Words for Thinking, Learning, and Communication
A speaker implies. A listener infers. Those two verbs describe opposite ends of the same exchange, and mixing them up is one of the most common errors in careful English — common enough that editors have been complaining about it for a century. The larger point is that words about thinking and communicating are not […]
Words for Rules and Authority
Official language runs on a small set of verbs. A rule gets created, applied, lifted for certain people, or wiped out entirely, and English has a separate word for each of those actions. Abolish, authorize, compel, exempt, mandate, and revoke are the six that do most of the work. They are easy to confuse because […]