Did you loath or loathe getting back into the swing of things after the holidays? If you're a longtime newsletter reader (and you have a sharp memory), you might recall that we covered this set of commonly confused words around this time last year. So which is it?
Inspired by some of our most popular newsletters, we're giving you the chance to test your skills using commonly confused words. Over the next few weeks, we'll feature one fill-in-the-blank question like the one you see above. We'll also share the previous week's correct answer. And as a bonus, we're covering a new set of commonly confused words this week: affect and effect. There are a few clever tricks people use to remember the difference between affect and effect. Some people find the reminder "a = action, e = end result" helpful. There's even an acronym: RAVEN, for "Remember that Affect is a Verb and Effect is a Noun." What tricks do you have up your sleeve? Hit reply and let us know. ❤ Team Stylebot
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Happy Friday...the 13th. Most of you got the right answer on last week's quiz. Just as you spell out one through nine and use numerals for 10 and higher, you do the same for ordinals. So this month we have Friday the 13th, and next month we'll have July Fourth. You got a peek at our Google Docs extension last week, and this week we're excited to share another great review: "Style Guide Checker is a great product that provides a second set of eyes to catch things that often go overlooked. Not...
Whether you use "kitty" or "catty" before "corner" to describe something that is diagonally opposite, you're not talking about cats. In fact, the origin of "kitty-corner" is more closely related to dice 🎲 🎲 That wasn't an option on last week's quiz, and we didn't trick you by giving you the option to pick "cats." Most of you guessed "diagonal," and while that is part of the word's meaning now, the origin of "kitty-corner" goes back to the French word meaning "four." English speakers adapted...
Did you see any flags flying at half-staff on Memorial Day? What about at half-mast? These terms are often used interchangeably to describe flags that are flown only halfway up the flagpole, and the answers to last week's quiz on the terms were pretty evenly split. We probably should have added an "it depends" answer choice, though. Everyone technically got it right, but we recommend using "half-staff" as the default term, as it's what's used for flags on land. Reserve "half-mast" for flags...