PANETTONE

Remembering the spelling of Panettone

When I was typing the word Panettone to find information or suppliers, I had trouble remembering which letter was doubled. First I thought of the French for bread which is pain. I made the mistake of doubling the n. Pan or pain or has a single n. Eventually I made up a mnemonic (memory aid). 

I think of a panet, or basket, for Tony.  Panet-tone - Panettone. Then I thought of the arched panettone, rising to the double letter in the middle. Finally I thought of the letters either side of the double TT.  a-n-e and o-n-e.

Errors by sellers on eBay: one, once; warn, worn,

I just looked at a seller's post which said
WARN ONCE PHOTOS DONT DO IT JUSTICE
I presume he or she means worn once.

Worn is past tense of wear.
Warn is to advise somebody of a future / impending difficulty or danger.

ONE and ONCE

I have also seen
Worn one
I presume this means worn once.
One time or once.

Angela Lansbury, English teacher and tutor.
I used to be a sub-editor on two women's magazines owned by IPC.
I once achieved 100% in a spelling entry test for a speedwriting course.
Follow me on Facebook or blogger.com. Send me your queries. Happy to help. Link to me on LinkedIn. Browse and buy my books on Lulu.com and Amazon.com
Also see my posts on my travel blog covering French words of the day, French wine bottle labels and other languages.

More Soundalikes

bean, been
be, bea
boarder, border
key, quay
mane, main
nay, neigh
place, plaice

scene, seen
sea, see
sundae, sunday
way, weigh
we, wee

Preventing Re-taking exams - Encourage Success By Making People Continue to learn

This proposal would be a disaster. It is an attempt by the low achievers to discourage the high achievers and by the failures to discourage the average.  The really high achievers will pass anyway leaving the majority stressed and floundering.

Teachers will be diverted from encouraging the low achievers. The lower achievers are disappointed and who will be discouraged from taking exams. At school I was not allowed to sit subjects at O level because I failed them at the mock.

(The employers wanted the O levels replaced by GCSEs because if you are going to employ all 30 members of a class of school leavers you want to know who is top of the lowest 30 per cent so that they can be given a little extra help, while identifying those who are really at the lowest marks can help you decide not to employ people if you will expect too much and then sack them, ruining their job record, when you could be sending them for different training or jobs more suited to their ability or level in that area.

It also means your lowest achievers are not encouraged to continue and reach an acceptable level, so you have a country of 30 per cent unqualified people who cannot be employed in your country or overseas, idle hands encouraged to stay idle and maybe turn to the dole queue or crime instead of seeking further education and employment.

The Americans succeed in business because they continue education throughout their adult life. In the UK we have introduced refresher courses of 4 days a week in all fields, teaching, medicine, and this is the right attitude. My father of 93 was doing the refresher course exams which enabled him to be helpful as a volunteer at a local hospital.

An end to 'old wives' tales' of outdated information. Encourage teachers to teach everybody, of all ages.

I went into schools in Singapore on a Saturday where a class was run for pupils who failed English O level mock exam. Most had non English speaking parents. With help and encouragement every girl (except one who was in hospital) got a pass.

Under my old school system in the UK, in which the school wanted to be high on the league table and re-takes were not encouraged, all those girls would have failed to get a qualification and more importantly would have failed to achieve a higher standard of speaking and writing English.
Re-taking is not cheating. If you achieve the level, you achieve it.

If taking exams early or doing mock exams encourages pupils to work harder to achieve the success of a higher grade, that is good. High achievers and hard workers should be encouraged.
The original prewar matric system of all five subjects passed left many pupils leaving school with no qualifications at all. They hated school, learning skills, any institution and authority.

GCSE was brought in so employers could distinguish the better of five applicants of a job all of who has failed to achieve the distinction level of a GCSE pass. They wanted to know who was only just below the average and could be retrained and re-sit exams at company expense and who would need twice the time and money to be brought up to standard.

