by Cole Salao
“Loaded language” describes words or phrases that imply more than their literal meanings. It is used to elicit a strong emotional response, whether positive or negative, from the reader or listener. People are largely driven by their emotions. As such,...
by Cole Salao
Contronyms (also called autoantonyms and Janus words) are words with two meanings that contradict each other. Think of them as a combination of a homonym (words with similar spelling or pronunciation) and an antonym (words with opposite meaning). A contronym is...
by Yen Cabag
Metonymy is a literary device wherein you refer to an idea or object by using another idea or object closely associated with that word. In the literal sense, metonymy means “a change of name.” For example, a metonymy for the movies is “silver screen,” a term...
by Yen Cabag
When communicating in English, you may notice that not all words fall neatly into the eight parts of speech (which are nouns, pronouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, prepositions, conjunctions, and interjections). One of these words that falls outside those eight...
by Yen Cabag |
The most effective communication is clear and concise. That’s why our teachers told us to make sure we don’t repeat the same words over and over again, and to think up synonyms instead. But when you study a piece of powerful writing or speech, you’ll...
by Yen Cabag
The English language is full of pairs of words that seem similar, yet reveal how easily they can confuse its speakers. One such pair is whoever and whomever—how do we know when to use each? To give you a solid understanding of when to use whoever or whomever, let’s...
