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Fragments – jolly or jerky?
Frequent use of incomplete sentences (or sentence fragments) is a style that many Dutch writers and readers like: […]...
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Translation trouble
It seems so simple. You have a message in Dutch, and you need it in English. You just […]...
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Watch out for forty-four!
A very common error is to suppose that logic governs English spelling. Yes, the number 40 does have […]...
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Please, no comma after please
Should you write Please, send me your comments or Please send me your comments? The version without a […]...
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Is it its or it’s?
Don’t be confused by the fact that ’s is used for the possessive of nouns (the book’s cover, […]...
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As much splitting up as possible
When used with a noun, the phrase as much/many/little/few as possible needs to ‘surround’ the noun, rather than […]...
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Do you congratulate someone with or on their birthday?
Neither! It’s a trick question. We don’t use to congratulate or congratulations in connection with birthdays in English, […]...
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Is it programme, programm or program?
English spelling is notorious for being confusing. For example, which of these is – or are – correct: programme, program […]...
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Move the negative!
If you don’t like a certain idea, what would you say? I think it’s not a good idea or […]...
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Beware of ‘one of these days’
In English, one of these days means ‘possibly sometime in the future’. It does not mean the same […]...
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Friendly request or polite order?
Which is more polite: ‘Please sit down’ or ‘Sit down, please’? If you put please at the beginning, […]...
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Powerful or powerfull?
It’s powerful – one l, not two, despite the fact that full as a word on its own […]...
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Fill in the gap: It’s the tallest building ___ the Netherlands.
If you said of, you can learn something today! After a superlative like biggest, tallest, most famous, and […]...
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Fill in the gap: “Sales increased ___ five per cent this year.”
Many Dutch people are led astray here by the fact that the equivalent verb in Dutch takes met […]...
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Using softening expressions
It’s a good idea to use softening expressions such as ‘I’m afraid’, ‘sorry’, ‘please’ and ‘thank you’ regularly […]...
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Committee or commission?
Dutch commissie is sometimes committee in English and sometimes commission. What’s the difference? A committee is a small […]...
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Easter days
What are the special days at Easter time called in English? The first day, i.e. Witte Donderdag in […]...
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The Baxter “strippenkaart”
Need a short article written quickly but haven’t got time? Just got a news item in that really […]...
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Client case study: Giving Teijin Aramid a voice
Since 2007, Baxter Communications has been working with Teijin Aramid to create awareness of the diverse applications of […]...
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Managing your content, and maximising its quality
Communication trends for 2015 show some familiar ones still going strong (social media use is still rising) and […]...
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Handboek zakelijk Engels
In de moderne, internationaal georiënteerde organisatie is het Handboek zakelijk Engels, geschreven door Andy en Astrid Baxter, een […]...
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Abbreviating number and numbers
The English abbreviation of number is no., and the plural is nos. Do not use nr. – this […]...
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Price or prize?
What’s the difference between a price and a prize? A price is the money you pay for something […]...
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Silent b after m
In almost all words in English whose spelling ends in -mb, the b is not actually pronounced. So […]...
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Do you really mean perspectives – or prospects?
Perspectives are not ‘future opportunities’, but ‘ways of looking at things’: The report offers some good perspectives on […]...
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Beside or besides?
Her office is beside (= next to) mine. Besides (= in addition to) products, the company also provides […]...
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Don’t confuse ‘exciting’ and ‘exiting’
Don’t make the common spelling mistake of writing exciting without its -c-. If you do, you’ll end up […]...
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False friends: ‘good’ and ‘goed’
Be careful not to give something your approval when you don’t mean to. In English, good always expresses […]...
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Lastly or at last?
These two expressions look very similar, but it’s important not to confuse them, because their meanings are quite […]...
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Christmas carols and songs – a quiz
Clued-up about Christmas Songs and Carols? Try this quiz and complete the missing words! _____ King Wenceslas looked […]...
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Is it control or check? Or perhaps monitor?
It depends! Be careful to use the right word: The government must control the rate of inflation. (= […]...
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What do you mean ____ that?
Interference from Dutch leads many Dutch speakers to get the preposition wrong in the above phrase. It’s not […]...
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A new face?
Be careful to make phase and face sound different! The vowel in phase is longer than that in […]...
