English Rules

To and Too

September 21, 2005

Question: When do I use "to" or "too"? Example: too difficult or to stay Answer: The word too has two common meanings: (1) "also" or "besides" and (2) "excessively." Sometimes people use it informally to mean (3) "very." Examples of "too" Jane would like some ice cream, too. I, too, am part Swedish. Frida was too small to ride the … Read more.

adviser or advisor

May 13, 2005

Someone asked today in a comment whether "documentor" or "documenter" is correct. The correct word is "documenter." The question got me wondering, though, about another spelling dilemma: "adviser" or "advisor." According to the Cambridge Guide to English Usage (Pam Peters, 2004): Both these spellings are in current use, though adviser is the dominant spelling in both the US and the … Read more.

dis- versus dys-

March 11, 2005

Someone wrote in asking what the rule is for changing dis- to dys-. Actually, there is no rule for changing one to the other, as far as I know. Instead, the two prefixes come from different sources. dis- is a Latin prefix with a number of meanings. It is by far the more common of the two prefixes. dys- has … Read more.

Definitely

February 10, 2005

Definitely is a word that I saw misspelled a lot when I was teaching high school. Many students wanted to put an "a" after the "n" and spell it definately. The funny thing is that sometimes my students' word processors would politely offer to change the misspelled word to defiantly, which, as you can imagine, would give their sentences a … Read more.

I Before E Except After C

February 4, 2005

Here's the classic spelling rule that all native English speakers learn in the first years of school. If you're unsure whether to spell a word with an ie or an ei, use ie unless the two letters are preceded by c. Therefore, we have hierarchy and ceiling. As with all rules in English, however, there are exceptions. Three that immediately … Read more.

Spelling Grammar

February 3, 2005

Some words sound as if they have er at the end of them, even though they don't. Here are a few examples: doctor calendar grammar horror Many people come to this website through Google or some other search engine as a result of searching for grammer. If you are one of those people, please note that you are spelling the … Read more.

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