Less or fewer?

Don't know when to use less and when to use fewer? Here's how to get it right.

Use fewer when:

·         referring to people or things

·         in the plural

·         when they can be counted (you don’t have to know the exact number, it is enough to know that they are quantifiable)   

Use less when:

·         referring to things that can’t be counted ( less time, less money, less talk)

 

The fewer the words, the better the prayer. Martin Luther

The less you talk, the more you're listened to. Abigail Van Buren

These two quotes demonstrate the difference nicely. The words of a prayer, are plural, can be counted and so Martin Luther used ‘fewer’ in his sentence.  There is no way of quantifying talk, and so Abigail Van Buren used ‘less’ in her sentence.

 

Further examples:

Less soft fruit is expected to grace our tables, following the wet summer.

Fewer strawberries are expected to grace our tables, following the wet summer.

 

People are buying fewer paperbacks

You’ll be making less money if you continue to ignore electronic publishing.

 

Fewer people are smokers these days.

I smoke less, now my wife has quit.

The five most commonly misspelt words in the English language

Number 5:

'Bureaucracy', comes in at fifth place, most likely due to the number of vowels.

I remember it by means of a silly story.

You are going to buy a computer game when a bur (an irritating hooked seed) gets stuck on you. Unfortunately the game is made by ea (the most hated games company in the US) and when u get back home to play it the DMA drives you cracy.

Number 4:

‘Manoeuvre,' comes in at fourth place, due to the proximity of the 'O' and 'E' to each other.

Luckily for you I haven’t come up with a silly story for this word yet. Instead, I prefer to spit the word between the problematic 'O' and 'E.' This gives us ‘mano’ and ‘euvre,’ which are easier to remember.

Number 3:

'Indict', sneaks in at third place, commonly misspelled 'indite.’

The word ‘indict,’ comes to us from the Medieval Latin indicto, but fear not there is a great little mnemonic to help you remember the correct spelling.

He lived in the suburbs but his crimes were committed in di city.

Number 2:

'Sacrilegious', in second place leaves often leaves me confused over whether it has an 'E' or 'I' in the middle.

Commonly misspelt sacreligious, a quick and dirty trick to remember that the ‘E’ comes in the middle of this word is to recall “I before e except after c.” while this rule not being applied correctly here it will help remind you that the “I” comes first.

Number 1:

'Definitely' is the most the commonly misspelt word in the English language, due to people spelling it phonetically as ‘Definately.’

 

There is definitely no ‘a’ in word definite.

 

 

 

Sources:

Forbes 4 September 2012

The Telegraph 15 Jun 2009

OnePoll.com in 2009

    

 

 

 

 

    

 

 

 

 

"Emigrate" vs. "Immigrate"?

To emigrate is to leave your country to settle in another.

To immigrate is to enter a new country and settle there.

An example of how these words are used

My grandmother emigrated from France. She immigrated to the United Kingdom.

A couple of tricks to remember the difference

To immigrate is to enter a new country, and both “immigrant” and “in” start with the letter “i.”

To emigrate is to exit your country, and both “emigrate”and “exit” start with “e.”

What Do I.e. and E.g. Mean?

What Do I.e. and E.g. Mean?

I.e. and e.g. are both abbreviations for Latin terms. I.e. stands for id est and means roughly "that is." E.g. stands for exempli gratia, which means “for example.”

Great How am I supposed to remember all that Latin?

Fortunately you won’t have to, all you’ll need to remember is a simple memory trick.  

Don’t get hung up on what i.e. means in Latin, just concentrate on the letter i.e. starts with i and take this to mean “in other words.”

Use the same trick with e.g., which starts with e, means “for example.”

Another good trick is to use sound to help  your memory, e.g stands for  “egg sample” which sounds like “example.”  

How do I use i.e. and e.g. in a sentence?

E.g. means “for example,” so you can use it to introduce an example.

I like graphic novels, e.g., the walking dead and Y: the last man. I don’t have to provide an exhaustive list of every graphic novel I like, it’s a few examples.

I.e. means “in other words,” and is used to introduce  further clarification.

I love participating in triathlon sports, i.e., running, cycling and swimming. By using i.e., introduces a clarification, you know that these are the three sports in a triathlon.

Still confused? There’s no rule that says you must use the abbreviations. You can always write out “for example” or “in other words.”   