Pupils and workers who were not all rounders some had high levels of skill in one area.
Pupils and teachers will get depressed. Everybody should have the encouragement to try, try again and not be damned by their first failureThis is a disaster. GCSE was brought in to encourage those who did badly.

My school would not let me take exams unless I was likely to score highly. Result I dropped subjects which were needed for my education in life and further university entrance.

We need to encourage people to try, try, again. If Edison had not continued trying, none of us would be sitting here under electric light bulbs.

Soundalikes

It's time for tea and thyme on the tee at the golf course in the Gulf. I could make a rude joke but of course I won't be coarse.

coarse and course coarse=rough as in rough grass, or rude and abrasive language or personality. Of course. Course as in golf or race course
time and thyme and time and tide wait for no man - time on the clock or watch, thyme is a herb
tea and tee - tea is what you drink, a golf tee holds a golf ball

It's time to learn the difference between time and thyme.

Angela Lansbury, B A Hons English teacher and tutor

Complimentary, complementary

compliment - praise, being nice
full complement - total (matching) group, being part of something
complimentary - saying nice things, praise, being nice to somebody is giving something free
free (included in the price). You pay somebody a compliment. Notice the I in the middle as in praise.

complementary - completes, adds, match, separate, notice the e twice, as well as the a in both words, the full complement or set, tablecloth and napkins, part of the package

Discreet and discrete

Discreet - tactful, guarded, not revealing too much in words nor actions

Discrete - separate


Here's somebody else's take on it.
http://blog.dictionary.com/discreet-and-discrete/

Angela Lansbury, B A Hons, English teacher and tutor.

Soundalikes: made and maid, great and Grate for comedy, puns

I made a list of soundalikes for the maid.
Puns often use soundalikes. If you are writing comedy, use lists of soundalikes. Great for humour. So long as they don't grate on your ear.

ah, are
Bare, bear
fare, fair
grate, great
heard, herd
hoard, horde
kneed, need
lead, led
made, maid
oh, owe
passed, past
read, red
road, rode
steal, steel
there, their, they're
wait, weight
which, witch

Angela Lansbury, travel writer, author, winner of humorous speech competitions.

More Soundalikes from B & B and be and bee to toe and tow

be, bee, B & B (bed and breakfast)
bite, bight
bought, brought
bow, bough
but, butt
cent, sent
cite, sight
coat, côte - French for coast
cue, queue
doe, dough
do, dew, due, Jew
fare, fair
feat, feet
hair, hare
hangar, hanger (the first hangs clothes, the second houses aircraft)
hear, here
hi, high
ho, hoe
hue, Hugh
knight, night
knot, not
know, no
lieu, loo
lose, loose
mite, might (a mite is a small size)
mo, mow
nay, neigh
oh, owe
pair, pear
pi, pie
rain, rein reign
raise, raze
right, rite, write
root, route
roe, row
pea, pee
peak, peek
roe, row
sea, see, si, c.c. si-si
seas, sieze
sew, so,
sue, Sue
suite, sweet
teas, tease
toe, tow
wander, wonder (the first is to walk aimlessly; the second to puzzle over something

Spelling on certificates in Singapore

I visited a Toastmasters club in Singapore. I was very pleased to receive a certificate of appreciation. Only one thing was wrong. The spelling of the word appreciation. the first i was missing.

Should I tell them? I should.

Update
A former Area Governor thought it would be more diplomatic not to mention it. I hesitated.

Then on a return visit I saw the certificates were all in correct English. We were all very jovial and friendly. The topic turned to mistakes avoided.

I mentioned to the person who had been in charge in the previous visit that my certificate had been spelled wrongly. He was neither apologetic nor embarrassed. He was shocked, amazed and outraged.

Clearly he thought the certificates had been composed and / or printed by somebody else and he had merely passed them on. he promised to replace my certificate with a correct copy.

