The Writing’s on the Wall

The signs are there that something bad is going to happen. Its meaning isn’t hard to figure out, and there’s a logic to it (writing on a wall is a pretty visible sign). But where does this expression come from?

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No, I Don’t Mind

Carrying on from yesterday: all native speakers of English are quite used to the phrase I don’t mind… But why do we use mind in this case? Continue reading

Would You Mind Helping Me?

No, not at all.

or…

Yeah, sure.

Which is the correct answer?

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Rhubarb Rhubarb Rhubarb

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

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

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

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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