Troublesome Words

String, troublesome? Surely not, but clearly Sainsbury's had a bit of a struggle....

Coincidentally, on the very same day that the 'sting' was spotted in our Jamie Oliver loving supermarket, Bill Bryson's 'Troublesome Words' landed on my doormat.

According to the blurb, the book gives us 'a clear, concise and entertaining guide to problems of English usage and spelling'.

Examples....

Koalas are marsupials and have no relation to bears. Just call them koalas.

Plan ahead.
'[The] keys to success are to plan ahead' (The New York Times). Always tautological. When would you plan behind?

Sacrilegious. Sometimes misspelled sacreligious on the mistaken assumption that religious is part of the word. It isn't.

What a marvelous book - imagine how many friends you could lose by quoting massive chunks and pointing out not-so-obvious errors.

Needless to say, Paul plans to do just that....