Quick tips

Arab (pronounced ARR-ub) is the adjective used in relation to the race, culture and politics of the people known as the Arabs:

        Arab countries, Arab culture, the Arab League, etc.

Arabic (pronounced ARR-a-bik) is the name of the language spoken in Arab countries. The language of the Koran is Classical Arabic; modern varieties are referred to as Egyptian Arabic, Syrian Arabic, etc. As an adjective, Arabic generally means ‘written in, or some way related to the Arabic language’, as in:

an Arabic inscription, Arabic numerals, Arabic script, Arabic poetry, etc.

Arabian (pronounced a-RAY-bee-un) generally refers to the geographical region known as Arabia, as in:

the Arabian peninsula, the Arabian deserts, Saudi-Arabian politics, Arabian oil wells, Arabian horse

It is also found in the title of the famous collection of stories, also known as A Thousand and One Nights:

The Arabian Nights

Note that Arab, Arabic and Arabian are all written with a capital letter.

To sum up: Arab relates to people, Arabic refers to language and Arabian is used in connection with land.

©2014 Baxter Publishing, Hilversum, The Netherlands

 

There’s something not quite right with the sign mensware, recently seen in a department store with bilingual signs. No, it’s not that there should be an apostrophe in mens-, although you would need one if the two elements were written as two separate words. The part that is wrong is -ware. The correct form is menswear: clothing that men wear.

The element -wear always refers to clothing of some sort. It can be preceded by the person for whom the clothing is made (as in menswear, and as a separate word in children’s wear, women’s wear), the type of clothing (e.g., knitwear, leatherwear) or the part of the body it is worn on (footwear, headwear, legwear).

The element -ware is familiar from software and hardware. It means objects made of a particular material or for use in a particular context. In this meaning it is found in tableware, glassware, kitchenware, earthenware, silverware, and ironware, and before the age of computers, when you talked about hardware you meant goods made of metal (e.g., buckets, hammers, nails, etc.).

So when trying to decide on the correct spelling, consider whether you’re dealing with clothing (-wear) or some other objects (-ware).

©2014 Baxter Publishing, Hilversum, The Netherlands

 

Which is correct?

The cost of the campaign is too high.
The costs of the campaign are too high.

It depends on what is meant. If the speaker essentially means ‘We can’t afford it: it’s too expensive’, then cost is correct: the emphasis is on the total amount needed.

If the speaker means ‘We must be careful how we spend our campaign money’, then costs is correct: the emphasis is on the individual items of expenditure, and the implication is that they need to be looked at and reduced.

Dutch speakers should bear in mind that Dutch often uses kosten where English uses cost. So whenever you find yourself using costs, ask yourself whether the focus of the meaning is on a single sum covering everything or on the various individual items. Then you’ll know whether costs is correct, or whether you should be using cost instead.

When you use cost, use the structure the cost of ____. When you use costs, use the structure ____ costs. For example,

the cost of living                                       living costs
the cost of the campaign                        campaign costs
the cost of travel                                      travel costs

Although doing things the other way round won’t result in ungrammatical sentences, the above structures are the ones most often found in English.

©2014 Baxter Publishing, Hilversum, The Netherlands

Flight attendants beware! Fasten is often mispronounced, because the spelling is deceptive. The t is not pronounced. In fact, all t‘s preceded by an s and followed by -en or -le at the end of the word or unit are silent:

 

-en
fasten (FAH-sun)
listen (LISS-un)
glisten (GLISS-un)
Christen (KRISS-un)

-le
bustle (BUSS-ul)
castle (KAH-sul)
hustle (HUSS-ul)
mistletoe (MISS-ul-toh)
nestle (NESS-ul)
rustle (RUSS-ul)
thistle (THISS-ul)
whistle (WISS-ul)
wrestle (RESS-us)

Words derived from any of the above behave in the same way, i.e., the t is also silent in whistling, bustling, hustler, rustler, etc.

The t is also silent in Christmas (KRISS-mus), in soften (SOFF-un) and (sometimes) in often (OFF-un).

