Joseph's recent emailed newsletter about "Typing and Writing Symbols" was interesting. It reminded me of the days when I taught business communication and computing.

One of the things I taught students was how to create symbols on their computers that were not available on their keyboards. These symbols, as some of you will know, are part of the ASCII (American Standard Code for Information Interchange) which you can find here: https://theasciicode.com.ar/

The article tells you how to make the symbols appear on your screen.

Wordprocessing programs also usually include a character/symbol set you can access. For example, in the latest version of MS Word, you select <Insert> and then <Symbol> that appears on the right side of the menu bar.

Try it and see how it works.

PS:

Originally, it was intended for the Australian dollar symbol to have two vertical lines through the S to distinguish it from the US dollar. Because most keyboards only have one dollar sign ($), it became easier to use $AUD or $5,000 AUD when necessary.

An acronym is a word or name formed as an abbreviation from the initial components in a phrase or a word.

Some common acronyms are: NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration), NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization), POTUS (President of the United States).

Government agencies and QANGO or QUANGO (Quasi-Autonomous Non-Government Organisations) and the military thrive on acronyms. This can be a real challenge if you aren't familiar with the acronyms.

In Australia, the Style Manual for Authors, Editors and Printers published by the Australian Government Printer since 1966, sets out standards for usage of almost everything we produce, including acronyms.

In most official publications that include many acronyms a list of acronyms is provided at the rear of the publication as shown in this screen capture from a Defence Department publication.

When only a few uncommon acronyms are being used, the Style Manual suggests that the full name should be shown after the acronym is used the first time. Such as in this example, LNP (Liberal-National Party). Readers are then expected to remember what the acronym means.

I would expect most languages to have style manuals and methods for dealing with acronyms and other style issues that occur in their communication.

Hopefully, while you are improving your English, you will now know where to look for the meanings of acronyms you see.

Tautology is a complicated term that means saying the same thing twice. It's considered bad use of language.

Unfortunately, however, there are numbers of word pairs that are tautologies that have crept into common use. Here are some examples:

Swap out - this seems to be more commonly used in US English. Swap means to change something. I often read the term "swap out" as in, he said he would swap out the batteries so the torch would work. Swap would have done fine alone.

Sort out - we can sort something without the out. Out doesn't add anything to the word which means to place something in order eg, alphabetic order.

Together with - as a recruitment manager I often read job advertisements asking people to send "their application, together with a resume."

These terms become "hackneyed" or overused, and when readers read them, they think they are correct, so they use them in their own writing.

Are you aware of any other tautologies? See how many you can find in articles you read. Most importantly, don't use tautologies in your written or spoken English.

saying of the same thing twice over in different words, generally considered to be a fault of style 

English, perhaps like every other language, has many words with identical or similar meanings. They are called synonyms.

Think of the words, approximately and about. As synonyms, you can choose either word in most cases, so my advice is to choose the simpler of the two.

Here is an example paragraph of simple words (in brackets) that could be used instead.

There are numerous (many) words that are synonyms and often you can choose the simple (easy) word over the complex (harder) word. Doing this helps your audience (readers) comprehend (understand) your message.

Here are some lists of synonyms you might like to consider when writing:

HREF 1 (HREF = hyper reference, a link)

HREF 2

HREF 1 is probably more suited to intermediate or advanced English language writers. HREF 2 is easier.

Word of Caution

Caution (care) needs to be used with synonyms because (as) some, although suitable for many sentences aren't suitable for every sentence.

Here's an example from HREF 1 using aroused instead of angered:

"He aroused her." (On its own, this has a sexual* or other** meaning. To write it with the intended meaning you would need to say, 'He aroused her anger'.)

"He angered her." (This would be the preferred expression in this example)

Do you use synonyms when writing? Comment and tell me what you think of using shorter, simpler words to help people understand your writing.

* - "He aroused her (passion)."

** - "He aroused her (from her sleep)."

Sometimes when I interact with US sites I'm confused by what date is being referred to. 

The USA has a habit of placing the month before the day so that 4/3 is April 3rd. But in Australia and almost everywhere else in the world I have travelled, the month is written before the day eg, 3/4 or 3rd April. Thus, I'm never sure whether the date is 4th March or 3rd April in US format.

This is only a problem of course when one of the numerals is less than 13.

The convention in Australia is for dd/mm/yy (or now becoming more common dd/mm/yyyy). This is usually written in either of these forms:

dd/mm/yyyy - dd-mm-yyyy - 29 March 2015 - 29Mar15/29 Mar 15 

I prefer the format where the date is written ie, 29 March 2015.

Unfortunately, computers have trouble with dates when doing ascending or descending sorts.

Therefore in my computer when I store files, I always use the reverse date eg, 2015/04/30. This means that my files will always follow in strict date order when I sort them. It makes files much easier to find.

What date formats are used in your countries?

Robinoz

Over the last few years I have noticed a change in English usage of words that are both singular and plural.

Much of the change, I think, is brought about by people whose first language is not English. Let me explain.

There are many English words that are both singular and plural. However, plurality is now being assigned to these words by the addition of an "s".