Angela Lansbury, English teacher and tutor

Soundalikes: air and heir to wear and where

air, heir
bare, bear
be, bee
bean, been
fare, fair
hair, heir
mite, might
pear, pair
pea, pee
peer, pier
Practice (noun) and practise (verb)
right, write
scene, seen
site, sight
steal and steel
their, there
to, too, two
wear, where

More soundalikes

Your spell checker might miss these and allow through the wrong word or autocorrect to make nonsense of your carefully crafted sentence.

heard; herd (past tense of verb to hear, group of animals or verb meaning to round up)
hoard; horde (verb meaning to collect and stache away or hide in a cupboard or concealed place large numbers of objects such as food in times or shortage, group of people or animals often unruly or completely out of control approaching a place or victim such as in a riot).

Angela Lansbury B A Honours, author and English teacher.
(My previous jobs include being a sub-editor on two major magazines for IPC and working on encyclopaedias. I also got 100 per cent in the spelling entry test for a Speedwriting course, and was told that only about 5 people a year achieve this record.)

Hypo and Hyper

hypo and hyper - for years I was puzzled. All became clear when I read a health article on diabetes. Two terms were used constantly. I had to sort out which was which.

HYPO - ZERO - LOW - O
Hypoglycaemia - too little glucose, sugar, energy.

HYPER - EXTRA - E
Herperactive - extra active - children running around in a classroom when teacher wants them to sit still and be quiet.
Hyperglaecemia - extra glucose or sugar in your system, 'eventually cause health problems such as damage to your eyes or kidneys'.

Control levels of sugar by what you take in (diet) and what you use up (exercise) or by doctor or nurse monitoring you and giving you tablets to regulate or other advice and remedies.

www.diabetesmatters.co.uk

How and why you check for accuracy in letters, advertisements, newspapers, magazines and printed material

Do spelling errors and mathematical mistakes matter? Yes. Here are some examples of what can go wrong, and has already affected some or many people.

Mathematical Errors
1 Hospital mistakes have included people killed by nurses who gave as much as ten times the correct dose of medicines.
2 A bill charges an absurd amount for gas or electricity to the owner of a small house.

Typing Errors
1 Mis-spelling of names can cause mistaken identity, such as revenge attacks killing the wrong person, police arresting the wrong person.
2 The department of education sends out to parents a letter containing several spelling errors. The letter is ridiculed by the press.
3 A bill can frighten pensioners.

Space and Position Errors or Carelessness
1 Many road accidents are caused by 'driving without due care and attention'. As the motorway signs in the UK warn, Tiredness Kills. Drivers are told to take a break when feeling tired.
2 Drivers for commercial companies have limits on the numbers of hours they can be behind the wheel after which they must stop for a rest or sleep. (This includes the UK's AA, Automobile Association - the USA version is AAA American Automobile Association.
3 Resting hours are also mandatory for pilots and aircraft crew.
4 Satnav errors have taken people's cars into dangerous situations such as off roads to riverbanks and left cars stranded, wasted time, caused people to miss social events or business meetings and caused accidents.
5 Hospitals have removed the wrong leg and other similar mistakes with other parts of the body.
6 Council workers have demolished the wrong house.

Translation Errors
The effect of mistranslation can be amusing, as in the famous I am a Berliner speech, in which the President of the USA declared himself to be a sausage, rather than an honorary citizen or lover of the city.

Copy Editing
Who checks the final copy? When I worked in advertising everybody's job depended on keeping an account and keeping the paying customer happy. In copy the name of anybody was checked three times and by at least three people.

When I worked as a sub-editor on IPC magazines, every piece of literature was checked with three sources. Ordinary words were checked with two or more dictionaries. Spellings of names were checked with two sources. If the name was unusual, sometimes the chief sub-editor checked by phoning the family.

When I worked as a secretary / PA all my work was checked by my boss. When I typed a letter, if it was posted after he left so that he had not checked it, I signed PP which is Latin per pro, on behalf of, which showed the letter's recipient, also my boss, and myself, that the letter was initialed by the typist and any errors were mine, not his.

