Hone your writing skills and never use "hone in" again. Get writing tips, have fun with words and learn something new in a one-minute read each week by signing up for Stylebot’s newsletter.
Fazed and confused
|
Are you fazed by the phases of the moon? What about the phases of life? What about use of the term “unphased”? As you’ve probably guessed, today we’re discussing the difference between the homophones faze and phase. We mostly use “phase” as a noun, as you see it used in the sentences above. But it's also a verb, as in, “The company plans to phase out use of fossil fuels.” “Faze,” meanwhile, is a verb that means to disconcert or daunt. We don't use it as much as we use “phase,” though. So when some people write about being daunted by something, they'll misuse “phase” when they mean to write “faze.” You'll also see “unphased” when it should be “unfazed.” “Faze vs. phase” is just one of the many commonly confused word pairs we cover in our style guide. Before we go, we have something new to share with you: We get so much positive feedback about this newsletter that we want more people to know about it. That's where you come in. Now, you can earn a reward for getting your friends and fellow word nerds to subscribe. See below for your unique referral link to share. Thank you in advance! Questions? You know what to do: Hit reply and let us know. ❤ Team Stylebot
💌 A tip a weekIf someone forwarded you this email, subscribe here to get one writing tip a week in your inbox. 💬 Get reliable, ethical writing advice at your fingertipsImproving your writing means making better choices every day. Stylebot makes it easy with our Slack, Teams and Google Chrome extensions. Try Stylebot for free today. 📝 About StylebotStylebot helps media professionals save time without sacrificing quality by answering editing questions on Slack, Microsoft Teams and Google Chrome. We're on a mission to make editing faster, easier and more fun ✨ Learn more about Stylebot or follow us Instagram, X or LinkedIn.
|
Stylebot
Hone your writing skills and never use "hone in" again. Get writing tips, have fun with words and learn something new in a one-minute read each week by signing up for Stylebot’s newsletter.
Tomorrow is “Star Wars” Day. For the uninitiated, the informal holiday is a play on the date, May 4, and one of the franchise’s most well-known phrases: “May the Force be with you.” Now, if you strictly follow the rules, you would write “May the fourth.” That’s because the ordinals “first” through “ninth” are spelled out, then you start using numerals at “10th.” But since we use numerals for all dates, most people celebrating this holiday write “May the 4th.” You’ll sometimes see it written...
Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month begins next week. The month celebrates such a diverse group that there's not even one consistent name used to refer to it. Since labels such as "AAPI" are easy to reach for but can often be imprecise, we're sharing a portion of the newsletter we sent last year to mark AAPI Heritage Month. If you've subscribed to this newsletter since May 2023, this will be new. And if you've been with us longer than that, we hope this serves as a good...
Monday marks the 54th annual Earth Day, a day meant to encourage environmentalism, sustainability and climate action. To celebrate, we’re digging a little deeper on the terms climate change and global warming. The terms are often used interchangeably, but global warming is only one aspect of climate change. Global warming is exactly what it sounds like: The temperature of the Earth as a whole is on the rise. But this temperature rise doesn’t happen equally everywhere, with temperatures rising...