Not Sure I Know the Answer to this One

Maybe you can answer the kid’s question with something better than “That’s just how we do it.”

Subscribe to this blog's RSS feed

A neologism is a word that you (or someone) made up to fit a circumstance that doesn’t have a word. Here’s a pretty good example.

It’s a bit long, but it has a pretty good ring to it, and I think the definition is pretty good, too.

This kind of word is also called a portmanteau word: Two (or more) words combined to make a new word, in this case blunder and catastrophe.

Proofreading is an antidote to bad writing. I’ve mentioned spelling checkers before; this reminder is too good to pass up.

We should be able to get it right too! Bottom row:

• There—refers to something, including the rest of a sentence
• Their—belongs to something or someone
• They’re—contraction of “they are.”

Though personally, I don’t think the King of England would get it wrong…

Some kinds of homonyms are spelled the (about) same but pronounced differently. When the pronunciation is the difference, it’s important.

We match the Italian pronunciation fairly closely, but not the French. The French pronunciation is something like “wah-la,” accent on the second syllable. It’s more fun if you go find someone who’s French and ask them to pronounce it for you. The spellings “voila” and “viola” are part of the humor, by the way.