You are here: Home / Archives for Grammar Guide / Word Usage

The Day I Learned What Friend Zone Means

By on February 26, 2013. 3 Comments
Words-Ad-Feb13-final+images-460x306

In spite of working online, I do have a tendency to be the last to know about the latest things to go viral. Remember Gangnam Style? I think my mom know about it before I did! Then there’s Harlem Shake, which I totally don’t get. “Friend zone” probably takes the cake, though, as I only really learned the “official” definition today, thanks to the February 2013 update of the Oxford Dictionaries. Last year, I was pleasantly surprised with the addition of “Whovian”, Dr. Who fan that I am. Some of you expressed your distaste at certain additions (see the comments [Read more…]

Categories: Grammar Guide, Word Usage Tags: Writing Jobs | Blogger Jobs | Online Content Jobs

What Do Frankenfood, Guyliner, and Whovian Have in Common?

By on August 14, 2012. 2 Comments
Frankenfood

I don’t know if you’ve checked the Oxford Dictionaries Online (ODO) lately, but they added new words in May, and boy, did I have a blast going through the list! To be honest, of the three words I used in the title, I am (was) familiar only with the last one. Just in case you felt lost while reading the title of this post, let’s take a quick look at the definitions of these now officially recognized words. Frankenfood refers to genetically modified food and is used in a derogatory manner. If you steer clear of anything remotely related to [Read more…]

Categories: Grammar Guide, Word Usage Tags: ,

10 Unusual Collective Nouns

By on April 10, 2012. 2 Comments
Collective Nouns Infographic

Do you find yourself checking the thesaurus often lately? I don’t know about you, but I do love checking for new words to use regularly. This is especially true for when I find myself using the same words too much. Sometimes, I am not even aware of that fact, but the thesaurus does help! Of course, I still believe that nothing beats reading voraciously when it comes to vocabulary expansion. I found this infographic that presents 10 supposedly unusual collective nouns, which some of you might find interesting. To be honest, I don’t really think that the collective nouns in [Read more…]

Categories: Grammar Guide, Word Usage Tags: , Writing Jobs | Blogger Jobs | Online Content Jobs

Are You Disinterested or Uninterested?

By on February 7, 2012. 1 Comment
Confused Art

The English language is such a beautiful thing, isn’t it? That is not to say that it is always simple. In fact, even native speakers make mistakes now and then. Even professional writers have their Waterloo. The good thing is that as long as we are open to correction and learning, we can only become better. Today’s grammar post is all about words that are often used interchangeably, often incorrectly. We already took a look at some word pairs that give people problems some time last year. Remember ingenuous and ingenious? This time around, let us take a look at [Read more…]

Categories: Grammar Guide, Word Usage Tags: ,

2011 Word of the Year

By on January 17, 2012. Leave a Comment
Word of the Year

In 2010, we were treated to a interesting new word courtesy of Sarah Palin. “Refudiate“, which did not exist prior to Palin’s usage, made it as the New Oxford American Dictionary’s Word of the Year. It was also included in the dictionary as a real word. Halfway into the first month of 2012, we have several words to consider as Word of the Year for 2011. A simple search on Google using that phrase yielded several results, three of which we will take a look at in this week’s grammar post. Merriam-Webster: PRAGMATIC “Pragmatic” is a commonly used word, isn’t [Read more…]

Categories: Grammar Guide, Word Usage Tags: , Writing Jobs | Blogger Jobs | Online Content Jobs

Lake Superior State University’s 2012 List of Banished Words

By on January 10, 2012. 9 Comments
Banned Sign

Around this time last year, we took a look at the annual list of banned words published by Lake Superior State University. We saw the likes of “tweet“, “app“, “teachable moment“, “bromance“, and “friend” (as a verb) included in the list. To be honest, while I started out with the intention of observing whether or not I used the words in the list, I totally forgot all about it as the months of 2011 went by. As we enter the second week of 2012, I find myself thinking of the list again. As I said in that post, there was (and [Read more…]

Categories: Grammar Guide, Word Usage Tags:

To OMG or to LOL?

