A perfectly good word, but hugely less common than its Dutch equivalent. So Dutch authors overuse it horrendously.
Author Archives: Mike Wilkinson
Fireworks
Dutch treats the broad concept of pyrotechnics as a singular noun, “vuurwerk”. English doesn’t: fireworks are in the plural.
“Proud to be a PSV-fan”
A typical Dutch hyphen, except that this one was big (and I mean BIG) – several metres in length, in the backdrop to a Europa League game.
Year before subject
The 2021 report, 2012 Olympics, the 2017 Conference, the 1986 Displaced Persons Act… The year comes first if there’s no other small word in between.
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Dutch authors have a big tendency to use the preposition “on” in phrases like these.
Decimal coinage
Fifty years ago this week, Britain got rid of its notorious system of pounds, shillings and pence: great for dividing fractions in medieval times, but not much use with computers.
Mo-Fr, Sa+Su
You’re probably not going to confuse anybody by using two-letter abbreviations for days. But English doesn’t do that.
Propaedeutic? Um…
A dictionary-only word that you shouldn’t use in English. (With or without the -ae- spelling variant.) Nobody knows it.
Don’t get personal
Remember that ‘personal’ often has overtones of private, intimate and secret and not merely ‘related to the individual’.
The difference between both…
Unlike Dutch, English uses “the two” or “the two of them” and not “both” for comparisons and differences.
Advanced Dunglish 