What is the plural of staff? Reader’s question: Which is correct: staff or staffs when referring to people? Answer: The correct word is staff if you are referring to a group of people within an organisation. You can use the plural staffs to refer to more than one body of staff. Pam Peters gives the following example in The Cambridge Guide […]
Learn parts of speech with a childhood poem I discovered this childhood poem that I hadn’t read before. Every name is called a noun as field and fountain, street and town. In place of a noun the pronoun stands as he and she clap their hands. The adjective describes a thing, as magic wand or […]
The difference between eminent and imminent The eminent scientist’s visit is imminent. eminent Eminent means distinguished, famous or highly respected. She is an eminent scientist in her field. imminent Imminent means soon, about to happen. Rain is imminent. If these words confuse you, use simpler words. She is highly respected scientist in her field. Rain is likely. Learn […]
Squinting modifier: children who play in the sun often have a high risk of cancer Squinting adverbial modifiers is a phrase that makes me wonder who invented grammar terms – I find it hard to imagine an adverb squinting! Adverbs are words that add information to parts of a sentence about time, manner, place or degree (soon, […]
You can use focused or focussed She focused/focussed her attention on the details. Do you use focused or focussed? Both focused and focussed are acceptable. Similarly, you can use focusing or focussing. My preference is focused because I think it looks cleaner. Did you know that we tend to double the consonant with verbs of two […]
Fake news is inauthentic and unauthentic Inauthentic and unauthentic both mean the same thing: ‘not authentic’, i.e. not genuine or real. Her apology was inauthentic. Her apology was unauthentic. A lot of the news on Facebook is inauthentic. A lot of the news on Facebook is unauthentic. Other in- and un- negatives also mean the same […]
The difference between imply and infer imply Imply means to suggest indirectly. You implied you were coming. infer Infer means to deduce or come to a conclusion. I inferred from what you said that you were coming. I think distinction between these two words may be dying out. Read more about the differences. Learn more […]
The difference between homed and honed She honed her writing skills by writing every day. She homed in on her memories of dark times. Homed and honed are often confused. homed Homed means to proceed towards a specific target. The missile homed in on the target. honed Honed means to sharpen, refine or make more acute. […]
Three words that many people hate are: got, but and that. Got I have never understood why got receives such bad press. I agree you can often use more specific words to replace it: I got a book out of the library. I borrowed a book from the library. But it is a versatile little word […]
Styles for em and en rules and the textual dash — em rule – textual dash – en rule Dashes are stronger than a comma and less formal than brackets. You use a longer dash to separate information and a shorter dash to link words. Em and en rules are sometimes called em and en […]