by Heather Chetwynd | Jul 22, 2011 | Voice to Word Post - Other
I received this recently in one of those anonymous emails that get passed around. Some words seem pretty much the same until you change the context! People say there is no difference between COMPLETE & FINISHED. But there is. When you marry the right one, you are...
by Heather Chetwynd | Jun 23, 2011 | Language Training
One day my daughter was trying to tell me something but, as teenagers are prone to do, she was mumbling so badly, I couldn’t understand half of what she was saying. I said with a smile, “You should join my pronunciation class.” Her response was to speak with extreme...
by Heather Chetwynd | May 24, 2011 | Culture and Values
Like the police officer who confused PASSED AWAY with PASSED OUT (see the joke “Idiom Danger” below,) many of us mix up English expressions. For example, we may blend two idioms, mix up the preposition in a phrasal verb, incorrectly hear the words in an expression or...
by Heather Chetwynd | Jan 23, 2011 | Culture and Values
Have you noticed that some people sound less authoritative than others? It could be because they are unsure, hesitant or speaking too quietly for the context. But commonly the reason is the intonation being used – what we call “uptalk.” Also known as “upspeak,”...
by Heather Chetwynd | Nov 11, 2010 | Culture and Values
I was on the phone recently getting some tech support. As is often the case, I was talking with someone from India. I wanted to know whether I was doing something correctly and, after explaining it to the technician, I asked if I was doing it in the right way. “Of...
