The most common words and phrases that people stumble over:
1. Bemused means bewildered and does not mean amused. Correct: The unnecessarily complex plot left me bemused. / The silly comedy amused me.
2. Depreciate means to decrease in value and does not mean to deprecate or to disparage. Correct: My car has depreciated a lot over the years. / She deprecated his efforts.
3. Disinterested means unbiased and does not mean uninterested. Correct: The dispute should be resolved by a disinterested judge. / Why are you so uninterested in my story?
4. Flaunt means to show off and does not mean to flout. Correct: She flaunted her abs. / She flouted the rules.
5. Fortuitous means coincidental or unplanned and does not mean fortunate. Correct: Running into my old friend was fortuitous. / It was fortunate that I had a good amount of savings after losing my job.
6. Hot button means an emotional, divisive controversy and does not mean a hot topic. Correct: She tried to stay away from the hot button of abortion. / Drones are a hot topic in the tech world.
(Via The Sense of Style by Harvard cognitive scientist and linguist Steven Pinker. Read more here)
"I just spotted this footpath board in front of Howick village grocer on Picton Street," writes a reader.
Curse of the Mummy
"In 2002 I took my young sons to Disneyland," writes Ann Woolliams of Rotorua. "I smugly avoided all high rides but agreed The Mummy Tour would be safe, even for me. I scoffed at the sign 'human actors may jump out at you' and led the family in. Engulfed in darkness, the first human actor jumped out and I gave a blood-curdling scream and ran down an alley. Fumbling at the end I found a door, lifted the bar and ran out into an open plaza ... It wouldn't have been quite so embarrassing if my family had been the only ones to follow me out, but I guess the entire bus load of Japanese tourists behind them thought they were supposed to follow.
First there was the horse, now there's the Mallard duck mask.
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