No matter how much I learn about language, I am continually discovering definitions and guidelines and applications to keep me humble. Language serves as a training ground for admitting mistakes and embracing my imperfections while still enjoying the discipline! This week’s Which Word Wednesday matchup—gantlet vs. gauntlet—has given me quite…
I love it when friends encounter their own word duels and send them my way as potential Which Word Wednesday entries. Today’s match up comes from dear friend Angel who wondered about the difference between connote and denote. Good one! Although I’m familiar with the pair, I had a hard…
OK, I’ll admit it—I’ve been avoiding this Which Word Wednesday match up. Affect vs. effect? It’s not that I don’t know how to use them, because I do. But it’s more of a gut feel rather than a mental assent to the rules. But someone on FB requested coverage, so…
Some dear friends of ours have twin girls. They look alike, for sure—they are twins, siblings—but because I know them well, I see the differences, however slight. I can tell them apart, and I know which name goes with which girl. Words twins are the same. They look alike, with…
Remember those public speaking classes we all took in high school and college? I remember my nervousness more than my speeches. But the preparation tips must have stuck for all of us, because most speeches have the thoughts categorized and presented one by one, starting with something like: “First of…
Some of us have pets, and most of us have pet peeves, but everyone has pet words—whether you know it or not. My pet words come to me like strays. I could be minding my own daily grind when a word cozies up to me. Before I know it, I’m…
The trouble with being a word lover is that I can’t get away from it. Words are used to think, write, and speak, which gives me plenty of opportunities for improper usage or brain freeze. I log these glitches for future consideration, but at least half the time I forget…
The more I learn about language confirms how little I know about language. Each time I grab one of my word usage books for selecting a Which Word Wednesday match-up, I am delightfully surprised by something I had never heard before. Such is the case for this week’s pair, people…
When it comes to word quandaries, we’ve seen again and again here at Which Word Wednesday that proper usage is directly related to context. And there’s the rub. Context is difficult to ascertain mid-sentence. We cannot grasp the correct word for the context so we insert whatever word is at…
You can tell a lot about people by the way they approach a new book. Do they read the back cover or the inside flap? Do they skim the table of contents? Do they read the last pages first, to know where the story is heading? Do they judge a…
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