I once read a story that contained the phrase ‘a hare’s breath away’ from something, meaning a very...
Author - Stan Carey
Hello, vocative comma
If you pay close attention to written greetings, you’ll notice a difference in how people punctuate...
Criticizing -ize and -ise
New verbs in English are often created by adding the suffix -ize or -ise to an existing noun or...
Catfishing, blackfishing, sadfishing: the spread of a new libfix
A recent news story said young people were being accused of ‘sadfishing’. The word was immediately...
Who’s confused by ‘whose’?
Sometimes two tricky areas of English usage – pronouns and apostrophes – combine to create an extra...
Passive voice is not to be shunned
The passive voice is a common target for complaint and criticism. But there is widespread confusion...
Only one right place for ‘only’?
It’s only a little word, but only has been hotly debated for the last two and a half centuries...
Simple in the correct sense of the word
Everything in language is subject to change – its sounds, spellings, meanings, and usage. Some...
Orwell and the English Language
Few writers have had such an influence on English language or literature that their name has become...
Where does ‘OK’ come from?
Last month I looked at the variant spelling alright. Its synonym OK is a more complicated animal in...