Author Archives: ljsdas@guest.arnes.si

Two very useful expressions for (often useless and unproductive) reciprocal actions are: 1) to and fro 2) back and forth Make sure, however, not to mix and match them! NOT: “They threw insults back and fro.” But: “They threw insults … Continue reading →

“According to” vs. “in accordance with” Note the difference between these two expressions. Perhaps it’s easiest to think of “according to” as a synonym for “says”, and “in accordance with” as a synonym for “in conformity with”. 1) According to … Continue reading →

Consider these structures. Which is correct? 1) “I was involved in a six year long fan relationship with a bad football team.” 2) “I was involved in a six-year long fan relationship with a bad football team.” 3) “I was … Continue reading →

Amount vs. number vs. a lot “Amount” is normally (especially in formal writing) used to talk about quantities of uncountable things, whereas “number” is used for countable items. E.g. “No amount of money could make me take a cold shower … Continue reading →

War. Capitalize the titles of wars, and use Roman numerals: 1) World War I or the First World War 2) World War II or the Second World War 3) the Cold War (“cold war” is fine if you use it … Continue reading →

Present vs. represent The verb “to present” can mean either “give” or “introduce” and is used with an object. When you want to say “to be,” however, the word to use is “represent” (and what follows is a subject complement). … Continue reading →

Reflections on “reflect” Remember to use “reflect” in the passive or with a reflexive pronoun when you mean “is manifested” or “is shown”: Incorrect: “The mood of the poem reflects in the sombre diction.” Correct: “The mood of the poem … Continue reading →

[comma!] etc. Be sure to add a comma before “etc.” Example 1: “We bought bread, cheese, ham, etc.” Also be sure NOT to italicize “etc.” Example 2: See Example 1. As well, be sure to add a comma AFTER “etc.” … Continue reading →

Conversion. English has always been adept at converting parts of speech – that is, making a noun function as a verb, or having what looks like a verb do the work of an adjective. Though especially noun-verbs can scrape our … Continue reading →