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60-second fix
Posted by: Cathy Dann
14 / 01 / 13
If you already know the difference between stationery and stationary, you’ll probably have felt the urge to indulge yourself in the kind of graffiti pictured, writes Cathy Relf. (No? Just me?) If you don’t already know the difference, it’s this: stationery refers to writing materials, while stationary means ‘not moving’. The most frequent mistake people […]
18 / 12 / 12
Seasons greetings, Rudolph here. It has come to my attention that some of you humans are getting in a pickle about rein and reign, so I thought I’d spare 60 seconds to sort you out. Firstly, let’s have a quick look at the dictionary definitions of rein. rein (n) – a long strap used to […]
14 / 10 / 12
Should you write: a) ‘Last autumn, I led the Pegasus project’, or b) ‘Last autumn, I lead the Pegasus project’? The answer is a). Led is the past tense and past participle of the verb to lead. The confusion arises for a couple of reasons. Firstly, the verb to read keeps the same spelling when […]
05 / 09 / 12
Over the past year, we’ve been running a series called 60-second fix in our monthly e-bulletin. Now it’s time to find out whether you’ve been paying attention. Challenge your colleagues to a quick round … How did you get on? Full marks, we hope! Feel free to show off in the comments field below. […]
14 / 08 / 12
This is one of the trickiest homophones to remember, partly because the spellings are only one letter apart, and partly because there is no good reason for the difference (both stem from the Latin complere, meaning ‘to fill up’). Sadly, ours is not to reason why, but simply to learn the difference: to complement is […]
19 / 07 / 12
If you mix up your words, it can affect a reader’s opinion of you – and that, in turn, can have a detrimental effect on your business. So here’s how to get affect and effect straight. Almost always, the following will apply: effect is a noun and means ‘a result or a consequence’ or the […]
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