By on March 29, 2011. 4 Comments
OMG

Dear FWJ Friends, Have you heard about the latest updates to the Oxford English Dictionary (OED)?  For people in our line of work, this might be old news, but let me share it with you nonetheless. As of March 2011, several new initialisms have been added to the OED, initiliasms being “abbreviations comprised of the initial letters of a name or expression.  If you’re thinking “OMG!” then you are hitting the nail right on the head!  OMG, otherwise known as “Oh my God” is now included in the March release of OED Online.  I suppose my hairdresser was actually correct [Read more…]

Categories: Grammar Guide, Musings & Style, Word Usage Tags: , Writing Jobs | Blogger Jobs | Online Content Jobs

If I Lay Here…

By on January 17, 2011. 16 Comments
lay-down2

There is a plethora of confusing word pairs in English, and even native English speakers confuse their usage in everyday conversation.  Earlier today, for some reason, I kept hearing Snow Patrol’s Chasing Cars in my head.  I used to listen to this song a lot, so I guess the fact that I felt like lying down for a few minutes more triggered memories.  In any case, I was thinking to myself, should it be lay or lie?  That simple question resulted in more than a few minutes of lying in bed and mulling the two words over.  So what’s the [Read more…]

Categories: Best of FWJ, Grammar Guide, Word Usage Tags: , ,

Lake Superior State University’s Lists of Banished Words and Phrases

By on January 10, 2011. 7 Comments
banned

We all have our pet peeves, and for writers, this is especially true when it comes to word usage.  I am sure that all of you will be able to come up with your own list of banished words and phrases, but I wonder how your list will compare to what Lake Superior State University has come up for 2010 and 2011? Last week, the Internet was abuzz with talk about the newly released 35th Annual List of Words Banished from the Queen’s English for Mis-use, Over-use and General Uselessness. It seems that my year has been starting out slowly, [Read more…]

Categories: Grammar Guide, Word Usage, Words to Avoid Tags: Writing Jobs | Blogger Jobs | Online Content Jobs

Refudiate: 2010 Word of the Year

By on December 6, 2010. 4 Comments
sarah-palin

Sarah Palin may not have succeeded in her quest to become the Vice President of the United States, but her time in the spotlight is not really over. While she did not` seek to be re-elected as the governor of Alaska, Sarah Palin has been busy with a host of other activities. Her own TV show, Sarah Palin’s Alaska, is attracting some attention, together with her Twitter account: @SarahPalinUSA. Some time this year, Twitterverse was abuzz with Sarah Palin’s tweet using a one-of-a-kind word. Can you spot it below? “Ground Zero Mosque supporters: doesn’t it stab you in the heart, [Read more…]

Categories: Grammar Guide, Word Usage Tags: , ,

Beggars Can’t Be Choosers

By on November 19, 2010. 4 Comments
Begging dog

Don’t you just love it when you learn something new unexpectedly?  I was reading the news today when I saw an article titled “To beg or not to beg” and for some reason, I decided to take a look at it. I am glad I did, because it was a very interesting read, which I would like to share with you. How often do you hear the phrase “to beg the question”? How do you use it? In my case, I don’t really hear it that often, but I always understood it in the context of someone making a statement [Read more…]

Categories: Grammar Guide, Grammar Rules, Word Usage Tags: ,

Are You Ingenuous or Ingenious?

By on October 18, 2010. 4 Comments
Confused

When I was teaching ESL, lessons on confusing word pairs were inevitable.  The level of the learner was irrelevant.  My students all needed clarification on certain word pairs.  Interestingly enough, I have discovered than even native speakers of English have similar issues.  The words in question may be of a more advanced level, but the confusion remains.  Just take some time to browse blogs, and you’ll find at least one example! For this week’s grammar post, let us take a look at some of words that are used interchangeably, when they shouldn’t be. Ingenuous and Ingenious I’ll be honest here [Read more…]

Categories: Grammar Guide, Word Usage Tags: , , , ,

Mistakes that Make You Look Stupid

By on August 13, 2010. 12 Comments

We all have our bad moments. There are times when, even if I go over my work twice or thrice, typos still go unnoticed. You know what I am talking about, don’t you? However, there are mistakes that are just so common that you think people know better than to commit them. Committing these mistakes, in my eyes, can chip away at your credibility. (That’s a nice way of saying that making certain mistakes can make you look dumb.) What are these mistakes? Your /You’re “Your” is a possessive pronoun: You should proofread your blog posts in order to avoid [Read more…]

Categories: Editing & Proofing, Parts of Speech, Word Usage Tags: ,
Content Freelance Writing Gigs
FWJ is read by many thousand readers every day. We offer a free weekly newsletter with all the top stories - come join the community!