A scooter is usually more of a child’s unpowered toy, whereas a moped has a small internal combustion engine.
Category Archives: Fake English
Nicknames
A nickname isn’t a preferred short, alternative or familiar form of the actual name on youur passport. It may be mean and unkind, unrelated to the actual name, or even offensive.
The singular of criteria…
…is “criterion” in English, not “criterium”.
What comes between junior and senior?
Well, not “medior” at any rate. That’s a fabrication, an anglicization.
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.
Beamer for Christmas?
My brother-in-law was astonished when I said I was getting Clare a beamer for Christmas. An SUV or a soft-top?
Invented abbreviations
They’re confusing enough as it is. Don’t go inventing your own!
Quartermaster
A quartermaster is a low or mid-level military administrator responsible for supplies and equipment, not some kind of high-level official trailblazer for projects.
Qualitative
In English, this word is almost only ever used as the counterpart of “quantitative”: it doesn’t mean “high-quality”.