Sprakedit.com

12/10/2021

Some English English teachers love to give their students rules about the English language, like: "i" before "e" except after "c". The trouble with "rules" like this are the numerous excpetions...

12/03/2021

05/03/2021

Here is something that is fun to know if you are a native English speaker, good know if English is your second or other language 😉

04/12/2020

Something I got from a friend...

20/11/2020

Wow! I've been so busy these last few months, that I forgot to post something. I have a lot to learn about social media 😊 So here is an appropriate post for these times, I thought:

15/06/2020

A big thanks to all those who liked this site!
If you are describing yourself as “kempt” or “couth” today. Sorry, no such words. For those of you who always wondered what the opposite of the following ‘negative’ words are, the answer is that none of them have ‘positive’ opposite forms:
Unkempt, inept, disgruntled, uncouth, debunk, disappointing, disconcerting, disconsolate, dishevelled, dismayed, immaculate, impeccable, inadvertent, incapacitated, inclement, incognito, incommunicado, incorrigible, indefatigable, indomitable, inevitable, insipid, misnomer, mistake, nonchalant, noncommittal, nondescript, nonpareil, nonplussed, unassuming, unbeknownst, ungainly, unwieldly. (From Patricia O’Connor’s “Woe is I”)

Any words there that you needed to look up?
I must admit that I wasn’t sure of “nonpareil”.

According to Merriam Webster, the word has both adjective and noun forms.
Adjective:
having no equal:
“Her performance was nonpareil.”
“Our baker's cakes are nonpareil.”
“A nonpareil drummer.”

And the noun form:
1: an individual of unequaled excellence : PARAGON
2a: a small flat disk of chocolate covered with white sugar pellets
2b: sugar in small pellets of various colors
(how fascinating!)

By the way, did you know that Standard British English would spell “unequaled” as “unequalled”, and “colors” as “colours”.

28/05/2020

Wake up!
Finding it hard to get up in the morning? Another great clarifier from Patricia O’Connor: Do you say, “Have you woken?”, or “Have you waked?” She says that if you have trouble lying in bed at night worrying about this one, don’t!
Both are correct.
The accepted forms of the verb "wake", are "wake", "woke" (or "waked"), and "have woken" (or "have waked").

I always wake at six. Yesterday, I woke (or waked) at six. In the past I have woken (or have waked) as late as seven.

I’m more used to saying I "woke up", I always "wake up", or I "have woken up". And this is also correct – it is quite acceptable to add "up" to both "wake" and "woke".

Sounds weird to me to say I "wake" or "waked" or "have waked" in any form, but there you are.

08/05/2020

Did you know? Americans commonly spell "toward" without the final "s" when saying something like: "The lion crept stealthily toward the buffalo", whereas Brits would write "towards", i.e. "The lion crept stealthily towards the buffalo". Also, in American English, it is usual not to add the "s" to backward, forward, downward, onward, upward. (for more gems like this see Patricia O’Connor’s great book Woe is I – the grammarphobe’s guide to better English in plain English)

06/05/2020

As the story goes... When Winston Churchill was criticised for ending a sentence with a preposition he replied ... this is the kind of arrant pedantry up with which I shall not put!