STAR TS Translation Services Blog

If you are struggling to choose which female honorific is the most appropriate to address the modern woman, be sure that you are not the only one. It is not an easy question.

Below we have detailed an explanation of Mrs., Ms., and Miss that should help you to address ladies correctly.

The three nouns Mrs., Ms., and Miss appeared in the 17th century and come from the female English title Mistress which was used to refer to all women. The full stop of the abbreviations is generally used in the USA and Canada whereas in the UK the abbreviations are commonly written without any full stop.

Ms. is slightly old fashioned compared to the two other titles but has been revived in the 20th century.  This English honorific is mostly used in business and public life to address a lady. This is generally used when her marital status is unknown. It is neutral regarding marital status. The plural for Ms. can be  Mss. or either Mses.. You may also use the French plural “Mesdames” abbreviated Mmes.

Miss is used to refer to an unmarried woman, or girls under eighteen in some countries. Miss alone is frequently used by schoolchildren to address a female teacher no matter what her marital status is. The plural for Miss is Misses or you may use the traditional French “Mesdemoiselles”.

Finally, Mrs. is strictly used to refer to a married woman. For the plural you can use the French plural “Mesdames” abbreviated Mmes like for Ms.

Some women may have a preference for Ms., Miss, or Mrs. and if a woman has a professional title, it is more appropriate to use that title such as Doctor, Professor, or Captain instead of Ms., Miss, or Mrs.

So what is your favorite Mrs., Ms., and Miss?

STAR Translation Services

English is one of the most spoken languages in the world. Just how good are we in using it though? Most of the time we’re all really good, but there are a few words that just drive us all mad and we constantly mix them up.

As we proofread documents we come across a lot of common misunderstandings in the use of certain English words.

Here is a little infographic we designed to help eliminate some of the common errors we come across everyday.

Did we miss anything? Drop us a line with your favourite errors.

How good are you?

Infographic - 7 common English mistakes

STAR Translation Services provides proofreading services in multiple languages.

Among or Amongst ?

We are often asked what the difference is between two words and which is most appropriate for a given text.

So this Monday our question is: Among or Amongst, which is correct?

For once it is an easy answer: You can actually use both of them. Either “amongst” and “among” is correct.

“Among” seems to be more appropriate and popular in modern writing. Indeed, when writing news “among” appears the most used one.

On the other hand, you can use amongst when writing fiction like fairytales.  It is a bit old-fashioned so it suits the context and style of fictional stories.

By STAR Translation Services

The following information provides a list of suffixes which are common to the English language.

Suffixes are added to the end of a word to change its meaning.  Common Suffix word endings are:

-ant                                -ise                           -ful

-ent                                -ist                            -ness

-ible                               -fy                             -ism

-ing                                -ly                              -ment

- ize                              -able                          -ation

Adding a suffix may change the spelling of the preceding word. If a word ends in a y that is preceded by a consonant (happy, Beauty), the y changes to i:

happy               happiness

beauty             beautiful

But if the y is preceded by a vowel, the y remains: I envy your enjoyment of the situation.  It obviously caused you much merriment. And if the original word ends in an e, this is usually dropped: You are the most lovable but not at all sensible.

Abuse/Misuse/Disabuse

To abuse something means to treat it so badly that you damage it.

To misuse something means to use it wrongly.

To disabuse someone or something means to show them that their thinking is wrong.

Affect/Effect

Affect is a verb and effect is a noun. So you affect something by having an effect on it.  (The exception is if you effect a change; that is, cause a change to happen.)

USEFUL MNEMONIC:

RAVEN , that is: Remember Affect Verb Effect Noun

Among/Between

Use between for two things; among for more than two.

Between you and me, there’s no way we can divide these five loaves and two fishes among our five thousand guests.

Useful mnemonic:

beTween = Two

aMong = Many

Pluralizing words isn’t always a simple matter of adding an s on the end, and switching a word from masculine form to feminine form isn’t always a matter of adding -ess.

