Monthly Archives: April 2011

A guide to mass nouns

Posted on April 25, 2011 by

Making plural nouns in English can be confusing. Sometimes you add an “es.” Sometimes it’s just an “s.” Sometimes you add “ies.” And other times you add “en.” Then once you’ve memorized all these rules, mass nouns enter the fray. … Continue reading →

Posted in grammar, semantics | Tagged , , , , | 5 Comments

Prefix and Suffix-athon

Posted on April 22, 2011 by

Native English speakers routinely squash prefixes and suffixes before and after words to alter their meanings. Often they do it without giving much thought as to what the few letters before or after actually mean. For instance, if someone is … Continue reading →

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Funny French Idioms

Posted on April 21, 2011 by

As part of my final in my French class, I will be performing a scene from a famous French play. I don’t know yet what character I will be, but I do know that I will be wearing a unicorn … Continue reading →

Posted in foreign language, semantics, story time | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

Emails and hyphens and little snails? Oh my!

Posted on April 19, 2011 by

Lesson: Recent AP style changes This is going to be a tough change for me. Since I took high school typing class, every time I go to type the word email, my finger automatically treks to the hyphen key. But … Continue reading →

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The dos and don’ts of “dos and don’ts”

Posted on April 15, 2011 by

Lesson: Forming plurals and the role of the apostrophe A common mistake in English writing appears, strangely enough, when we write lists of dos and don’ts. Many people mistakenly write “do’s and don’ts” (with an apostrophe in “dos”). The proper … Continue reading →

Posted in grammar, punctuation | Tagged , , | 8 Comments