This week we’re going to examine another ten commonly-used English contronyms: words with two contradictory meanings. A contronym, sometimes called an auto-antonym or “Janus word” (after the two-faced Greek god), is essentially its own opposite. Accordingly, the meaning that a contronym conveys is entirely context-dependent.   If you need more help with contronyms or any…

This week we’re going to examine ten commonly-used English contronyms. A contronym, sometimes called an auto-antonym or “Janus word” (after the two-faced Greek god), is a word with two opposite meanings. Which meaning a contronym is intended to convey is entirely context-dependent. Because of this, we’re providing both brief definitions and sample sentences for the…

Test your knowledge of irregular plural nouns with this short quiz. Each sentence below has a singular noun in brackets. Replace this noun with its correct plural form to successfully complete the sentence. Keep in mind that irregular plural nouns in English can take many forms. Some of these nouns follow alternate pluralization rules. Other…

In this lesson, we’re going to look at four more fossil words that have been preserved within modern English idioms. These archaic words are rarely, if ever, used outside of the idiomatic expressions in which they are embedded. In fact, an English speaker using an idiom containing a fossil word might not even be aware…

Correlative conjunctions are pairs of words which express relationships between equivalent ideas. Each pair expresses a particular type of relationship. Correlative conjunctions are not interchangeable. You cannot “mix and match” part of one correlative conjunction with a part of another. Each sentence below contains two blank spaces. Choose the correct pair of correlative conjunctions for…

A fossil word is an obsolete word that has been “fossilized,” or preserved, within an idiom. These words are rarely, if ever, used outside of the idiomatic expressions in which they are embedded. In fact, an English speaker using an idiom containing a fossil word might not even be aware of what the fossil word…

The plural forms of most English nouns are made by adding –s to the singular form. “Forms” and “nouns” from the previous sentence are perfect examples. However, many commonly-used English nouns have irregular plural forms. In the previous lesson, we looked at native English words that follow alternate pluralization rules. This time, we’ll turn our…

The plural forms of most English nouns are made by adding –s to the singular form. “Forms” and “nouns” from the previous sentence are perfect examples. However, many commonly-used English nouns have irregular plural forms. Some of these nouns follow alternate pluralization rules. Other nouns are identical in both singular and plural forms. Still other…

This week we are going to explore thirteen slang words commonly-used by American English speakers. We’ve provided a definition for each word and an example of how that word is used in a sentence. While some of these words have multiple definitions, we’ll be examining just the informal meanings native speakers usually intend to convey…

English has a large number of words that both native and non-native speakers have difficulty using correctly. In our commonly-confused words lessons, we’ve focused on words with similar spellings and/or pronunciations but different meanings. Our “tricky words” lessons shift the focus to words whose uses are confused for reasons other than just how the words…