Answer: Hold Your Peace/Piece and Speak Your Peace/Piece

Monday, 20 November 2017 22:19
chomiji: Tenpou from Saiyuki Gaiden. with the caption Not necessarily by the book (Tenpou - Not by the book)
[personal profile] chomiji

Reader [personal profile] rebcake had a question about two venerable idioms concerning speaking out—or not. Is it proper to say “hold your peace," or is it “hold your piece"? What about “say your piece"—or “say your peace"? We’ll take a closer look with the help of old friends from J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings.

( “Let’s )
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Commonly confused words: amoral and immoral

Monday, 25 September 2017 11:26
chiroho: (benz slk230)
[personal profile] chiroho
In this week's commonly confused words, we will look at the difference between amoral and immoral. Participating in our examples will be the cast of ( Person of Interest )
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Commonly Confused Words: Poison / Venom / Toxin

Monday, 11 September 2017 20:36
chomiji: Tenpou from Saiyuki Gaiden. with the caption Not necessarily by the book (Tenpou - Not by the book)
[personal profile] chomiji

As Lewis Carroll's Alice observed, if you drink from a bottle marked "poison," it is almost certain to disagree with you sooner or later. But what about venom or a toxin? Today we'll take a look at these three terms and figure out what makes them different from one another.

( With the help of the cast from Star Trek: The Original Series )
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Answer: Moot

Monday, 22 May 2017 16:31
randi2204: McCoy with all the things he says he's not in TOS (star trek - mccoy is not your)
[personal profile] randi2204
We were asked, What is the origin and correct usage of “moot?” Moot has a variety of meanings, so correct usage can be a bit tricky.  Let’s dig right in with some help from the characters of Star Trek.

( Who gives a hoot about moot? )
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Commonly Confused Words: Allude / Elude / Elide

Monday, 20 March 2017 21:15
chomiji: Tenpou from Saiyuki Gaiden. with the caption Not necessarily by the book (Tenpou - Not by the book)
[personal profile] chomiji

Today's set of easily confused words is as mellifluous as it is puzzling. We'll try to clarify the situation with the help of the Knight of Lost Words, October ("Toby") Daye, and her friends.

( All right, let's go! )
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Commonly Confused Words: Appraise/Apprise

Tuesday, 28 February 2017 07:32
melayneseahawk: (meaning of life)
[personal profile] melayneseahawk
Hello, and welcome to another article on Commonly Confused Words! Today’s topic is a pair of words that I confuse all the time, so I thought I’d settle it once and for all: what is the difference between “appraise” and “apprise”, and what are some ways to remember which is which?

First, let’s start with some definitions...

( appraise/apprise, with examples from Steven Universe and Star Trek (2009) )

Tune in next week for another set of Commonly Confused Words!

(The Star Trek example is shamelessly borrowed from Deastar’s marvelous So Wise We Grow.)
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ANSWER: Hear, hear or here, here?

Tuesday, 15 November 2016 08:42
[identity profile] http://users.livejournal.com/traycer_/
This week we are going to focus on the proper use of hear, hear vs here, here. And we're going to have help from the Stargate SG-1 crew.

( Read more... )
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SAY WHAT?: "The darkest hour is just before the dawn" & "Every cloud has a silver lining"

Monday, 7 November 2016 22:39
[identity profile] achacunsagloire.livejournal.com
It’s Monday again, dear Fandom Grammar readers!  Considering this particular day of the week means trading leisure for work (or schoolwork) for the next five days, it’s easy to feel gloomy on Mondays and gawk at the long wait until Friday.  But today we’re going to focus on the positive instead of the negative, like our two idioms of the day suggest: “The darkest hour is just before the dawn” and “every cloud has a silver lining.”  To better shine the light on these two Positive-Polly phrases, we’ll get some help from the characters of Silent Hill, who are experts at finding their way in the dark.

( Click on this cut for illumination on these two idioms. )
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ANSWER: "envy" versus "jealousy"

Monday, 31 October 2016 09:54
[identity profile] achacunsagloire.livejournal.com
Happy Halloween, dear Fandom Grammar readers!  Since we find ourselves once again on that most famous Day of Ghouls and Fright, it is only fitting that we examine two very terrible, very different, but often mistaken words whose definitions are no less insidious for the error: envy and jealousy.  Such a daunting challenge requires the assistance of those who have experience investigating humankind’s inner malice.  So, aiding us in our investigation of these two “evils within” will be Detective Sebastian Castellanos and the other characters from The Evil Within.

