American spelling uses -ize; British spelling uses either -ize or -ise and may vary from one publication to the next. But be consistent!
Author Archives: Mike Wilkinson
Colophon
It’s not a word. (Well, just about, deep in the dark depths of the dictionary. But that doesn’t make it correct.)
Money, money, money
English style guides do differ a little about exactly how to format sums of money. But none of them do it the Dutch way.
Citizens
Citizen is a perfectly good word when the context is about nationality. Overuse elsewhere can sound as if you’re talking about the French Revolution or writing a dystopian novel.
19th and 20th centuries
The word “and” creates a plural in English – in this example, you’re talking about more than one century, after all.
Coronaspecial
Coronatijd, coronamaatregelen, coronacrisis, coronawerk… Dutch has adopted “corona” as a new prefix, but English hasn’t. Well, not yet. Not really.
Historic present
Using present-tense verbs to refer to past events can be a literary device for drawing the reader in and adding impact. But avoid it in minutes and reports in English.
What’s in a name?
Some historical, biblical and fictional figures etc. are referred to by anglicized names. Not surprising: the same happens in Dutch – Lodewijk XIV, Karel de Grote, Winnie de Poeh, Zweinstein…
The field of…
Major contributions in the field of microbiology… Great commitment to the field of science… When the word count for your paper’s abstract is limited, it can be annoying to discover it’s gone up by 5% in the English.
Checking the controls
Controls are mechanisms or procedures for making machines or processes behave as you want, i.e. controlling them, not checking them.
Advanced Dunglish 