Making Literacy REAL for everyone!

Words! Literacy Club

Words! Forum

Discussions around a dining table can raise some challenging questions and this one came from a Spanish guest at a friend’s dinner party on Saturday while discussing doubling conventions. Antonio thought for a moment and asked, “What about the word <excellent>?”  What indeed! Here was a word that appeared to defy the convention, until I dug a little deeper.

An email from 10-year-old Annabel was the impetus behind my setting up of the Forum. Annabel had a question about <adaptability> and why there is a letter <i> between the <b> and the <l>.

“Words!” Forum has come about in response to the questions I am asked from visitors to the site, from parents during tutorial sessions and from others who have come to learn how to use English better in their writing. 

The Forum is not just about getting answers to your questions, it is also about having your say. If you have a comment on any aspect of the English language or the way it is being taught, I would love to discuss it with you.

You can have your comments posted directly to the Forum by emailing me at: wordsliteracy@bluewin.ch

Some of Our Recent Enquiries

Understanding the denotation of words can be useful at the highest levels of our society, as this enquiry from a UN director demonstrates.

Oct, 2006: An excellent discussion on doubling conventions

Sept, 2006: “Can you give me the background on pandemic?”

Sept, 2006: Enquiry from International School of Zug

Words! Literacy Club is copyright © Lesley Catterall 2003-2007 All rights reserved.

To read the full response to the queries below, select the word image.

forum:

an assembly, meeting place... for the discussion of questions of public interest.

[Origin: 1425–75; late ME from the Latin for ‘marketplace, public place’, akin to forīs, forās  ‘outside’, foris  ‘door’]

Source: dictionary.com
adaptabilitypandemicexcellentaggressive or assertive?

I get rather peeved when I am accused of being aggressive because it is something that, in its true denotation, I am quite proud to be. What I most dislike is the inference that women in general should be more assertive and there is a very good reason for this. So which is better? To find the answer we had to do a little orthographic investigation.

March, 2007: Is it better to be aggressive or assertive?