Tag Archives: vocabulary
Understanding Irony Posted by Gary Locke on Mar 31, 2017
“The supreme irony of life is that hardly anyone gets out of it alive.” Robert A. Heinlein Understanding irony can be challenging. Explaining irony may be far more difficult. And yet, many people seem to recognize it when they see it. How ironic. Irony, in its simplest form may be defined as a situation in…
Nonetheless, Nevertheless, Notwithstanding Posted by Gary Locke on Mar 23, 2017
Here they are again: Words which sound so much alike, have similar meanings, and everybody uses them. What, then, is the difference? Let’s begin with the fact that nonetheless, nevertheless, and notwithstanding are all compound words. This means that you can break the word up into separate words. By doing so, you can find clues…
Don’t Be So Sure! Posted by Gary Locke on Mar 3, 2017
Has this happened to you? As an English learner we all know the pitfalls of homonyms, but what happens when you encounter words which have the same cognate, a thesaurus tells us they all are synonyms, but you know instinctively they must somehow have different meanings? As an experiment, try looking up the word ensure…
What is a Collocation? Posted by Gary Locke on Feb 17, 2017
Back in the 1950s and ‘60s there was a group of performers who seemed to always be together. Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr., Peter Lawford – They called themselves The Rat Pack. They performed together, made movies together, partied together, and each made the other better. In many ways, they were the physical…
Does Time Have a Point? Posted by Gary Locke on Feb 10, 2017
One of the most common phrases you’ll hear in English is, “At this point in time.” What does it actually mean? Is it grammatically correct, or is there a better way of saying it? I’m not here to discuss the physics of time, or theories (real and fanciful) related to spacetime continuums and all that…
Possessing the Apostrophe Posted by Gary Locke on Feb 2, 2017
The misuse of an apostrophe drives me crazy. Seriously, I have been known to scream out loud when I see signs like the one pictured. Let’s explain the apostrophe and, hopefully, take steps to make this world a saner place. An apostrophe is a punctuation mark used to denote either possession, or the omission of…
What’s the Difference? Inauguration Posted by Gary Locke on Jan 19, 2017
With a new administration taking office, it seems a good time to remind ourselves that the words of our leaders can have real significance. The misuse of a word, even selecting one simile when another would have been more appropriate, could lead to misunderstandings. And misunderstandings may have consequences. It may not lead to…