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Respectively always follows
Always put respectively after the items being related – not before, as in Dutch. Compare these examples: Dutch: […]...
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My or me? I hope you don’t mind ____ interrupting you
Before an -ing form (like talking), do you need the possessive form of the personal pronoun (my, your, his, […]...
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Contents or content?
The list of what is contained in a book is not the Table of Content but the Table […]...
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Don’t make this very common mistake: How do you call that in English?
If you can’t think of a word, ask: What do you call that in English? or What is that […]...
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New Baxter publication!
Andy and Astrid have just published a new book: Better at business English. It’s designed to help people […]...
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In the end or at the end?
These two phrases look very similar, but it’s important not to confuse them, because their meanings are quite […]...
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False friends: ‘adequaat’ and ‘adequate’
They look alike, but they have subtly different connotations! Both adequaat and adequate derive from Latin ad (‘to’) […]...
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Beware of the word invaluable
Don’t misinterpret the word invaluable. It looks as though it should mean ‘not valuable’, but in fact it means […]...
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What’s the difference between deduce and deduct?
Although both deduce and deduct are related to the noun deduction, they mean different things. Deduce means ‘conclude […]...
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Don’t overuse the &-sign
The &-sign — or the ampersand, to give it its proper name — is often used by Dutch […]...
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Don’t confuse rise and raise
The verbs rise and raise are easily confused, but rise means ‘to go up’, whereas raise means ‘to […]...
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According to…
Do not use according to me if you mean to say volgens mij. Use instead I think…, I […]...
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Careless or carefree?
Be careful not to confuse careless and carefree! If someone is careless, they do not pay enough attention […]...
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False friends: inform and informeren
The English verb to inform and the Dutch verb informeren both have to do with the transfer of […]...
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Is it accessible or accessable – or perhaps assessable?
If you mean ‘able to be reached’, then it is accessible. Accessible is one of those words in […]...
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Interview – a false friend
The word interview is a false friend for Dutch speakers of English. The word was adopted into Dutch […]...
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Wide or broad?
English broad and Dutch breed are false friends. In Dutch, breed can refer to a physical or a […]...
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Don’t get your millions and billions tangled up!
A Dutch miljard (1,000,000,000 or 109) is a billion in US English. A Dutch biljoen (1,000,000,000,000 or 1012) […]...
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‘On the one hand…’ Make sure there’s a contrast!
The paired phrases on the one hand… (but) on the other hand are used in English to present […]...
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‘Busy’ and ‘bezig’ – doubly false friends
Busy and bezig are false friends in at least two ways. First, they behave slightly differently in terms […]...
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Is it photo’s or photos?
Watch out! In English, unlike Dutch, almost all nouns that end in the vowels a, i, o or u form their plural by […]...
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Electric or electrical?
Electric is usually used before the name of a specific appliance: an electric drill, an electric iron, an electric toothbrush, an electric shaver. Your car […]...
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‘I look forward to hear’ or ‘to hearing’?
The correct form is: I look forward to hearing from you. We look forward to meeting you soon. […]...
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Advice or advise?
A tricky pair, especially if they sound the same to you! Advice is a noun (something you give), […]...
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Welcome __ Amsterdam!
Despite what many non-native speakers of English think, the only correct word to slot in here is to: […]...
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‘Shortly’ or ‘briefly’?
Don’t confuse shortly and briefly. Shortly normally means ‘soon, in a little while’, as in: We will shortly […]...
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Classic or classical?
If something is of the highest class of its type, suggesting or establishing a standard, then it’s classic: […]...
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‘Start’ or ‘start with’?
A common mistake among Dutch users of English is to use start with rather than start. There is […]...
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Is it Arab, Arabic or Arabian?
Arab (pronounced ARR-ub) is the adjective used in relation to the race, culture and politics of the people […]...
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What’s the matter with ‘mensware’?
There’s something not quite right with the sign mensware, recently seen in a department store with bilingual signs. […]...
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Cost or costs?
Which is correct? The cost of the campaign is too high. The costs of the campaign are too […]...
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One email, one message!
There are certain types of emails that tend to frustrate the recipients. One type is from the “too […]...
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Golden rules of good project management
In a nutshell, good project management means first working out what needs to be done and then making […]...
