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Finer Points of Good English

Or, picky points of language that please sticklers for grammar and detail!


It's nice to be able to get details right, and to avoid mistakes which can be regarded by pedantic people as ignorance. No-one's perfect, but it's good practice to make fewer language errors. Although spellcheckers can help to clear up silly typo mistakes that aren't easy to spot, they are no help when you need to use the correct "there" or "their". You just need to know. Here are a few picky points of English language which are helpful...

Correct Use of the Apostrophe

Less - or should that be Fewer?

While and Whilst - in British English

Compliment or Complement?

I don't mind if you're a punk and you have made a conscious rebellious choice to disregard the constraints of correct language, but if you are the sort of person who has made a choice to use English which does not have ignorant mistakes, then the items on this page may be of interest for you.

Incidentally, some of these things may seem picky, but if there was an image on the page it wouldn't be a picky; it would be a piccy.

Some words can be difficult so now I've started writing about that too.