Words sometimes confused: peak, peek and pique by Angela Caldin
Peak Peak can be a verb or a noun. The verb refers to reaching a maximum, or coming to a highest point, literally or figuratively: The noun refers to the highest point of something, like the peak of a...
View ArticlePassed away by Susan Grimsdell
Death is the word It’s been a difficult week for me. What I mourn is not the death of the queen, but the passing away of the word death. The passing away of placing value on truth and reality, and...
View ArticleApostrophe do’s and don’ts by Angela Caldin
A long time ago I have a strong memory of being taught about apostrophes in our grammar lessons at school in the 1950s. We were definitely taught to put an apostrophe in that decade and to write the...
View ArticleReading, writing and reason by Trevor Plumbly
A codger’s lament I decided to let the brain off the leash this week and wallow in an old-fashioned moan. I’ve found that one of the gifts of age is the ability to use hindsight as a diagnostic tool...
View ArticleNames matter by Susan Grimsdell
Choosing the right name Betty Friedan made a very powerful point way back in 1963. If a problem has no name, it doesn’t exist. She was talking about the limitations on women’s role in society, and her...
View ArticleOnly connect! By Angela Caldin
The full quotation in E M Forster’s Howard’s End goes like this, ‘Only connect the prose and the passion, and both will be exalted, and human love will be seen at its height. Live in fragments no...
View ArticleGOBSMACKED! By Trevor Plumbly
Verbal schmerbal I feel a bit hypocritical knocking this one out under ‘Verbalberbal’; let’s face it, as a title it’s not the best use of ‘English as she is spoke’. In hindsight I would have gone for...
View ArticleFree range speech by Trevor Plumbly
Nutter mutter An English sports presenter’s been hauled over the coals for offering an opinion, as has the chair of Health NZ. It might be an age thing, but I’m beginning to believe that the freedom to...
View ArticleGerunds and me by Angela Caldin
Night time conundrums I woke up in the night a while ago thinking about grammar. More precisely, I was thinking about gerunds and I haven’t thought about them for some considerable time. In English...
View ArticleBright ideas by Susan Grimsdell
The wrong choice A generation ago NZ kids were 4th out of 41 countries for reading ability, and 3rd for maths. We were better than world class, we were world leaders. Teaching strategies used then...
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