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We’ve officially closed our proofreading services. You can probably guess why. With AI tools like ChatGPT now doing the job for free (and instantly), the demand for human proofreaders has all but vanished. If you still prefer a human touch, you're part of a rare—and shrinking—breed. We're now back to our roots: a forum for nitpicking the finer points of the English language. Thanks for your past support. We appreciate it.
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Latest Posts : Misc
I thought you could put /s/ on a copy of a signed letter to indicate the original had been signed. Right or wrong?
Can anyone tell me why the second ‘a’ in Canada and Canadian is pronounced differently?
I’m English/British and I and from England/Britain.
Surely it should either be Can-a-da & Can-a-dian or Can-ay-da & Can-ay-dian...
My guess is it has something to do with the French influence, but I would love to know for sure.
Here in the UK our language has been heavily influenced over the years, including by the French and it has always interested where these things start or change.
I was in empty space in an elevator one day when it occurred to me that it’s actually “pains-taking”, the taking of pains to do something thoroughly. I’d never thought about it before.
But it’s too hard to pronounce “painz-taking”, because the “z” sound must be voiced; whereas the unvoiced “s” combines easily with the “t” to make “-staking”, so that’s what we say. That’s my theory, but BrE might be different. Is it?
Why does the Western media have so many different spellings for some Arabic terms?
eg:
1. hezbollah hesbollah hizbullah hizbollah hisbollah
2. ayatollah ayatullah
I’m having a custom item made to indicate when our home was established. The year will be the year my husband and I were married and started our family. My issue is I’m not sure how our name should appear. Here is the text.
The (LAST NAME)
Est. 2008
Our last name is Myers. Please help! I’m not sure if it should be possessive (ownership of the home/family) or plural (for the people).
At the clinic I was directed to the “subwait area” and left to ponder my fate. I did wonder whether this should be sub-wait and how fully portable “sub” has become as a preposition and/or prefix, when attached to a Germanic-rooted word. What other words are there where “sub” is used as an English word, apart from phrases like “sub judice” and “sub” as a short form of “substitute” eg in sport “he was subbed off”?
Can you please comment on a trend that I have noticed recently. More and more people seem to be pronouncing words that contain the letters “str” as if they were written “shtr”. Strong sounds like shtrong, strange sounds like shtrange, and so on. I have noticed even my favorite NPR journalists mispronouncing these words. I first noticed this pronunciation in one of Michelle Obama’s early speeches. I’d appreciate any insight that you might have.
I have always believed, probably in common with most Scots, that the pronunciation of “gill” varies depending on whether one is referring to the organ of respiration in fishes and other water-breathing animals ( /ɡɪl/ ), or a measure of liquid (/dʒɪl/ ), or even one of the many other variations of the word. I was therefore somewhat surprised recently when watching an episode of QI to hear the erstwhile Stephen Fry and his guests use /ɡɪl/ for both the fishy organ and the liquid measure..
Does anyone know if there are rules governing the pronunciation of “a”? It’s either “AYE” or “UH”, depending on the word following. My preference is dictated by how it sounds and how it flows off the tongue, but I have never been able to establish if actual rules exist.
Americans and Australians tend to use “AYE” all the time and sometime it just sounds ridiculous, like...”Aye man driving aye car stopped at aye traffic light”
What diacritic would I use over the word YANA to accent the first a as an “ah” (short o) sound. It is pronounced Yahna. Thanks!
Latest Comments
“Thanks for that”
- saudkhingston
- June 23, 2025, 8:49pm
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“my” vs. “mine” in multiple owner possessive
- Artha
- June 20, 2025, 12:56pm
Really helpful post! I always wondered if 'mine and Gregg’s' was correct—it felt a bit off. Your explanation clarified that 'my and Gregg’s child' is the better choice. Great insight for writers trying to polish their grammar.
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“my” vs. “mine” in multiple owner possessive
- Artha
- June 20, 2025, 12:53pm
Really helpful post! I always wondered if 'mine and Gregg’s' was correct—it felt a bit off. Your explanation clarified that 'my and Gregg’s child' is the better choice. Great insight for writers trying to polish their grammar.
white label digital banking platform
Why Asian English Speakers Are Hard to Understand
- Mermaid
- June 18, 2025, 8:57pm
That depends entirely on the speaker-listener relationship. My observations and personal experiences may be helpful in demonstrating these interplays. My ex, a French man with a PhD, is a very intelligent person with a sophisticated use of three or four languages. In academic circles, other intelligent people understand his French accent just fine. However. When he is speaking to some random American, that person automatically tunes him out because it is unfamiliar, and thus too difficult for this person to accommodate in their receptiveness to the unfamiliar. This is also the case with Asian-faced individuals. There has been a lack of representation of Asians in English-speaking media, and those that are featured generally will have an accent, regardless of their educational status or linguistic ability. Thus, it is often jarring when viewing an Asian speaking American, British or Canadian English fluently as one’s mind immediately wants to hear an accent or imperfections of some kind. That is, the language that is being spoken is not aligned with the language that is being received. That happens, too, in the literary world in which writers of color are assumed to write from an inferior position no matter how sophisticated their knowledge, language ability, or cultural situatedness is. The mainstream and historical dominance of British (and unfortunately white-identified) characters, themes, and subject matters also affects the reader’s reception (Gee).
Treatment of abbreviations and superscript items in full capital case
- JimJMcDonnell
- June 12, 2025, 11:05am
In a similar vein, a major UK newspaper only capitalises the first letter of initialisms or acronyms, e.g. 'Opec' for the Oil Producing and Exporting Companies, 'Defra' for Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs etc. This irritates me, I think these should read OPEC and DEFRA respectively, but how does everyone else feel? Is there an accepted style guide convention?
Treatment of abbreviations and superscript items in full capital case
- timharrison
- May 20, 2025, 11:17am
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as best he can
- nuvolari344
- May 17, 2025, 4:48pm
It seems the phrase "as well as he could" gives a more adequate description though these words appear clunky and superfluous and do not give an accurate description of what is meant. It is hard to find words or a phrase that convey that degree of meaning or uncertainty.
Treatment of abbreviations and superscript items in full capital case
- Mwaldo
- May 16, 2025, 2:22am
X as in to exchange. Xchange, right? So it becomes Video Transmission Exchange. "Exchange" is a place where things are being passing back and forth or helped to pass back and forth. Take for example a telephone exchange. "A telephone exchange is called an "exchange" because it acts as a central point where different telephone lines are switched or interconnected, allowing calls to be routed between them. It's analogous to an intersection on a road network where vehicles switch from one road to another to reach their destination. " Google AI]. "Currency Exchanges" leverage the same meaning.
Past perfect with until
- Dagmar19
- May 15, 2025, 1:06pm
Would removing the negation help with clarity? As in:
"She (only) realized she was addicted to nicotine after/when she started smoking 10 cigarettes a day."
One could add 'only' to emphasize the sequence of events.
“Thanks for that”
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