by Pernickety Kate | May 23, 2022 | Proofreading, Spelling, Words
Further explorations of some troublesome English words… Literally How to annoy half the population without really trying: use the word literally when you’re talking about something that couldn’t actually happen. Examples: He was so angry, his head literally... by Pernickety Kate | Apr 19, 2022 | Proofreading, Spelling, Words
Continuing my series demystifying commonly confused words… Imply / Infer Imagine a house. Probably semi-detached suburban; definitely well-kept. It has a garage and a drive. Across the front end of the drive, at knee height, is a chain (it may well have spiky... 
by Pernickety Kate | Apr 9, 2022 | Proofreading, Spelling
Typos, eh? They’re sneaky, and they happen to the best of us. But we can’t blame our keyboards for everything… Technically, a typo is a mistake occurring through misuse (or failure) of the machinery used for typing. It is short for typographical error – the kind of... by Pernickety Kate | Feb 28, 2022 | Spelling, Words
Continuing my series unpicking some of the most commonly confused words in the English language… Faze / Phase Faze is a weird word in meaning and usage as well as spelling. To faze means to disturb, worry or confuse. Examples: When asked to give an example, he... by Pernickety Kate | Jan 10, 2022 | Proofreading, Spelling, Words
The most commonly mixed-up words in English, explained (part 1) … Accept / Except These words sound very much alike but they mean different things. Accept is an action word (verb) broadly meaning to take something in. Other AC words meaning to take something on board... 
by Pernickety Kate | Jan 26, 2018 | Punctuation, Spelling, Words
Some words behave weirdly – and not just the fancy ones that few people understand. Here’s a collection of the first few that sprang to mind (as seen originally on my Facebook page). Weird Word of the Week #1: COMPLIMENT (and related words). Weird... 