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Please fasten your seat belts
Flight attendants beware! Fasten is often mispronounced, because the spelling is deceptive. The t is not pronounced. In […]...
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Is it Xmas or X-mas?
Look around at Schiphol at this time of year, and you’ll see all sorts of “X-mas special offers” being […]...
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Avoid hereby and herewith – unless you’re a lawyer
Dutch users of English often include hereby or herewith in the opening sentence of their business letters or […]...
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Agree to, with, about, on – or just agree?
Using the right preposition (voorzetsel) with the right word is difficult at the best of times, but it […]...
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What is the difference between economical and economic?
Economical has a narrower meaning than economic. It means ‘not wasteful or extravagant; designed to save money (e.g., […]...
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Fill in the gap: This is the solution __ our problem.
To many people’s surprise, in ‘normal’ (i.e., non-mathematical) English, the preposition used here is to, not of or […]...
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Expertise or expertises?
Do you ever use the word expertises in your English? I often see it in Dutch people’s English […]...
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Quoting – the multi-paragraph rule
In an interview article, it’s important that readers are never in any doubt as to who said what: is […]...
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Is she Mrs, Miss or Ms?
What courtesy title should you give a woman in English these days? It depends on whether she is […]...
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Is it burned or burnt, learned or learnt, spelled or spelt?
You may have noticed – and perhaps been puzzled by – the variant spellings of the past tense and past […]...
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What do you call it? British names for the remote control
The Eskimos may (or may not) have many different words for snow, but according to a recent survey […]...
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Is it Kind regards or Kind Regards?
When you’re finishing a letter or e-mail, how should you capitalise the final phrase (or ‘complimentary close’, to […]...
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Is it an euro or a euro?
It’s a euro. The rule for using a or an is that we use a before a consonant […]...
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How do you spell it: practice or practise?
You’ll find that the UK spell checker on your computer allows both practice and practise. Does that mean […]...
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Holiday or vacation – what’s the difference?
Are you just back from holiday – or vacation? At first sight, holiday and vacation might seem to mean the […]...
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Is it ‘social media is’ or ‘social media are’?
Should we treat social media as a singular or a plural noun? The Latin scholars among us will […]...
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Going social?
Going social? The best social media platforms bring people together and provide smart tools for sharing and […]...
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Mad about Jane
At Baxter Communications, we all have a special place in our heart for everything British, but our […]...
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Control the tense, control the argument
According to Aristotle, all arguments boil down to just three issues: Blame, Values and Choice. For example, “Who […]...
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English easy?
How did you do? The present is a good time to present the present. PRESent (“now”) and PRESent […]...
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Getting new energy from new clients
Working with new clients – immersing ourselves in their business and doing our best to prove our value […]...
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Time to report!
It’s annual report time again, when companies release what is often considered their showcase document. Before beginning production, […]...
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We win again!
It’s always nice to feel like a winner! Last year, Baxter Communications received a 2012 APEX Award for […]...
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The little-known secret of English sentence structure
If you’re a Dutch speaker writing in English, you can take great care in getting spelling, grammar and […]...
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The ABCs of CSR Reporting
Just a few years ago, Corporate Social Responsibility reports were ‘nice to have’. Slowly but surely, they’re becoming […]...
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Writing a memorable speech
Speech! The idea can make even a highly competent businessperson nervous. But whether you’re someone who is at […]...
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Ask colleagues to find a second reader
If you have asked colleagues to contribute material, either as input for copywriting or to be edited, it’s a […]...
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Don’t forget the final step
Writing in a corporate context is usually a collaborative and iterative process. You brief us on what you […]...
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Know when to call it a day
Producing a piece of communication is a bit like painting a painting. At a certain stage it’s perfect. […]...
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Setting up an internal newsletter
An internal newsletter can be so much more than a bulletin board. For example, it can support engagement, […]...
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Anyone got a story for the newsletter?
How to fill your newsletter Oh, it sounded so good at that first meeting. “Let’s launch an internal […]...
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What did you do to my article?!
Managing expectations Newsletters often depend on contributions from people within the company. But sometimes the information submitted needs […]...
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Don’t underestimate the time you need
A tip for anyone commissioning an article that requires the writer to interview someone: don’t underestimate the amount […]...
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Settle the word count early
A tip for magazine editors: it can save time (and money) if the approximate word (or character) count […]...