Daniel Scocco 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
Resilience (rĭ-zĭl’yəns) is the ability to recover quickly from changes or misfortunes. It can also be used as a synonym for flexibility, referring both to people and objects. If a company has resilience, for instance, it is able to handle crises effectively. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice met Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora on Tuesday … Read more
When you recoil (rĭ-koil’) from something you move away from it because it gives you an unpleasant feeling, disgust or pain. It can also refer to an object that bounces back or to an action that backfires. Yet Bear Stearns, like many other firms on Wall Street, jumped into the market for bonds that backed … Read more
Pyrrhic (p1r’1k), the noun, is a metrical unit. It is used more widely as an adjective, however, as in “pyrrhic victory,” which means a victory with huge costs. It makes reference to Pyrrhus from Epirus, who sustained great losses in order to defeat the Roman army. Mr Murdoch has, however, paid a high price for … Read more
Five Frequently Misused Verbs: Go, Come, Write, Give, and Eat. Among the most frequently used words in English, these five verbs are also the most frequently misused. The error occurs when the simple past forms are used to form the present or past perfect Dialogue Dos and Don’ts: In the post Show, Don’t Tell, I … Read more
Stanley Bing, a novelist and columnist for Fortune magazine, recently published an enlightening – let alone hilarious – piece on his blog. Titled “When Smart People Use Bad Grammar,” the article describes the common confusion around the usage of the personal pronouns “I” and “me.” I’m sitting at a lounge last week in Los Angeles … Read more
Wax has several meanings. The noun refers to oily substances that are soluble in organic solvents but not in water. You can use wax on your car (or wax the car), for instance. The verb to wax, however, can also mean to increase or advance, as in “waxing moon.” Applying a coating of wax to … Read more
Brisk is an adjective that refers to something marked by speed or energy. A brisk tea, for instance, is an invigorating tea. If you walk briskly, you are walking fast or vigorously. The sound of her iron shoes upon the hard road was quite musical, as she came along at a much brisker trot than … Read more
Its a fact that a spell checker will not catch all the mistakes on your text. More specifically, it will not catch misspellings that form other valid words. So how do you solve this problem? Proofreading, of coarse! Just read again through you’re text trying to spot words that don’t fit, and make sure to … Read more
Ombudsman (ŏm’bŭdz’mən) is a term that appeared in Sweden and then was integrated into many other languages. Originally, it used to refer to an official that investigates the complaints from the citizens against the government. Nowadays, the term can also be used to describe any independent and impartial person used by private or public organizations … Read more
Bloggers do get a misspelled word once in a while (some bloggers more often than that, but anyway). If you want to test your skills you can try the Blogger Spelling Test. There are 15 questions with common misspelled words. Most of them are quite easy, just don’t run through the questions or you might … Read more