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

rmensies

Member Since

November 30, 2010

Total number of comments

5

Total number of votes received

10

Bio

Latest Comments

use of “prior” in space vs. time

  • April 12, 2017, 1:06pm

Prior means before in time, not in place.

Might could

  • February 24, 2012, 4:01pm

"...throw out some extremely improper English around me and I will not even waste my time getting to know you."

Promise?

"Might Could" is a great expression that follows the edicts of the likes of Orwell and Strunk and White about not using unnecessary words. It has two words less than "might be able to". (Oh dear, should that have been "fewer" words?) I'll stick with the "less" which has the advantage of being perfect English despite what some ignoramuses will tell you.

Over exaggeration

  • November 30, 2010, 3:51pm

PS if we can talk of a big exaggeration as opposed to a small exaggeration why can't we qualify the word in other ways?

Over exaggeration

  • November 30, 2010, 3:48pm

For a political party to exaggerate the benefits of their policies would be normal. But if they exaggerated said benefits beyond what even the most gullible of the populace on the loose could take seriously, that would be an over-exaggeration.

So there you are:

An exaggeration is a lie; but an over-exaggeration is an implausible lie.

Plausible?

Computer mouses or computer mice?

  • November 30, 2010, 3:29pm

If you are doing a test, "correct" is what your teacher says is correct. Otherwise it is not a very useful word in the context of a living language.

There is no official grammar of English, and no academy or central authority to tell us what is correct or not, so usage reigns.

With newish terms, when there is not enough experience to establish some sort of convention (or standard), the best we can do is make a guess at what our audience will most approve of.

Unless of course they are the sort of people who do not approve of prepositions at the end of sentences, when we do well to ignore them.