2014 Spellzone Blog Round Up
2014 has been an exciting year for all of us here at Spellzone – we reached over 400 likes on our Facebook page; have been shortlisted for the UK Blog Awards (thank you to all of you who voted for us!); and even connected with a school in Montserrat!
Here are some of our favourite articles from over the year:
- This year we began looking at pairs and groups of words which are easy to mix up, and we shared tips and tricks to help you remember when to use which word. The pairs and groups of words we looked at include: accept vs. except, lose vs. loose, bought vs. brought, break vs. brake, to vs. too vs. two, desert vs. dessert, allowed vs. aloud, less vs. fewer, uninterested vs. disinterested, bear vs. bare, device vs. devise, are vs. our vs. hour, weather vs. whether vs. wether, passed vs. past and cite vs. site vs. sight. We also looked at three commonly confused in- words.
- While last year we looked at the interesting origin stories behind certain idioms, this year we focussed on the definition of particular idioms. This is because for second-language English speakers, idioms are among the most confusing aspects of learning English. We looked at the meanings behind idioms about animals, weather (parts one and two), sports, food, the human body (parts one and two), money, colours, and clothes (parts one and two). We also looked at scary idioms for Halloween and at this slushy idiom for Valentine’s Day.
- Continuing with our favourite Word for Wednesday feature, we looked at some weird and wonderful words, including ubiquitous, serendipity, and gongoozler, and nelipot. While following current affairs, we looked at selfie, referendum, and comet. This year we even let you vote to choose one of our Wednesday words – and you chose nincompoop!
- While exploring interesting aspects of the English language, we looked at onomatopoeic words, portmanteau words, and oxymora, as well as these five weird wordy facts.
- From around the world we looked at words which originated in Japan, India (parts one and two), and Scotland. We also looked at some useful Greek and Latin word roots.
- Over the course of the year, we also shared plenty of tips. These included: 20 Often Mis-Pronounced Words, Five Expressions You May Be Saying Incorrectly, Tips for Forming Contractions, 10 Tips for Using Apostrophes, 10 Tips for Forming Plurals, The Dirty 30 and Tips for Spelling Them Correctly (parts one and two), and 10 Common Mistakes.
What have you enjoyed most on our blog this year, and what would you like to see more of next year? Which articles have you found the most useful? Do let us know so that we can make 2015’s blog as great for you as we possibly can. You can contact us via Facebook, Twitter, and email, or by leaving a comment below.
We hope 2014 has been a great year for you, and see you all in 2015. Happy New Year!
29 Dec 2014
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