In this weekly microblog, we bring to English language learners more useful content from the Macmillan Dictionary. These tips are based on areas of English (e.g. spelling, grammar, collocation, synonyms, etc) which learners often find difficult.

This week’s language tip helps with key words which are used for talking or writing about names.

first name / given name: a personal name that you are given when you are born. Another British word is Christian name: The children call me Mrs. Jones, but actually my first name is Mary.
last name: your family name. The usual British word is surname: Let me spell my last name for you.
middle name: the name that comes after your first name but is not often used except to identify you formally. Another British word is second name: My second name is Victoria, after my grandmother.
maiden name: a woman’s last name before she was married: I still use my maiden name for work purposes.
nickname: an invented name that other people call you, especially when you are young: His nickname was Penguin because of the way he walked.
stage name: a name that actors use in their professional career that is different from their real name: She thought Joan Smith was too boring, so she decided to use the stage name Maria Vitalez.
nom de plume / pen name / pseudonym: a name that writers sometimes use so that their real identity is not known: She wrote all her detective novels under the pen name Barbara Greensmith.
initials: the first letters of each of your names: His initials H.I. were carved on the side of the desk.
title: an official name that you put in front of your own name that shows your status in society: Officially my title is Doctor Jones, but most people just call me Janet. ♦ When his father dies he will have the title of Duke of Cumberland.
alias: a false name that someone, especially a criminal, uses to keep their real identity secret: He went under several aliases, including Bernard Kopf and Harold Gene.

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Why is it that journalists seem to think that they are allowed the greatest licence when using the English language? Why do they not feel bound by the same linguistic restraints as the rest of us? Often they make up brand new words to describe something in a way they feel that no existing word can. Recently, on BBC Radio 4 News, I heard a three-pronged problem facing the prime minister referred to as a ‘trilemma’.

At times they slough off the bonds of redundancy in language. Yesterday morning I heard another journo refer to an issue that was on all of our collective consciences. I’m sure this was meant to be on our collective conscience. Perhaps he was being paid by the word. They’ve even freed themselves from the chains of understanding parts of speech. During a recent report, a journalist claimed “This terrible, wide-spread crisis – whatever synonym you want to use to describe it”. Surely she meant to say adjective as terrible and wide-spread certainly aren’t synonyms.

The credit crunch seems to have given rise to even more sloppy language. Just today I listened to a commentary on the financial report issued by Marks & Spencer. The journalist said that it was “a lot less bad than was expected under the circumstances.”

There also appears to be a resurgence of the (mis)use of two comparatives. A lot has a connotation of value or amount whereas less has the opposite meaning. I can’t find an exact term for this other than to describe it as a paradoxical phrase. Although, in grammar, comparative forms of words can be ‘terms’ or ‘phrases’. So it’s perhaps more accurate to identify it as the misuse of ‘two comparative forms’.

Time Magazine Online has a headline that reads “Is the Economy Starting to Recover? Or Just Less Bad?”. The only thing ‘less bad’ is that they managed not to put a lot in front of it.