Tag Archives: language

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 →

raise vs. rise. Both verbs have to do with growing, but RAISE is transitive (“Raising children is difficult”), while RISE is intransitive (“Prices have risen again.”). Jason Blake and Monika Kavalir

Research. “Research” is normally a non-countable noun and you can live a full and happy life without ever writing “researches.” Some use it in the plural to mean “separate scientific investigations” but others (including the writers of these weekly tips) … Continue reading →

Spot the mistake in this sentence: “That is a belief in which we do not believe in.” The mistake? A prepositional doubling-up (“That is a belief IN which we do not believe IN.”). Other frequent examples: “The theory of which … Continue reading →

Age. The verb to age has to do with growing older, but the implication is generally that the person should be relatively close to old age (i.e. children don’t normally “age”) and that it is showing in their looks. Both … Continue reading →