Give your company a voice
We happily refer to anything more than one foot as ‘feet’ and accept that the plural of goose is ‘geese’, so why isn’t the plural of moose ‘meese’? (Or mooses for that matter).
The simple answer is that it’s what’s known as a loanword – a word adopted from a foreign language with little or no modification. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the word moose has its origins in the Native American Algonquian language.
I’ve often stressed the importance of good spelling. It not only creates a professional image but also makes it easier for readers to understand what you’re saying. Now a story in The Times newspaper suggests that it could also keep you out of prison.
The FBI is hunting for a bank robber known as the ‘spelling bee bandit’ because notes he has passed to bank tellers contain the same spelling mistake.
In my last post on good grammar, I covered the rules for compound words with prefixes. Now in this week’s grammar spot, let’s look at compound words with suffixes:
-All Pretty much always hyphenated as in be-all, catch-all. However, there is one notable exception – holdall. (Perhaps you can think of another?)
-Away With the trend towards eliminating superfluous punctuation for a cleaner look,
It’s complicated
Just like in real life, in the English language there are some words destined to go through life alone, some that that work best in an uncommitted, friends-with-benefits arrangement and others that thrive as part of a steady, committed relationship. If you haven’t already guessed, in this week’s grammar tutorial I’m talking about compounds – pairs of words that are often, but not always, seen together.
The vast majority of compound words consist of either a headword (key word) and a prefix such as ex-husband,
Have you noticed the trend to tack the word ‘super’ onto everything to denote the utter superiority of whatever it is we are talking about? I’m referring here to descriptions like super-cool, super-rich, super-successful and super-secret. We did much the same thing a few years ago with ‘uber’. But is it grammatically correct?
If you have spotted this new linguistic fad, you will no doubt be relieved to discover you’re not just being a super-sensitive grammar purist.
A new study published by the Oregon State and Texas Universities has confirmed what we already know: corporate jargon turns off customers and alienates employees.
Their report published in the journal Organisational Dynamics recommends that businesses should swap business gobbledygook for genuine human warmth – in other words, write from the heart as one human being to another. So instead of aiming to “deliver robust solutions to empower communities” the report suggests managers should follow the example of Toys ‘R’ Us,
Spelling is notoriously tricky in the English language. If you occasionally confuse their, they’re and there, phase and faze, rest assured you are not alone. The English language contains many words that sound the same but, confusingly, are spelt differently and also mean completely different things. These are known as homophones and other examples are pray and prey and to,
Although Latin is often said to be a dead language it is the foundation of most modern languages today and English is no exception. Many of us use Latin phrases – or their abbreviated forms – every day of our working lives without thinking twice about it. But misuse is commonplace so, with thanks to www.grammarly.com – the brilliant website for grammar nerds like me – here are the meanings of some commonly used (and abused) Latin abbreviations:
Abbreviation
In full
Literal meaning
Everyday use
Eg
Exempli gratia
For the sake of example
For example
Etc
Et cetera
And the rest
And so on/and the rest
ie
Id est
It is/That is
When we want to explain or clarify something – Read more »
I can’t think why I’m bringing this to your attention but new research suggests people who are angered by poorly written correspondence are apparently more likely than most to be grumpy loners than more relaxed individuals who don’t care about such petty matters as grammar and spelling.
In the first study into the impact that the personality traits of listeners or readers has on their interpretation of language, the University of Michigan invited 83 people to read a false advert for a new housemate,
Regular readers of this blog will recognise that we hate jargon-filled gobbledygook. Job adverts are among the worst offenders, producing gems such as this:
“Moving from hierarchical structures to a process-based architecture, our success has been based on consistent, integrated teamwork and quality enhancement through people. By ensuring consistency in the development and integration of process plans, you will facilitate the management processes to develop implementation plans for the processes they manage.
