Grammar books sometimes bother me; you somehow feel as if you should believe everything you read in them. But while that might make you more of a selective human, it won’t in all cases arm you with the facts.
Tag: grammar guide
Altogether different
Just a quick reminder today: 'altogether' is not the same as 'all together'. 'Altogether' is an adverb meaning:
Double take
I was watching a TV programme about Francis Crick and James D. Watson who jointly discovered the DNA molecule. At one point, the commentator said: Crick and Watson had one major advantage: each other. Isn't that two major advantages? No, it's just one. I think. Isn't it?
Comma sense
Suddenly, using commas seems a bit redundant. See that comma there? See how important it is to the meaning of the sentence? If it wasn't there, I'd be startling you by suddenly using commas. Perhaps while I'm emptying the teapot, or putting petrol in the car.
Nothing much
The simplest definition of an oxymoron is a combination of words that would usually contradict each other. I don’t think there’s any need to worry about whether or not an oxymoron is intentional, contradictory or only apparently so. You only have to consider the Stoppard line above to realise how hard it would be to come to a meaningful conclusion. (Just to boil your brain a bit more, in the Stoppard example ‘future’ and ‘perfect’ are not even words that, strictly speaking, would normally contradict each other.)
Epicentre
Here’s a bit of a strict rule from the The Economist Style Guide: Epicentre means that point on the earth's surface above the centre of an earthquake. To say that Mr Putin was at the epicentre of the dispute suggests that the argument took place underground. So, I guess The Economist wouldn’t like the following then:
Fudge majeure
As one wit commented on BBC Radio 4: We have a fudge majeure. An excellent neologism that is both apt and funny. It is, of course, a play on 'force majeure'.
Wordwatch Towers 