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Prickasso, Quackademic, Fartner, etc: new words to cheer up your writing

November 22, 2019 By Leave a Comment

Further to the popularity of my first list of new words for you to use to enhance your writing, here are some more that will bring further sparkles to everything from your business emails to  your laundry lists. Enjoy.

Infernolising, n. Psychotherapists’ description of a patient who rages and vents in anger to the point of spitting fire.

Baby Bloomers, n, pl. Septuagenarians who have had more than three facelifts.

Behindfulness, n. Being aware that your butt lift makes you look like a Dromedary camel on its hind legs despite the surgery having cost you 150,000 BRL reais in a sweaty São Paulo clinic.

Bentagon, n. Crooked pentagon. [Read more…]

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New words to be, er, adopted by the Oxford (& Webster) Dictionaries…

October 25, 2019 By Leave a Comment

Here are some ideas for new words which I am hoping to submit for consideration to these august establishments. But first, please read them through and let me know what you think?

new words

Distemper, n. Personality disorder arising from losing your temper too often

A few of the new words we’re looking at here on HTWB…

AhI (Artificial hIntelligence), n. Human reality checks despised by AI developers

Amehzing, adj. Averagely amazing

Awescum, adj. Mediocre, dreary, flaky. Opposite of ‘awesome’ [Read more…]

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Canadiana in writing: a few fun facts about our Thanksgiving

October 14, 2019 By Leave a Comment

At this time of year we Canucks celebrate a successful harvest and show our gratitude by gorging ourselves on a significant proportion of the produce we slaved all year to grow and store.

Our tasty pumpkin pie, complete with maple leaf decorations to establish its Canadian-ness. Those cranberries are a good idea, too. Yum.

Unlike the Americans we don’t wait until ten minutes before Christmas / Hanukkah / other winter celebrations to get this done when anywhere North American folks other than in southern states are beginning to need to put on their woolly knickers and cosy pyjamas (a.k.a. ‘pajamas‘ in North America).

We snotty Canucks prefer to do it at a time when the seasons are changing inspiringly, leaves on our trees are turning vivid gold, orange, bronze and other flaming colours, and the air has changed from the sultry, humid warmth of summer to the crisp invigoration of ‘the fall’ before it starts to freeze our private parts and make us scrape snow and ice off our cars in the mornings, as shown below. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Canada, Latest, Putting The World To Rights, Social writing, Writing humour Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

A nasty little writing quiz about apostrophes

October 11, 2019 By Leave a Comment

By popular demand, another sneaky, nasty grammar quiz. The last one got hundreds of comments and likes and I’m told customers and staff in a certain UK fashion house nearly came to blows arguing over it.apostrophe quizThis time we’re looking for apostrophes … nasty little b*ggers they are, too…

In which of following sentences is there one or more (or no) apostrophe used wrongly?

No cheating now! Answers are below… [Read more…]

Filed Under: Latest, Writing humour, Writing Mechanics, Writing tips Tagged With: , , , , , ,

An English writing grammar fiend walks into a bar…

October 3, 2019 By Leave a Comment

You may think you’ve heard all the jokes about ‘A xxxx walks into a bar,’ but I guarantee the majority of you won’t have heard all of the following. English language lovers will adore them and even grammar fiends and fascists might crack a smile.

horse in bar

A horse walks into a bar. “Why the long face?” asks the barman. “I’m a horse.”

I have tried to find the original author but it seems these have been circulating on the internet for some time so have become embedded in the ‘anonymous’ category as far as I know.

If any of you know otherwise, please let me know on suze@suzanstmaur.com and of course I will accredit the right people.

In the meantime I thank my good friend and fellow business networker Anne Bryant for flagging this up to me on my Facebook page …

The ultimate writing about ‘walking into a bar’ – bar none

A malapropism walks into a bar, looking for all intensive purposes like a wolf in cheap clothing, muttering epitaphs and casting dispersions on his magnificent other, who takes him for granite. [Read more…]

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Tricky, tricky spelling quiz: can you crack it?

September 27, 2019 By Leave a Comment

I can’t afford to offer a trip for two to Las Vegas as a prize, but this quiz could keep you busy during quiet moments in the next few days. Answers at the bottom. (No cheating – look later!)

spelling mistakes

What do you feel are the most common wrongly spelled words in English?

And what really is infuriating is the way that simple spelling mistakes tend to creep in only because our own ‘word blindness’ – especially when we are writing extensively for business or other occupations – is largely to blame for our errors.

(That, and the fact that the English language has fewer rules to help us than a dog has when choosing which tree to pee on.)

Never mind: let’s have a laugh with the following:

Find the spelling mistake (or two, or none!) in the following:

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Business English if you're not a native speaker, Business writing, Latest, small business, Social Media, Writing humour, Writing Mechanics, Writing tips Tagged With: , , , ,
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