( This won’t hurt—too much. Let’s get started, shall we? )
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Answer: What is the origin of "rigmarole"?

Monday, 3 October 2016 11:54
[identity profile] chiroho.livejournal.com
Welcome to your first post-hiatus post from Fandom Grammar. As I hope you saw a couple of days ago, the community is back to a weekly posting schedule, and we're expanding our communications beyond LiveJournal to other social media. If you have questions, please submit them as comments to this post, as we'd love to start answering them again.

This week I'll be looking at the origin of the word rigmarole, and what it means today.

( John and Harold, from Person of Interest, will go through the rigmarole of finding an answer. )
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ANSWER: Shoo-In or Shoe-In?

Monday, 2 November 2015 17:19
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SAY WHAT?: "Half a loaf is better than no bread" versus “The bread always falls butter side down."

Friday, 26 June 2015 23:22
[identity profile] achacunsagloire.livejournal.com
Happy Friday, Fandom Grammar watchers!  It sure has been an exciting past few weeks, what with the release of the new Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2 trailer.  Although it provided some juicy details for us fans to salivate over in the coming months, it did little to sate our hunger for Hunger Games goodness.

Speaking of which, this week’s food-oriented idioms inspire hunger of a different sort: “half a loaf is better than no bread” and “the bread always falls butter side down.” Let’s satisfy our hunger for knowledge below the cut:

( First up is "half a loaf is better than no bread": )
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Say What? The proof of the pudding is in the eating / Don't teach your grandmother to suck eggs

Friday, 29 May 2015 11:45
[identity profile] chiroho.livejournal.com
In this week's Say What? our two sayings are both food related but are very different in their meanings. To help demonstrate their use I'll be using characters from Person of Interest in my examples.

( How do you prove your puddings? )
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Say What? Every man has his price / A golden key can open any door

Friday, 8 May 2015 13:07
[identity profile] chiroho.livejournal.com
In this week's Say What? we'll be looking at two expressions that are related to either, depending on how you look at it, things that money can buy, or whether people's integrity is real. I'll be using the characters from Person of Interest in my examples.

( What is your price? )
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Say What?: "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy" versus "helter skelter"

Friday, 1 May 2015 23:24
[identity profile] achacunsagloire.livejournal.com
Happy Friday, Fandom Grammar watchers!  It sure has been one crazy week--which makes the topic of today's Say What? most appropriate: the idioms "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy" and "helter skelter." Thanks primarily to pop culture and events of the late 20th century, both of these idioms have come to be associated with madness and terror.  As such, we'll be traveling to the sleepy resort town of Silent Hill for help in understanding their meaning and context.

( The horror begins just under the cut: )
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ANSWER: Discussing the difference between i.e. and e.g.

Monday, 20 April 2015 09:54
[identity profile] http://users.livejournal.com/traycer_/
What is the difference between i.e. and e.g.

With examples from Stargate SG-1

( i.e. vs e.g. )
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Answers: Where does the silent "k" from "knife" and "knight" come from?

Monday, 13 April 2015 14:55
[identity profile] bluewolf458.livejournal.com
These are only two of several well-known words in English that begin with the letters kn, where the k is silent. Let's see if our friends from The Sentinel can give us any help.( Read more... )
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Answer: What is the meaning & origin of "the real McCoy?"

Monday, 12 May 2014 21:24
randi2204: McCoy with all the things he says he's not in TOS (star trek - mccoy is not your)
[personal profile] randi2204
[livejournal.com profile] cedara asked us “What’s the meaning and origin of the real McCoy?” Let’s see if we can provide an answer, with some assistance from the characters of Star Trek.

( Who’s the real McCoy? )
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Say What? Beware Greeks bearing gifts & Never look a gift horse in the mouth

Friday, 2 May 2014 18:13
randi2204: EVIL! (devil)
[personal profile] randi2204
Today’s Say What? is all about gifts.  Well, it’s about horses, too, but mostly, it’s the gifts.  Some of the characters from Pirates of the Caribbean will help us out as we take a look at beware Greeks bearing gifts and don’t look a gift horse in the mouth.

( Gifts all around! )
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Answer: What's the difference between "decry" and "descry"?

Sunday, 16 March 2014 22:28
[identity profile] whymzycal.livejournal.com
Happy Monday, and welcome back to Fandom Grammar! Today we'll be covering the difference between two similar words, decry and descry. With examples from ( Saiyuki Gaiden. )
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