I have written before about the distinction between (a) different varieties of a language and (b) performance errors within a single variety. https://languagemiscellany.com/2026/08/a-place-that-you-know-where-it-is/ Sometimes, it can be hard to draw this distinction in practice, but sometimes it is easier. I recently saw an example that clearly results from an editing glitch and is not an…… Continue reading This typo was just a typo, not a result of a different variety of English
Tag: Writing
Due, owing, owed
A couple of months ago, a radio presenter was talking about the then imminent stock market flotation of Elon Musk’s company Space X. The presenter said that the estimated valuation of SpaceX was [amount X], and that [amount Y] of this amount ‘is owed to’ the valuation of SpaceX’s artificial intelligence (AI) business Grok and…… Continue reading Due, owing, owed
A place that you know where it is
The other day, I heard a man say to his young daughter: ‘Where are you putting that? Put it in a place that you know where it is.’ Although that 2nd sentence is perfectly clear, I would never write it myself. I probably wouldn’t say it either, though I quite often hear similar sentences. Why…… Continue reading A place that you know where it is
From words to meaning
Before we can decode a written text or spoken comments, we often need a deep understanding of the context. The literal meaning of the words often does not give us enough to decipher the intended meaning. I found myself thinking about this after reading the following: ‘Man of the match in space on heading…… Continue reading From words to meaning
Please leave your room until 11 o’clock
We saw this sign at the front desk in our hotel on a recent trip to Luxembourg. Please leave your room till 11:00 a.m. One thing the sign says is: ‘Please leave your room till 11:00 am.’ That says the opposite of what is intended: intended meaning: please leave your room permanently before 11:00 am.…… Continue reading Please leave your room until 11 o’clock
How to write, badly
About a dozen years ago, I was excited to hear about a new book called Learn to write Badly: How to Succeed in the Social Sciences, Michael Billig (2013). I bought a copy and read it immediately, thinking it would give me some useful insights into why many social scientists write poorly. To my annoyance,…… Continue reading How to write, badly
Lying in politics
Unfortunate wording from the BBC in early July 2016, profiling Theresa May, about to become UK Prime Minister: “But it was already clear that she saw her future as lying in politics.” Sadly for connoisseurs of garden path sentences and of other forms of ambiguity, by 16 July 2016, the BBC had spotted the unfortunate…… Continue reading Lying in politics
Into the political cesspool while swimming at the Olympics
I’ve said before that I try not to use while with a concessive meaning as a synonym for although. That is because readers may misread the word as referring to time. https://languagemiscellany.com/2022/10/time-to-stop-talking-about-the-time/ In most cases, the risk of misunderstanding or ambiguity is low, but writers often don’t spot ambiguity in their own writing and…… Continue reading Into the political cesspool while swimming at the Olympics
Intrusive ‘of’: is it that big a problem?
In the last few years, I’ve increasingly heard people including the preposition ‘of’ after an adjective in creating phrases such as not that big of a deal and how big of a problem. To my ear, ‘of’ after adjectives in such phrases is unnecessary and sounds completely wrong. I’ve heard this construction mainly from Americans,…… Continue reading Intrusive ‘of’: is it that big a problem?
Only last year
I was thinking recently about 2 apparently different uses of the word only. I had found myself writing example 1. (1) I’ve had a copy of Teach Yourself Welsh for about 50 years. It was only last year that I discovered that pages 97-144 are missing. I started wondering how that use of only contrasts…… Continue reading Only last year