This post deals with some small aspects of English, grouped under the following headings: Spelling pronunciation meanings mass noun or count noun? word or phrase word histories 1. Spelling 1a. Bookkeeper Bookkeeper (and related bookkeeping) is one of the few English words with 3 double letters in a row: oo-kk-ee. https://whenyouwrite.com/ points out: an English…… Continue reading Odds and ends: English
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Singular folk—or is that plural
The excellent Feedback column in the Saturday edition of The Times (of London) often discusses language. On 4 October 2025, the column discussed complaints by disgruntled readers about the newspaper’s Polygon puzzle. This puzzle requires solvers to produce as many English words as possible from a list of 7 or 8 letters. Readers complained that…… Continue reading Singular folk—or is that plural
Data is now singular, says FT style guide
On the BBC 4 Radio programme More or Less on 17 March 2023, the presenter Tim Harford (an economist) said that the Financial Times style guide now tells the FT’s journalists to treat data as a singular noun. An executive editor from the FT explained that for the last 4 years the style guide had…… Continue reading Data is now singular, says FT style guide