©2013 Baxter Publishing, Hilversum, The Netherlands

Look around at Schiphol at this time of year, and you’ll see all sorts of “X-mas special offers” being advertised. Nothing wrong with using the abbreviated form of Christmas, you may say. The only trouble is that Xmas (pronounced EX-mus) is written in English without a hyphen (Dutch verbindingsstreepje). Those who feel it should be written with a hyphen are perhaps getting confused with X-ray.

However, most style books recommend that you avoid the short form altogether, except in advertising or when space is short: Christmas (pronounced KRISS-mus) is much preferred.

Using the right preposition (voorzetsel) with the right word is difficult at the best of times, but it is particularly difficult in the case of agree, with which you can use to, with, about, on or no preposition at all – depending on what you want to say. The sentences below show the possibilities:

When you agree to a proposal, you accept it and say that you will carry it out, or let someone else carry it out.

When you agree with a person or an idea, you are of the same opinion or have the same idea.

When you (as a group) agree about something, you are of the same opinion.

When you agree on a plan, you decide jointly with others to do something.

When you agree a deal or price, you reach joint agreement about it.

©2013 Baxter Publishing, Hilversum, The Netherlands

Economical has a narrower meaning than economic. It means ‘not wasteful or extravagant; designed to save money (e.g., through efficiency)’:

He is very economical: he always turns off the light when he leaves the room.
That heating system is very economical: it operates at the lower, off-peak rate.

Economic means “relating to the economy of a country, a household or the income of an individual; relating to the study of economics; financially rewarding; efficient”:

(The economy)                      Economic growth; economic measures
(Economics)                         Economic theories; economic analyses
(Income)                                 He retired for economic reasons; economic migrants
(Financially rewarding)       It was no longer economic to keep the factory open
(Efficient)                               The economic use of resources

Incidentally, is the first syllable pronounced EEK or EKK? The answer is either – it is one of those rare cases where there is no preference. The two pronunciations are used more or less randomly, both in UK and US English.

©2013 Baxter Publishing, Hilversum, The Netherlands

What courtesy title should you give a woman in English these days? It depends on whether she is married or not, the context (personal or business), her age and, to some extent, her nationality! Obviously, your best strategy is to use the title people give themselves. But what do you do if they don’t give themselves a title? For those occasions, use the handy table below.

You may have noticed – and perhaps been puzzled by – the variant spellings of the past tense and past participles of certain English verbs, such as these:

Sorry, I’ve burned/burnt the toast.
Over time, he learned/learnt to accept it.
She spilled/spilt the milk all over the table.
You’ve spelled/spelt that word wrong.
I dreamed (DREEMD)/dreamt (DREMT) about you last night.

Is this variation purely arbitrary? Not really. But it’s not strictly rule-governed either. Which form is used depends partly on geography, partly on grammatical function, and partly on the particular word in question.  In other words, it’s another one of those fuzzy bits of language.

Let’s look at geography first. In the above sentences, many people in the UK would normally use the -t form (though you will also hear, and see, the -ed form). Americans, however, almost always use the -ed form.

Then grammar. As the following sentences illustrate, past participles can also be used as adjectives, appearing either before the noun or after part of the verb to be:

You should never eat burnt toast.
That toast is burnt.
It’s no use crying over spilt milk.

In such cases, the -t form is widely used, both in the UK and the US. However, there is one major exception to this pattern (in so far as you can call it a pattern), and that is learned. It is always spelt with -ed in those grammatical circumstances:

Some people believe anxiety is a learned response (‘acquired by learning’)
Such behaviour is not innate: it is learned.

When learned means ‘highly educated, erudite’, it also has a different pronunciation (LERN-id):

A learned man (‘highly educated’), a learned remark (‘erudite’)
She was very learned indeed, especially in the field of hermeneutics.

Now you can demonstrate to family and friends how learned you are, by explaining how fuzzy the whole business is…

 ©2013 Baxter Publishing, Hilversum, The Netherlands