Dos and Don'ts

 

Do	Don’t
Use a period after each letter	Italicize i.e. and e.g., they’ve been used for so long that they’re consider English words, even though they are abbreviations of Latin words.
Put a comma after i.e. and e.g. (even if your spell checker disagrees) In British English a comma can be omitted after i.e. Fowler's Modern English Usage Speaking as Brit the comma seems to be gaining the upper hand, and using the comma is by far the safest option.

 

Popular place names

Capitalize the popular names of regions

· Left Bank
· Chicago’s South Side
· Silicon Valley
· Narnia

The popular names of regions can generally be considered singular, as you can see in the examples listed above.

Where popular names describe two or more distinct places the popular name will be plural. For example, the Chanel Islands refers to an archipelago of five English speaking islands off the coast of France (Guernsey, Jersey, Sark, Herm and Alderney) and therefore is plural.









When two or more regions are linked in a single expression, the usual practice is to put the generic part of the names in lower case e.g., the Eastern and Western fronts of WW2.

Take care not to capitalize the cardinal directions (north, east, south and west) if they simply indicate direction or location. Where cardinal directions form part of a geographical description they should be capitalized. For example, the Far East and Middle Eastern both refer to ill defined regions and not a specific location.

Affect vs. Effect

Affect vs. Effect

Whether to use affect or effect causes more confusion than almost any other point of grammar.  Luckily the rules are simple and the exceptions few. So I have cartoons and mnemonics to help you remember.

What is the difference between affect and effect?

It’s simple really.   Most of the time you use affect with an a as a verb and effect with an e as a noun.

Here is a mnemonic to help you remember that affect with an a is a verb and effect with an e is a noun; a very easy noun.

When should affect be used?

There are two ways in which affect with an a is used:

1.       Where it means “to change,” as in, “the arrow affected the mammoth.”

2.       Affect can also be used to mean “fake  behaviour,”  “She affected a southern accent.”

When should effect be used?

Effect with an e has a lot of  meanings as a noun, however the two most common meaning are, “a result” and  “belonging”

1.       The most frequent meaning of effect with an e is “a result.”  For example “The effect was eye-popping.”

2.       The next most frequent meaning of effect with an e is “belonging,” this is usually plural as if you only had one thing it would most likely be named. For example “Please gather your personal effects.”

 

Exceptions?

In Psychology you can’t tell what someone else is feeling, you can only observe what they appear to feeling. So Psychologist find it useful to use affect with an a as a noun.

Effect with an e can be used as a verb where it can be taken to mean,  "to bring about," or "to accomplish." For example, "The mayor hoped to effect change within the city."

Loose or lose?

Lose

Lose is a verb.

Lose has three possible meanings:

• to "misplace" something,
• to "fail to win," or
• to "be deprived of" something.

The past tense of lose is lost.

A memory aid for Lose

• The single "o" isn’t enough to win.

 Loose

Loose, is an adjective.

Loose has two possible meanings:

• "not fastened," or
• "not tight fitting."

A memory aid for Loose

• The two "o's" of loose hold too much space as when a shirt is a few sizes too large.

 

It's or is it Its?

It's or is it Its?

Many are confused by these two little words, I hope you find the guide below helpful. 

 

What to remember

It's is a contraction for it is or it has.

Its is a possessive pronoun meaning, more or less, of it or belonging to it.

What to avoid

There is no such word as its'.

Guide it’s vs. its

Examples

It's been good. Contraction: it has
Look, up in the sky! It's a bird. It's a plane. It's Superman! Contraction: it is

Alot, a lot and Allot

Alot, a lot and Allot 

The words alot, a lot and allot cause a great deal of confusion.

What is the difference between a lot, alot  and allot?

It’s simper really. ‘alot’ the word does not exist.

'A lot' means a large amount or many things.

'To allot' means to distribute something or assign a task.

 

 

When should a lot be used?

There are two ways that “a lot” can be used:

As an noun, 'a lot' means a large amount. For example “I have a lot of potatoes to peel.”

As an adverb, ‘a lot’ means many things or much. For example “A lot depends on the condition of the pitch.”

When should allot be used?

The verb 'to allot' means 'to give out', 'to distribute', or 'to assign'

Other forms of the verb you will come across are allots, allotted and allotting.

·         I will allot one map to each group.

·         One map will be allotted to each group.

·         I will be allotting the new uniforms to you, starch will not be allotted in future and will not be used.