Tag Archives: English
Delay ≠ délai; délai ≠ delay
In keeping with a promise I made to share some common Gallicisms with you, here’s one I constantly see in French copy and English translations: délai = delay, and vice-versa. As I was consulting my Facebook news feed this morning, I read the following French message in form of a camera shot (underlining is mine): « Madame, […]
Impact
Like my Twitter colleague André Racicot, I thought it would be a great idea to comment on French words often used incorrectly or Gallicisms that constantly ooze into English texts. Today, I’d like to talk to you about a word that rubs my French-speaking colleagues the wrong way: impact. Below is a text excerpt written by […]
América ≠ America
The original Spanish and Portuguese texts read as follows (bold print is mine): En la actualidad, con muy contadas excepciones, cualquier estudio universitario puede ser cursado en Andalucía. Todas las universidades participan en los diversos programas de la CE, tanto de investigación como de movilidad estudiantil, y sostienen amplias relaciones internacionales con especial proyección en […]
Noun Strings, I Think I Love You. Not.
For some reason, some English writers love wordiness. Surprisingly, several newspaper journalists are notorious for this pesky practice. I have been a Globe and Mail subscriber for the past two years. Generally speaking, journalists write well. Lately, however, I’ve noticed that writing has become somewhat stiff, somewhat wordy. It seems that in-house or freelance editors no longer […]
Work, Collaborations…
I just realized that it has been three weeks since I haven’t posted anything on my blog. I tell you no lies: I have been really busy with many projects this month—so busy that I haven’t had much time to write texts. Considering that this may well be the last blog entry for this month, […]
Ch-ch-ch-changes!
Has it already been two years since I’ve been visible on WordPress? Time certainly flies, doesn’t it? In keeping with my two-year anniversary, I thought I’d make a few changes to my WordPress pages. The first change is this: I recently constructed a web page that exclusively promotes my language services. You may now visit […]
Media: Singular or Plural?
Within the space of a week, Peter Mansbridge, anchor of CBC’s The National, and co-anchor Wendy Mesley have accompanied media with singular verbs when presenting a panel or an upcoming story in future broadcasts. Last night was no exception. In preparation for a discussion about the way in which the media are covering the ongoing […]
“Do not put statements in the negative form.”
This was one of many writing techniques rules I learned a few years ago. Why should writers avoid putting statements in the negative form? According to KwizNet’s website,[1] putting statements in the affirmative form “tells or asks about what is.”[2] It is important to tell readers what they want or need to know, not what […]
Overused Words & Conciseness
During the summer, I have had several opportunities to read publications on a variety of topics: film archives, shyness, music—the list goes on. I also listened to several breaking news headlines on television. As I was reading and listening, I couldn’t help but ask myself why authors and spokespeople loved long-winded, overused words and structures […]
Dwain Richardson 