Happy New Year! I wish you clear writing and all good things in 2022! Please, if over the course of the year you have occasion to write out twenty twenty-two in words, make sure that you spell “two” correctly. Nobody wants twenty twenty too!
How many of you had plum pudding for Christmas? Was it plum plum pudding? It probably wasn’t plumb plum pudding.
To row merely down the stream does not mean the same as to row merrily down the stream. You can do both, even at the same time. But if you are trying to quote the nursery rhyme, you actually want to row gently down the stream.
Row, row, row your boat
Gently down the stream
Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily
Life is but a dream
The second photo explains why it is shoo-in and not shoe-in. I’m not sure what a shoe-in would be. Maybe a contest entry at a Cinderella ball?
Sometimes I am asked, “Do people really mix those up?” Yes. All the muddles I share with you have been seen in real life. Usually they are in the middle of a document, and I just add them to my list. Occasionally, I have a photo of them.
Now, to be fair, I’m not completely certain if this store has had previous problems with gangs of clergy that they are trying to avoid, or if they just had trouble with their spelling. Either way, someone may be confused about who is allowed in.
I have seen “optin” as one word without a hyphen used as a noun occasionally. It is not yet standard, but I expect it will be one day. If you choose to use this variant, be aware that autocorrect may change it to “option”.
“To prove one’s mettle” is a common expression. If you have proven your mettle you have come through a difficult situation with grace and aplomb. You might need to prove your mettle if you have neighbours who meddle.
A metal detector works by creating an electromagnetic field that causes a reaction in metal objects. That reaction sends a signal to the metal detector that usually turns into some kind of beep so that you know metal has been found. I don’t know what a medal detector is, or what it does, but my guess is that it’s some kind of journalist looking for a story about an athletic event.
Lapse is a singular noun. The plural is lapses. A lapse of time is a length of time, usually used to indicate the amount of time that something happened differently than before, or the space of time between two events. The adjective “time-lapse” is used to describe a video or a series of still photographs in which some of the sequence is removed. This allows a slow process to be viewed more quickly. To time laps is to record how long it takes to move around the track.
