, minute details could be studied in the image.

The post Minute also means very small appeared first on copyeditor.se.

Experience has two meanings. The first is something that has happened to you. You might say, I had a strange experience on my way to work this morning.

This experience can take the plural form, experiences:

He talked about his bad experiences with cheap hotels.
You wouldn’t believe me if I told you about my experiences in the Himalayas.

The other meaning of experience is what you have learnt from studies or work or from familiarity with something. This is what you would write in your CV. Experience in this case is an uncountable noun; it cannot be used in the plural.

You must have at least five years of teaching experience.
In my experience, this is a very good car.

Experience can also be a verb:

She experienced a sense of being valued for her brains and not only for her beauty.

The post Experience or experiences? appeared first on copyeditor.se.

ALTERNATE

The adjective alternate means every second, every other.
We agreed to take the car to work on alternate days.

The verb alternate means fluctuate, take turns, occur after each other repeatedly.
Sunny days alternated with days of rain.

As a noun, alternate means a substitute, for example in a game or in a film.

In North American English, alternate is often used as a synonym of alternative.

The verb is pronounced as [-eit] at the end, while the adjective and the noun end with [-it].

ALTERNATIVE

The adjective alternative has two meanings. The first is different or possible.
There are several alternative methods to solve the problem.

The second meaning relates to something departing from traditional norms.
They chose to lead an alternative lifestyle.

The noun alternative refers to a possibility or option.
You have two alternatives: Stay in bed and read a good book or go jogging round the lake.

In North American English, alternate is often used as a synonym for alternative.

The post Alternate and alternative appeared first on copyeditor.se.

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 preposition and a noun (underworld), a preposition and a verb (overestimate), an adjective and another adjective (blue-green) – and a few more combinations.

In English there are three ways to write compound words: as separate words (open compounds), as one word (closed compounds) or as words combined with a hyphen (hyphenated compounds). This can sometimes be rather confusing. We write head office as separate words, we write head-teacher with a hyphen and we write headmaster as one word. Likewise we have table knife but tablespoon.

This may seem frustrating, and if you are in doubt, you had better check a dictionary or a style sheet. (Actually, you can also write stylesheet. Some compounds can take any of the three forms. You can write life style, life-style or lifestyle.)

OPEN COMPOUNDS

Unlike some other languages – German, Swedish or Finnish, for example – English often does not combine the separate words into one word. A breakfast table is in German Frühstückstisch; a hotel room is in Swedish hotellrum; a taxi driver is in Finnish taksinkuljettaja.

Here are some examples of open compounds in English:

CLOSED COMPOUNDS

The following are examples of compounds written in one word:

Compounds with words from Latin or Greek are written as one word:

photography
agriculture

HYPHENATED COMPOUNDS

Many compounds – especially those formed by two nouns – used to be hyphenated, but now most of them are written either as one word or two separate words. Here are some compounds that are still hyphenated (and you will notice that they are generally not of the noun+noun type):

Compounds with three or more words are usually written with hyphens:

Compound numbers from twenty-one to ninety-nine are hyphenated:

My dad is forty-two.

Fractions also take a hyphen:

We had already driven two-thirds of the way.
Less than one-fifth of the operators are women.

But with a instead of one there is no hyphen:

Less than a fifth of the operators are women.

Some compounds have changed from being hyphenated to a single word. We used to write on-line and world-wide, but nowadays online and worldwide are more common. This also applies to words such as cooperate and proactive.

To avoid confusion, a hyphen is used when the prefix ends and the base word begins with the same vowel:

anti-intellectual

COMPUNDS AS MODIFIERS

When compounds are used as modifiers, they are written with a hyphen. A modifier works as an adjective or adverb to add information about the word directly following it.

A six-year-old boy.
But: The boy was six years old.

We rely on just-in-time delivery.
But: I arrived just in time. The clock struck three when I opened the door.

You can read about compounds as modifiers here.

And here you can read about how to write e-mail (or email).

The post Compounds in English appeared first on copyeditor.se.

AFFECT

Affect is mainly used as a verb. It means have an impact on, have an effect on.
The bad weather affected our plans for the evening.
The old man was visibly affected by the girl’s kind words.
How will the strike affect your job?

Affect can also have the meaning pretend to be or have.

I don’t like how he affects a British accent.

EFFECT

Effect is a noun. It denotes the result of an action or an impression.
The effect of his words was immediate.
I liked the sound effects in the film.
The law is still in effect.

To sum up, most often affect is a verb and effect is a noun.

That said, you may – on rare occasions – find affect used as a noun. Then it means something that acts on something else, usually in psychological jargon.

And effect can be used as a verb meaning to produce, bring about something new, often in phrases like ”to effect a change”

Read about effective and efficient here.

The post Affect or effect? appeared first on copyeditor.se.

In British English some nouns end in -ice and the corresponding verbs in -ise:

advice/advise

device/devise

practice/practise

licence/license (without the i)

In American English noun and verb have the same form; the s is retained in license/license, and the c in practice/practice. Read more about practice and practise here.

Some words take the same form as verb and noun:
Disguise, exercise, franchise, invoice, merchandise, notice, promise, sacrifice, slice, surprise

Service is a noun but it also functions as a verb: I need to service my car. However, the word has taken on a sexual connotation and you should avoid using it as a verb with one or more persons as direct object. Use serve, help, aid or assist instead.

The post -ice or -ise? appeared first on copyeditor.se.