Talking posh If you’ve ever cast off and set sail, you will not be taken aback to learn it’s above board to claim a landlubber’s language is chock-a-block with gifts from an old salt. You can tell from cut of this tar’s jib that he needs a wide berth and won’t toe the line. A […]
Helping your child develop their vocabulary
Developing a wide vocabulary range is important for a child. Alongside formal education, a parent’s involvement in teaching their child new vocabulary is vital. As much as 95% of words come from the time and efforts given by parents and the variety of vocabulary they achieve by a certain age. It is very to […]
The power of new words and why we need more
Without Shakespeare, there would be no managers, no swagger, no addiction, nothing bedazzling, new-fangled or gloomy. And these are just a few of the words he invented. There’s nothing new about neologisms. We’re always coming up with a word for something we need to talk about. Freakshakes, fat-bergs, manspaining, covfefe, floordrobes and hygge, for example. […]
Periods. Period. What should we call it?
It’s a terrible cringe of a word – period. If a word ever wore a tight bun and kept its books in alphabetical order, it’s a period. This is the word that goes with the twee trickles of dyed blue water poured in gleaming ad-land laboratories. Period. Flow, stop. Period. We need something better. Humanity […]
Don’t put a g in my sandwich
OK, I listen to a lot of radio and if the radio’s not on, I’m probably eavesdropping. So I hear a lot of words. Perhaps that qualifies me to make the following observations. You don’t need to say ‘impact upon’ when you really mean ‘affect’. Changing tack means you are trying a different direction. Changing […]