On magazines a piece of literature was checked by as many as eight people all of whom initialled changes, typist/sub-editor, chief sub-editor, features editor, production editor, magazine editor, library/cuttings/research department, head of company, head of group.

On a happier note, every day our lives are saved dozens of times by the goodwill of others, and by the foresight of health and safety labels and regulations.

Take care!

Angela Lansbury, BA Hons, author, English teacher and tutor

Checking spelling, names, facts

Animals and Accuracy
Accuracy is essential. Is the snake in the garden a harmless grass snake or deadly viper? Should you catch it, capture it, release it, or kill it? Call the children and family to look - or call them inside and shut the windows? Go near for a photograph or call the council?

Is the spider on the bananas a 'lucky' spider, or a deadly spider? Should you kill it, before it attacks and breeds?  Or is it an endangered species?

Police Chase
And the man being sought by police, the man who is 'dangerous to approach', does he have a tattoo of a spider or a scorpion and is it on his left hand or right hand?

A news article says somebody, a suspect in a suspected murder case, has a tattoo of a spider on their right hand. Readers say the photo is taken in a mirror and it's the left hand.

Others say it's not a spider but a scorpion. Another reader protests: 'Who cares whether it's a left or right hand, a spider or a scorpion? Why are you commenting on trivia when the important point is that people are dead!'

Danger and Safety
Accurate facts are essential, when police and public are watching for a suspected dangerous person who must not be approached. It is important for identification and safety of everybody - including all suspects.

For example, if the local tattoo parlour has given ten people spiders on the right and left hands, you don't want to cause confusion and panic and let a suspect who has one insect such as a scorpion or animal on their left hand escape. You also don't want to waste time and upset everybody by arresting or shooting nine innocent 'suspects' with spiders on their right hand (or vice versa).

Trials
Details like this lead to an arrest, a conviction, a retrial, or release of a person wrongly convicted, and help prove whether somebody was murdered or committed suicide or was wrongly convicted.

Novel Plots
Facts are important in real life. If you are dealing with fiction, such as in a novel, your plot might depend on such a twist. Your story will depend for it's credibility and true to life atmosphere if you show a picture of a spider in a story about the deadly spider, and a scorpion in a story called the scorpion.

Conclusion and Summary on Accuracy
Yes, accuracy does matter. Be glad that you are given free help by those who spot errors. If you don't get it right the first time, you correct the mistake and in the end life is in order.

Angela Lansbury, B A Hons, author, English language teacher, speech and creative writing tutor

Soundalikes

know, no
naye, neigh
palate, palette
Practice (noun in UK), practise (verb in UK)

Soundalikes - dew - higher

dew, due, Jew, d'you
discreet, discrete
fair, fare
fate, fete
feet
grate, great
hangar, hanger
heal, heel
higher, hire

Rhine, rein, reindeer,
sea, see,
scene, seen,
to two, too,
their, there,
war, whore,
wait, weight,
weir, we're, 

Soundalikes

blew - past tense of blow - the wind blew the sailing boat
blue - colour with variations from powder blue to navy blue and midnight blue
leak - accidental loss of water from a pipe caused by a hole or tap or bolt not fastened
leek - vegetable which is national symbol of Wales
suit - a suit of clothes, matching trousers and jacket and for formal occasions a matching vest
suite - set, for example bedroom and bathroom, 3 piece suite, traditionally a three seater sofa and two armchairs
sweet - dessert, sugary as opposed to savoury

More soundalikes

Automatic spell checkers and predictive text keep changing what you write. (Right - correct; write with a pen. A wright is a worker, wheelwright, playwright.

deer - animal
dear - expensive; term of endearment (affection or love)

er - hesitation
err - make a mistake

hangar, hanger
hangar - with a twice is the aircraft building
hanger - hangs your clothes

Lightning - thunder and
lightening - getting a lighter colour, soufflé, or less weight