• The words alms, amends, cattle, clothes, doldrums, ides, pants, pliers, scissors, shorts, smithereens, and trousers are all plural but have no singular form.

Many words are both singular and plural.  Here are a few: Scissors, Species, you, pants, deer, moose, and sheep, are spelled and pronounced the same way in both their singular and plural forms.    Example: “There stands a sheep” and plural as in, “Look at that flock of sheep.”  More interesting words with this property are congeries, kudos, premises, shambles, series, and species. Fish can be both singular and plural, yet fishes is also a correct pluralization of the word.

• The words bourgeois, chassis, corps, faux pas, gardebras, précis, pince-nez, and rendezvous all have plurals spelled the same way but pronounced differently.

Dangling Modifiers, Misplaced modifiers are all expressions that grammarians toss into the conversation on purpose to confuse and embarrass the rest of us.  So what do they mean? Well consider a sentence such as:

Walking down the high street, the new shoe shop caught her eye.

We all probably know what is meant, but grammatically what this sentence says is that the shoe shop was walking down the street.  The participle is dangling (or misplaced or misrelated) because it seems to relate to the wrong part of the sentence.  As she was walking down the high street, the new shoe shop caught her eye is correct and unambiguous.  As is Walking down the high street, she was thrilled to notice the new shoe shop.

RULE 1:

The (unexpressed subject of the participle clause – that is, the person or thing that is walking down the high street – should have the same subject as the (expressed) subject of the main clause: she.

RULE 2:

The modifying clause or phrase (walking down the high street) should always come as near as possible to the noun or pronoun it modifies.

Careless positioning of all sorts of modifiers can cause amusement, confusion or actions for libel:

• John still attends his local church where he was married regularly.
• We will continue to sell goods to people in plastic wrapping.
• She was taken to hospital after being bitten by a spider in a bathing suit.
• The bride was given away by her father wearing her mother’s wedding dress
• Q: Doctor, how many autopsies have you performed on dead people? A: All my autopsies are performed on dead people.

Another great example that I personally love is:

‘I once shot an elephant in my pyjamas. How he got into my pyjamas I’ll never know.’

Everyday and every day are frequently confused in English. Here is a short explanation of the difference between the two:

Everyday (adjective) means ordinary or normal.

-She chose to wear her everyday clothes to the funeral.

Every day (determiner + noun)  means “each day.”

-He is late for work every day.

Which English plural word is changed to a singular word when you add an ‘s’ ?
Answer at the bottom of post.

Whilst you are thinking about this little puzzle you might like to consider the correct usage of Less and Fewer, Amount and Number

These words cause problems for many native speakers of English.

The incorrect usage can be seen everywhere, from car advertisements to supermarkets. A classic example would be the “10 items or less” signs in supermarkets, which should read “10 items or fewer” or better still “Fewer than 10 items”.

How do you know which to use? Here is a simple explanation.

Less:
The word “less” is used for items that cannot easily be counted: “We have less milk than we thought”; “The balloon contains less air than yesterday”; “The cleaning took less time than I expected”. These things can be measured, but not counted as such.

Fewer:
“Fewer” is for things that can be counted: “The milkman delivered fewer bottles of milk than we requested”; “There are fewer balloons now than yesterday as some have burst”; “I have to clean fewer rooms now that I live in a smaller house”.

The words “amount” and “number” work in exactly the same way.

Amount:
“Amount” is used for items that can’t be counted e.g “He tries to eat only a small amount of cheese”;”He bought a huge amount of food for the party”; “She only spends a small amount of money on cleaning products” .

Number:
“Number” is for things that can be counted: “She works with a large number of cheese makers”; “He invited a small number of people to his birthday”; “She prefers not to use a large number of cleaning products.”

Answer:
Princes, the plural of prince. When you add an ‘s’ it becomes princess, a singular word.