English language

Would You Mind Helping Me?

Niall O'Donnell 12 Comments

No, not at all.

or…

Yeah, sure.

Which is the correct answer?

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Rhubarb Rhubarb Rhubarb

Niall O'Donnell 9 Comments

Do you like rhubarb? Its taste is a bit sharp, but it can be quite nice alongside something gentler, like custarb. It’s one of those funny words with an Rh at the beginning, when really it seems like a simple R would do fine.

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By the Way

Niall O'Donnell 20 Comments

I think I use this expression a lot. I notice, as I’m writing, which phrases I tend to use more often than others. It’s not necessarily such a bad thing: we can’t use every word in the language, and our use of certain words and expressions is what gives us our own style.

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Hump Day

Niall O'Donnell 4 Comments

Look, I know this is being published on a Thursday, but in my defence I’m writing this on a Wednesday and the idea came to me this afternoon.

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Remuneration

Niall O'Donnell 22 Comments

That’s right. Not renumeration: remuneration.

This is probably among the most-commonly misspelled words in English, and it’s easy to understand why.

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Astronomy and Astrology

Niall O'Donnell 20 Comments

You may already know the difference between these two words, but I think that they can be easily confused, so it’s useful to make a distinction. To put it most simply: astronomy is real, and astrology isn’t.

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To Coin a Phrase

Niall O'Donnell 6 Comments

Without checking, I can safely say that I refer to words and phrases being coined a lot in these posts. I’ve long wondered why we use to coin as a verb in this way, so different, apparently, from how we use coin as a noun. So I decided to look into it.

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