Proofreading Service - Pain in the English
Proofreading Service - Pain in the English

Your Pain Is Our Pleasure

24-Hour Proofreading Service—We proofread your Google Docs or Microsoft Word files. We hate grammatical errors with a passion. Learn More

Proofreading Service - Pain in the English
Proofreading Service - Pain in the English

Your Pain Is Our Pleasure

24-Hour Proofreading Service—We proofread your Google Docs or Microsoft Word files. We hate grammatical errors with a passion. Learn More

Username

aubreyshepherd

Member Since

September 13, 2006

Total number of comments

3

Total number of votes received

8

Bio

Latest Comments

optimiSe or optimiZe ?

  • August 13, 2007, 9:30pm

Porsche,
The suffix ize or even ise or whatever is a weak sister of correct, clear usage.

Some such uses are accepted, but others are considered somewhere between tacky and illiterate.

Finalize was condemned by the Arkansas Gazette (now bought up by the Arkansas Gazette and absorbed out of existence). Old-fashioned writers and editors would write "put into final form" or "complete" or some other longer but more accurate word.

Hyphens conundrum

  • September 13, 2006, 1:07am

I would hyphenate all those examples. However, in standard American English I would not write groceries-shopping trip. It would be grocery-shopping trip. Growing up, I was taught not to use nouns as adjectives. There is always an adjectival form or a quasi-possessive to use. However, that horse is out of the barn and singular nouns have been used as adjectives increasingly in the past half-century. Recently, plural nouns as adjectives have become common.

I won't like it but I can't change it!

optimiSe or optimiZe ?

  • September 13, 2006, 1:00am

In standard American English one would be expected NEVER to use one of the ize-verbs.