Tangential Ramblings

The difference a letter can make

dan — 1:02pm, Saturday 13 September 2008

There are a couple of word pairings that differ by a single letter but whose meanings are completely different.

Encourage: inspire with confidence; give hope or courage to
Entourage: support group

Homophone: one of two or more words with different origins and meanings but sounding the same
Homophobe: one who hates or fears homosexual people

Any other non-trivial examples?

Pluracy

dan — 12:42pm, Saturday 13 September 2008

It would be lovely if the plural of apex was apices and if that of annex was annices.

Ben Dirs: crimes against the apostrophe

dan — 1:11pm, Saturday 23 August 2008

During the BBC's online Olympic coverage this morning, there was the following update at 10.45:

1045: And we're off - Sarah Stevenson versus Maria del Rosario Espinoza of Mexico. Can the Doncaster lass keep her head while all around her are losing theres'? The 20-year-old Mexican is the current world middleweight champion, a title she won in Beijing last year.

Fortunately, they "corrected" it quickly to:

1045: And we're off - Sarah Stevenson versus Maria del Rosario Espinoza of Mexico. Can the Doncaster lass keep her head while all around her are losing theirs'? The 20-year-old Mexican is the current world middleweight champion, a title she won in Beijing last year.

A couple of heinous errors from Ben Dirs, whose name is itself a stroke of genius.

Expresso my ass

dan — 9:55pm, Tuesday 19 August 2008

Although some dictionaries, including Merriam-Webster, accept expresso as an alternative spelling and indeed pronunciation of espresso, to me it is the mark of a heathen. And here's a previous post on the correct pronunciation of latte.

My bus stops well often

dan — 9:49pm, Friday 8 August 2008

A few moments before each bus stop, my bus announces to its passengers "Bus stopping at next bus stop. Please stand well clear of doors."

Is this proper English? Or is it a modernism that's crept in? (Not that I'm averse to the latter, of course.) I think it's both, and it would be wonderful if the creators had thought the same, in an attempt to appeal to both the younger and older generations.

'I have never ended on an unstressed syllable!'

dan — 10:18pm, Friday 25 July 2008

A fabulous article articulating the tension between journalists and sub-editors in the newspaper industry. Lots of sweariness, some beautiful humour and some artistically-crafted, unedited prose. Well worth a read.

The thin blue line

dan — 10:52pm, Wednesday 23 July 2008

It seems there is a new underline in Word 2007. Red wavy underlining marks spelling errors. Green marks questionable grammar. Blue, it seems, marks a more certain grammar error. An its instead of an it's (or vice versa). Or a suggestion that every day should be concatenated. None of the "corrections" I've seen on my editorial have warranted acceptance. So far.