Um… surely not. The Dutch don’t make mistakes when referring to their own country, do they? It turns out to be a surprisingly tricky one.
Category Archives: Advanced
A dull-as-ditchwater subject
A dull-as-ditchwater subject, but a not-to-be-missed topic: hyphenation of compound adjectives before nouns.
Data
A singular noun. Yes, the origin of the word is the Latin plural of datum, but that’s not the point. Languages are dynamic and changing; if you don’t go with the flow, it can sound hypercorrect.
In a manner, way or fashion
If you want to write English in an efficient manner, in a smart way and in a natural fashion, then don’t forget your adverbs. Do it efficiently, smartly and naturally.
Lowercase acronyms
English always writes its acronyms in capitals, with just a few exceptions that have escaped into the wild as normal words (such as radar, laser, snafu and scuba).
Adequate
Would you want to be operated on by a surgeon whose skills are adequate? Or would you rather have one who’s good?
Consistency: -ize or -ise
American spelling uses -ize; British spelling uses either -ize or -ise and may vary from one publication to the next. But be consistent!
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.
Advanced Dunglish 