I’ve advised you about this muddle before, but since I’ve seen it several times in the last few days, I thought I would share this advice again.
I’ve advised you about this muddle before, but since I’ve seen it several times in the last few days, I thought I would share this advice again.
Since I mentioned palindromes in my post last week, I thought they should be the subject of my post this week. Share your favourites in the comments.
I’ve heard many people say that spelling doesn’t matter—after all you knew what I meant, right? But even if your readers know what you mean, they will still judge you based on your words. Some misspellings are more unfortunate than others; such is the case with today’s muddle. It’s always better to get it right than to make the wrong impression.
Antecedents should be clearly understood by the use of the pronoun. Otherwise your communication will be ineffective—or funny.
A paronomasia is a pun, but a pun isn’t always a paronomasia. Paronomasias depend on the use of similar words to create the humour. They can be homographic, homophonic, or homonymic. Homographs, homophones and homonyms have been covered in previous Wednesday Word posts. If you are not sure what they mean, please ask me.
To lose weight is to change the composition of your body so that it weighs less. To loose weight is to pick it up and throw it away, or to open the cage door and let it run out under its own power. Loose the pounds!
To pass muster is not the same as to pass mustard.