Mind your language

Dustcart

4 August 2016 1:00 pm

Are we seeing the end of dustcarts? I don’t mean that those noisy, noisome vehicles will cease roaring at the…

Wow!

30 July 2016 9:00 am

Veronica has become quite an addict of Twitter, just as the rest of the young are forsaking it. ‘It’s easy…

Wow!

28 July 2016 1:00 pm

Veronica has become quite an addict of Twitter, just as the rest of the young are forsaking it. ‘It’s easy…

Definitions

23 July 2016 9:00 am

What is a bee? ‘A well-known insect,’ says the Oxford English Dictionary, passing the buck rather. Similarly, an ash is…

Definitions

21 July 2016 1:00 pm

What is a bee? ‘A well-known insect,’ says the Oxford English Dictionary, passing the buck rather. Similarly, an ash is…

Gig economy

16 July 2016 9:00 am

In the same song where the brilliant lyricist Ian Dury gave the world the couplet, ‘I could be a writer…

Gig economy

14 July 2016 1:00 pm

In the same song where the brilliant lyricist Ian Dury gave the world the couplet, ‘I could be a writer…

Baby with the bathwater

9 July 2016 9:00 am

Bustle, an online newspaper ‘for and by women’, has published ‘six common phrases you didn’t know were sexist (that you’ll…

Baby with the bathwater

7 July 2016 1:00 pm

Bustle, an online newspaper ‘for and by women’, has published ‘six common phrases you didn’t know were sexist (that you’ll…

Referendums

2 July 2016 9:00 am

‘One referendum, two referenda,’ chanted my husband. ‘No, no, it’s a gerund. The English plural is referendums,’ interrupted Veronica, red…

Referendums

30 June 2016 1:00 pm

‘One referendum, two referenda,’ chanted my husband. ‘No, no, it’s a gerund. The English plural is referendums,’ interrupted Veronica, red…

Eight hard words

25 June 2016 3:00 am

I was humiliated in trying to make out the meaning of eight hard words. See how you do: claustration, edulcoration,…

Eight hard words

23 June 2016 2:00 am

I was humiliated in trying to make out the meaning of eight hard words. See how you do: claustration, edulcoration,…

Little England

18 June 2016 9:00 am

In the art of insult, the sting lies in the adjective, no matter how derogatory the noun. So it is…

Little England

16 June 2016 1:00 pm

In the art of insult, the sting lies in the adjective, no matter how derogatory the noun. So it is…

How’s your father

9 June 2016 1:00 pm

‘Very funny, I don’t think,’ said my husband when I mentioned Harry Tate, although Tate died in 1940 and even…

Include me out of this grammatical atrocity

4 June 2016 9:00 am

Just as, in writing, many people use an exclamation mark to indicate that they have made a joke, so there…

Including

2 June 2016 1:00 pm

Just as, in writing, many people use an exclamation mark to indicate that they have made a joke, so there…

Word of the week: 'concept'

28 May 2016 9:00 am

‘It was nothing special, but it was a pub,’ said my husband, looking up from his copy of Bar magazine…

Concept

26 May 2016 1:00 pm

‘It was nothing special, but it was a pub,’ said my husband, looking up from his copy of Bar magazine…

Are exclamation marks still vulgar? Yes!

21 May 2016 9:00 am

‘Like eating in the street,’ said my husband. Astonishing! He’d said something not only coherent in itself but also connected…

Exclamation marks

19 May 2016 1:00 pm

‘Like eating in the street,’ said my husband. Astonishing! He’d said something not only coherent in itself but also connected…

The true meaning of Sadiq Khan’s claims to virtue

14 May 2016 9:00 am

The new Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, said he wanted ‘the most transparent, honest and accessible administration London has ever…

Sadiq Khan’s virtues

12 May 2016 1:00 pm

The new Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, said he wanted ‘the most transparent, honest and accessible administration London has ever…

The dirty jokes that tell us how Shakespeare spoke

7 May 2016 9:00 am

Sir John Harington told a story in 1596 about a lady at court asking her gentlewoman to inquire which Mr…