For example, I often read an article that includes the word "accommodations" which is written as a plural. But, in English there is only one word ie, "accommodation" which is used in both the singular sense eg,

"I have changed my accommodation to get a better view of the sea". (Singular sense)

"The accommodation provided for our employees varies according to their salary level." (Plural)

While it is appropriate to add "s" to many English words to make them plural, other words do not require it. I can understand how confusing this must be to those of you who are learning English.

The only way to know which words are both singular and plural is to learn to identify them.

The various rules for plurality and singularity are quite extensive and confusing, but hey, everyone has to start somewhere.

Your Homework (just joking)

Here are a few other words that are both singular and plural:

Training

Aircraft

Sheep

How many more can you add to this list?

Hey, that sounds a bit odd ... English is not only English. What does that mean?

When I learnt English at school, I also learnt Latin, some French, and Latin and Greek roots. Learning Latin and Greek roots was the most useful addition to English because English isn't a pure language.

You see, English is a combination of numerous other languages, even some Arabic. By having an understanding of Latin and Greek roots, it is easier to work out what English words are similar and from where they evolved as part of the language.

For example, the word Police derives from the Greek "polis" or "poleis" which described a group of people in a region bound by local rules etc. Police enforce those rules.

There are dozens of other words eg, democracy, century, tactile, that are derived from other languages that preceded modern English.

Here's a challenge for you. See how many words you can find that are derived from other languages. Also look in a dictionary and see what foreign words eg, Latin is still used in English. Hint: words like ad hoc.

Over 100 years ago, Afghanis brought camels to Australia. They worked when the overland telegraph line was installed between Adelaide in the south and Darwin in the north, a distance of about 3,000 km.

Now, we have hundreds, if not thousands of wild camels roaming round in Central Australia. We have developed a camel meat industry which has been successful and most recently sent a number of camels to Qatar to help provide a different genetic stream in their camel industry.

We have many more camels than Qatar has, so it was a good deal for Qatar and Australia. 

It's ironic that the camels that cme from the Middle East are now being returned to the Middle East.

What do you think?

One of my interests is wrist watches. Elegant engineering packaged in such a small space. It's been a life-long interest.

As a watch fanatic, I receive several newsletters. Today I received a newsletter, the heading of which included "Live images" and "Live photos". 

Now, I don't know about you, but I've never seen a "Dead photo" or a "Dead image". What is a "live image"? Your guess is as good as mine, but what I think the writer intended was to describe an image taken at a particular place and time ie, a watch exhibition.

One of the challenges in any language is that we mimic (follow) what other writers write. If someone writes or says that, "Robin is going to do a live presentation", many other people mimic it and say the same thing, even if it is nonsensical rubbish.

Why not just say "photos", "images" or "presentation"? I blame the media for much of the rubbish that passes for sound English usage.

What do you think? Would you be happy to go to a "presentation" instead of a "live presentation" or doesn't it make much difference?

Before I tell you my story, you need to know that a "crown wheel and pinion" is a piece of equipment from a motor vehicle's engine (see image at left). A "Crown Law opinion" is a legal opinion from the Crown Law Department. I worked at the Traffic Accident Investigation Squad where we often sought crown law opinions about cases.

____________________

So, I was a police officer working with a friend. He said to me, "I want to go and get a crown wheel and pinion from Spinks Auto".

We hopped into the police car and I drove off in the direction of the city (Brisbane, Australia) and he said, "Where are you going, that's the wrong way?"

I said, "Not it's not, the Crown Law Office is in the city."

He said, "I don't want to go to the Crown Law Office, I want to go to Spinks Auto to pick up a crown wheel and pinion I have ordered ... it's the other way." 

I said, "Oh, I'm sorry, I thought you wanted a crown law opinion."

The lesson: Even when you are a native speaker and very literate, you still have to LISTEN!

Aboriginal (black) Australians have no system of counting. To them there is either one person or a mob of people. Then they talk of a big mob or a little mob. They didn't need numbers.

English has developed different names for groups of animals. Instead of saying "There is a GROUP of ducks" or "a group of birds" or a "group of horses", we have a large list of different names just to make it hard.

For example, a group of cattle is called a "herd of cattle". A group of fish is called a "shoal of fish". A group of birds flying is called "a flight", but if the birds are on the ground, they are "a flock".

My favourite is a "gaggle of geese". I sometimes talk about a "gossip of women", but that's my work and not recognised in English (yet).

To see a long list of different names applied to different animal groups to see what I mean, go here. 

What do these names achieve that the term group doesn't? This is an example of stupidity in our English language. I doubt if any English speaking person could get them all correct.

What do you think?

When people use a particular word or expression, others begin to use the same word or expression. But if the word or expression is being used incorrectly, then others learn incorrect use.

For example, I often hear people such as news readers use the word "amount" when it should have been "number".

Number should be used for anything that is countable eg,

"The number of people who can fit in this elevator is 10."

Amount is used for quantities that aren't countable eg,

"The amount of water in the ocean is hard to calculate."

Another common mistake is the use of the word "alternate" when it should have been "alternative".

For those of you who are learning English, pull out your English dictionary and see if you can tell my why using "alternate" could be incorrect?

Robinoz