Consider the sentence “The site’s editor Mary Smith wrote an opinion on the topic.” The lack of supporting punctuation in the identification of the writer of the opinion is an error. This mistake is common when appositives are involved. An appositive is a word or phrase that is equivalent in meaning to another; in this … Read more
A rich variety of words and phrases are available to describe an array of wet weather conditions. Here are nearly three dozen terms for rain and snow events and their definitions (some accompanied by other meanings). 1. blizzard: a long, severe snowstorm (also, a sudden burst of something that comes in a large amount) 2. … Read more
A reader asks about my use of the verb place in a recent post: In your ‘The Oxford Short List 2015’ article the second paragraph reads “In this post, I’ll take a look at eight other words that placed in Oxford’s annual list of frequently used English words and phrases.” Is that construction correct, or … Read more
A number of words—many precise in meaning, as well as colorful and/or pejorative—exist to assist you in describing someone who works below another person. Here are fifty synonyms for assistant. 1. accomplice: an assistant, especially in the commission of a crime 2. adjunct: an assistant or associate (also, a short-term or junior faculty member, or … Read more
One type of grammatical errors seen frequently is that of faulty parallel structure, in which corresponding words or phrases do not match to create a logical syntax. Here are five examples of sentences in which parallel structure is flawed, with a discussion of each error. 1. She played at San Francisco venues such as the … Read more
The terms socialism and communism, and the concepts they are labels for, are often confused. The following post attempts to clarify the distinction. In short, socialism is often the goal, while communism is the result. Those who advocate for socialism, as well as those who discuss it neutrally from a scholarly perspective, see it as … Read more
Misplaced modifiers—words or phrases that provide additional information to the main idea of a sentence but create confusing or at least awkward phrasing because of where they are placed within the sentence’s syntax—abound in writing. As explained below in the discussion of revision of sentences burdened by this problem, the solution is often simply relocating … Read more
My cumulative list of “words commonly confused” continues with ten that begin with the letter T. The confusion relates to spelling or meaning. 1. taught / taut The word taught is the past tense of the verb to teach. It is also used as an adjective to mean instructed: “Howard Phillips Lovecraft, weird fiction writer … Read more
The English language, rich with idiom, is replete with colorful words and phrases about measurement of distance. Here is a look at some of those expressions, roughly in order of the magnitude of the length being referred to. Colloquial phrases about distances include hairbreadth, referring, as the word indicates, to the thickness of a hair … Read more
In Old English, the word man had the meaning of “human being” or “person,” male or female. Note: Old English is the earliest form of English, brought to Great Britain in the fifth century by Germanic settlers. The first literary works in Old English date from the seventh century. In OE, the word man occurs … Read more
A reader wonders about a Hollywood term new to him: Have been seeing Hollywood recently using the expression “tent poles”, but it’s not clear what they’re trying to express. Can you enlighten us? Literally, a “tent pole” is a long stick that holds up a tent roof. A good rule of thumb is to fold … Read more
What, exactly, does the prefix quasi mean, and can it stand on its own? The term, from Latin, is used as a qualifier to denote that something resembles or is like something but is not exactly equivalent, and, yes, quasi is an adverb. Quasi often appears in phrasal adjectives as a more formal alternative to … Read more