I remember a long time ago, in secondary school, I constructed the following sentence: My teacher is very fierce. My teacher corrected me and said, it should be “strict” instead of “fierce“. Is that so? At that time, I accepted her explanation as she’s more learned than I was. Today, I believe there is a […]
Continue ReadingNothing to Do?
In spoken English – or any other languages – the message that you convey may easily be misintepreted, resulting in confusion and argument. Here’s an example: Compare You have nothing to do… There’s nothing you can do… This is the question: “What can I do to help you?” – so how would you respond? Response #1 causes […]
Continue Reading“learned” vs. “learnt”
Is there a difference? Yes and No. learn (v.) learned (adj.) If the word “learn” is used as a verb, then there is no difference at all in the meaning and usage of the words “learned” and “learnt“ in its past form. I honestly don’t know why the spelling is inconsistent. It’s not really true to say that one […]
Continue ReadingThe Problematic “e”
If you’re a chess (not chest) player, you’ll know that the pawn is the smallest piece on the chess board. It is considered a “weak” piece as it could move only one step at a time – forward only – unlike the bishop, queen or rook that could glide across the board – backward and […]
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