One of our members of staff recently phoned his GP practice and asked to see a specific doctor. ‘Sorry, he only comes in pro re nata,’ the receptionist told him. It wasn’t until he’d put the phone down and looked up the phrase that...
Cathy Dann
60-second fix: learnt or learned?
Is it learnt or learned? Spelt or spelled? Dreamt or dreamed? If you’re unsure, you’re in good company. Neither the dictionaries nor the newspapers agree, so it’s hardly surprising that the rest of us are confused. We carried out a quick poll on X (Twitter, as was)...
60-second fix: palate, palette and pallet
Do you know your palates from your palettes from your pallets? It’s a particularly important distinction if you work with food or wine – or, indeed, paints or wooden platforms. Of course, it’s blinking typical of English to have three different...
60-second fix: bear or bare
Ah, what a wonderful language English is. You can bear a child, bear a responsibility, ask someone to bear with you, bear a heavy load or bare your teeth. Confusion arises in the verb form, especially in the past tense. In the present tense, there are two spellings....
What the sub-editor saw
Hello, I’m Cathy, and I’m a sub-editor (scourge of the newsroom, pedant and dictionary botherer). As such, my job is to spot inaccuracies, correct typos, clean up grammar and write headlines. I spend most of my time working at the broadsheets, where the...
60-second fix: judgement or judgment
Brace yourselves: there are two spellings for judgement/judgment. ‘Aha!’ we hear you say. ‘This is an American thing, isn’t it?’ Well, yes and no. It is true that in the US there is only one spelling: judgment. Elsewhere it isn’t...
Emphasis partners up with MCA
Emphasis is delighted to announce a new business partnership with the Management Consultancies Association (MCA). The MCA’s 60 member companies represent around 70 per cent of the UK consulting sector, and is increasingly active as the representative voice of...