And the Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Year 2022 goes to ‘Gaslighting’

People suffering from long Covid took up the term “medical gaslighting” to describe the medical establishment’s inappropriate dismissal of their symptoms. The word can also be used to describe individuals across contexts, from romantic partners to politicians. The dictionary offers two definitions for the term. The first describes it as “psychological manipulation of a person usually… Read More

Confusing words: Then and Than

THAN is used in comparative statements. ~ Another pair of words that I see misused far more often than not is than and then. ~ He is taller than I am. ~ Other than the interest on a small inheritance, he had no income. ~ Today’s students certainly do seem to read less than students in… Read More

Prepositional Idioms? Calm down!

A prepositional idiom consists of a verb followed by a preposition, but unlike an ordinary prepositional phrase, it forms an expression with a nonliteral or idiomatic meaning. Some grammarians consider the prepositional idiom a type of a phrasal verb, others call it the phrasal verb itself, and still others call it a verb phrase. Anyway… Read More

200 Words to Use Instead of “Good” (Infographic)

Source: http://custom-writing.org/blog/writing-tips/28365.html

Confusing words: Make and Do

DO There are no easy rules to follow. We always use do to describe indefinite activities, often with what, thing, anything, nothing, etc and generally speaking we also use do to talk about duties, jobs or (leisure) activities. Look at the following examples: ‘What shall we do now?’ ‘You can do what you like. I’m… Read More

Confusing words: For and To (for Brazilian speakers)

This is a typical mistake of Brazilian speakers because “for” and “to” translates into: “para”. “The present is for Thomas.” –> O presente é para o Thomas. “Say hello to your wife.” –> “Diga oi para a sua esposa.” This is an explanation designed for Brazilian students. These are NOT rules written in stone, they… Read More

Confusing words: British and American terms

British and American English often spell the same word differently, for example: labour/labor, enthrall/enthral, or centre/center. You can find out more about these differences here. There are also many cases in which the two varieties of English use different terms to describe the same thing. Here’s a list of various British words and expressions together… Read More

Curiosities about the English language / Curiosidades da língua inglesa

I received, today, one more of those uncountable emails that we receive daily from friends, acquaintances, or even strangers. The message was forwarded, thus I don’t know who is the author of the curiosities that we find there, but I’ll post it here, anyway (the part that refers to some curiosities about the English language).… Read More