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Today I am comparing ‘a lot’, ‘alot’ and ‘allot’; however one of them doesn’t exist in the English language. http://oxforddictionaries.com defines the words as follows: A LOT means “a large number or amount” ALOT is sometimes used, but is not a word in the English language. ALLOT is a verb meaning “given or apportion (something) to someone” Here are some examples in sentences: … Continue reading
Today I am comparing three very different words which are all pronounced the same – weather, whether and wether. Collins English Dictionary & Thesaurus defines the words as follows: WEATHER is a noun meaning “day to day meterorological conditions” WHETHER is a conjunction “used to introduce an indirect question or a clause after a verb expressing or … Continue reading
The words avenge and revenge have different meanings. This blog shows the definitions of the two words as well as some examples of their use in sentences. AVENGE According to the Collins English Dictionary & Thesaurus, the verb avenge means “get revenge for” and “to inflict a punishment in retaliation for (harm, injury etc) done to (a person … Continue reading
Although principal and principle are pronounced the same, they have very different meanings. Oxford Dictionaries online http://oxforddictionaries.com/definition/principal defines the noun principal as “the most important or senior person in an organisation or group”; however, it is a common error to forget that principal can also be an adjective meaning “main” or “first in order of importance”. Here are some examples: … Continue reading
There are many words of Latin or Greek origin which end in ‘-us’, however it is not always clear what the plural form is. Do words like ‘hippopotamus’ and ‘octopus’ end in -es or -i? The website About.com explains that it is best to go with hippopotamuses http://homeworktips.about.com/od/plurals/f/hippopotamus.htm, whereas with the word octopus you apparently cannot go wrong if you guess the plural as octopuses, octopodes or octopi … Continue reading
According to Richard C Lamb in his book The Queen’s English, “heterophones are words with different meanings which are spelt the same (homographs), but pronounced differently” e.g. row, rhyming with ‘go’ as in ‘I row my boat at weekends’ and row, rhyming with ‘cow’ as in ‘They had a row, and he walked out’. Here are some examples: Read … Continue reading
Yesterday I blogged about homographs which are “words with the same spelling but different meanings” and they can sometimes sound different (according to Bernard C Lamb in his book The Queen’s English) e.g. ‘row’ which can rhyme with ‘go’ and also ‘cow’. Homophones are words which have the same sound but different meanings, e.g. led/lead, so/sew, read/red and row/row (as … Continue reading
“Homographs are words with the same spelling but different meanings” and they can sometimes sound different too (according to Bernard C Lamb in his book The Queen’s English). ‘Homo’ means the same and ‘graph’ means picture or drawing – to remember this, imagine the same picture or drawing. Examples: think about the word ‘row’ – it can rhyme … Continue reading
I’ve seen the abbreviation SEO quite a lot recently. It’s short for Search Engine Optimisation and there are many companies out there whose job is to help others attract more visitors to their websites, webpages, blogs etc., although there are ways that you can do this yourself by learning how to use the right key words. Having … Continue reading
According to Graham King in his book Collins Improve your Punctuation, it is clearer to write dimensions and measurements in figures as follows: The tablecloth is 15 by 25cm 4 metres of material is required The Christmas trees range from 4ft 6in to 7ft 5in tall 4oz butter, 4oz caster sugar, 4oz self-raising flour and … Continue reading
My Writing Notebook 