I recently learned an awesome (if you’re a word nerd) bit of trivia. I was looking up “umbrage” for reasons that I’ve now forgotten, and discovered that its original meaning was “shadow” (as from a parasol or umbrella). To quote the Oxford Dictionaries, the etymology of the word is: Late Middle English (sense 2): from…
Tag: grammar
Faze vs. Phase
The noun phase most commonly means “a stage in a process of change or development” (a phase of the moon, a kid going through a phase) or “a state of matter” (e.g., a phase change of water is going from liquid to gas). Its verb form is less common but means “to carry out in…
Tenet or Tenant? Grammar help you can remember!
A basic tenet of owning a rental: Your tenant quality is fundamental! Bonus! I’ll give you pictures. Tenet: a belief (not necessarily religious) or principle Tenant: someone who rents a space Tennant: To me, always the Tenth Doctor Okay, yes, I was basically just looking for an excuse to have a Tenth Doctor picture.
Affect vs. Effect: Grammar Help You Can Remember
These two words, affect and effect, cause a great deal of consternation in English, no doubt because they sound similar and each can be either a noun or a verb. The quickest rule of thumb is that, in most cases, you affect something (verb) and cause an effect (noun). Side note: the noun affect is…
Lead, lead or led? Grammar Help You Can Remember!
The verb to lead rhymes with need, speed, and indeed, but the past tense is led that rhymes with dead. The famously dense metal lead also rhymes with dead. Here’s a quip to help you remember: Lead in the water led Flint to disaster, but “lead dead redemption” could come to be if only its…