Tacit refers to something that is implied by actions or statements. A tacit agreement, for instance, is one where either the offer or the acceptance are to be inferred from a particular conduct. It comes from the Latin tacitus, which means silent. This was a tacit acknowledgement that recent money-market interventions had failed to cap … Read more
Stationery Both stationery (n.), meaning writing paper, and stationary (adj.), meaning not moving, go back to the same source that gives us the noun station (a stopping place; a place where someone or something stands). In the Middle Ages a stationer was a tradesman who had a shop, as opposed to one who carried his … Read more
Whatever your religious affiliation or views, if you wish to enrich your writing in English, it’s in your interest to familiarize yourself with the language of the 1611 translation known as the Authorized Version (AV) or King James Bible. More recent translations are preferable for purposes of textual criticism, but for the lover of English, … Read more
English teachers like myself love to warn new writers against the evils of passive voice. Here at Daily Writing Tips, Michael has written about passive writing, and I recently wrote about dummy subjects, but it looks like there’s still some confusion about passive voice and its use. For more on passive vs. active sentence construction, … Read more
Many English words end in the letter e. In an earlier stage of the language, many of these final e’s were pronounced. Now, however, unless the word is a foreign borrowing, the final e is silent. Although final e is silent, it usually has a job to do. Here are the five rules for the … Read more
Beleaguer (bĭ-lē’gər) means to harass or disturb repeatedly. It can also refer to a siege of enemy troops. If you are beleaguered, therefore, you are being harassed or surrounded by difficulties. For beleaguered travellers this could mean another of Heathrow’s famous days of inaction. (The Economist) The Nobel Prize-winner on his lifework, his numerous exiles … Read more
In the past, English teachers used to preach that one should never start a sentence with conjunctions like and or but. Does this rule still apply today? Not entirely. It is already acceptable to start sentences with such conjunctions. Some authorities, in fact, even defend that for some cases conjunctions will do a better job … Read more
After reading O Second Person Where Art Thou reader Bill G asks: How can I explain to my students why the singular “you” takes the plural verb “are?” Is there something obvious I am missing? Even “thou” took “art.” What is the history of this shift? The answer to the first part of this question … Read more
The subject line is the most important part of your email. It’s perhaps the source your readers use most to decide whether your message is spam or not. The other is the sender line, your own name and email address. If you’re writing to a friend who recognizes your email address immediately (and are you … Read more
Yes, these are elementary spelling words, but cruise the web and you will see them misspelled all over the place. NUMBERS forty the error is to try to make it match four ninety the mistake is leaving out the e MONTHS February the error is in omitting the first r DAYS Wednesday the error is … Read more
My article about the loss of Thou received some comments on the use of “could care less” instead of “couldn’t care less.” My choice to write “Shakespeare could care less” was a deliberate one. I felt that “could care less” was more euphonious than “couldn’t care less” and sounded a bit “cheekier.” I thought that … Read more
Writers, especially beginning writers, are often cautioned against using passive voice in their writing because its use slows down the pace. Another construction that can make your writing plod is the dummy subject. When we use the words it and there to begin a sentence without a referent (a noun the pronoun is referring to), … Read more