Category Archives: English Usage

An Even More Expensive OED!

A few weeks ago, I wrote about Amazon having a good price on the Oxford English Dictionary–the world’s largest (and I think safe to say best) dictionary. Well, today I was checking around and found they have a special Blue … Continue reading

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The Oxford English Dictionary on Sale

I got an advertisement from Oxford University Press with a special sale on the OED.  The Oxford English Dictionary is, well, the mother-of-all-dictionaries.  Oxford is celebrating the 80th anniversary of the dictionary’s completion. It was started in 1857 and the … Continue reading

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A New Fun Word Book

Yesterday, I got in a new book on William F. Buckley Jr.’s use of the English language: Buckley: The Right Word. Compiled by the editor of many of Buckley’s books Samuel S. Vaughan, it examines letters, articles and passages from … Continue reading

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Chaucer is Easy and He has a Blog

Over at theJapanesePage.com’s forums, Tony let’s us know the Middle English writer Chaucer is easy. (scroll down a few posts) I gave him a chance to retract that statement – I mean people think reading Shakespeare or the 19th century … Continue reading

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His, Her, His or Her, Their or Its

Yumi bought a book by Supernanny Jo Frost called Supernanny by Jo Frost. Thumbing through it reminded me of a discussion in an English class I had at the university. The topic was about what gender should be used for … Continue reading

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Log on to www….

We’ve been slammed for the past few days. I blinked and here we are already halfway through this week. Log on to www…. I heard this on the radio the other day and it got me thinking. Do we really … Continue reading

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Having, Eating and Caring Less

Just a few common sayings that are oddly wrong – if you think about it. Oddly Wrong: You can’t have your cake and eat it too. Correct: You can’t eat your cake and have it too. Many people say “You … Continue reading

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A Big Day

Upon logging into this site today, I received a notification saying someone actually registered to this site! My subscription base has doubled in one fell swoop! Quite a big day for this site. This means from now on, a single … Continue reading

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蛸s = Octopi?

We were watching Makoto’s Wiggles DVD (highly recommended BTW) and when mentioning Henry the Octopus’ friends they repeatedly said Octopi as the plural of Octopus. I hadn’t heard that before and since I happened to be reading from the Fowler’s … Continue reading

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