If you still need a cheatsheet to survive, you may borrow mine hyphen: used in compounds (open, closed and hyphenated compounds) en dash: range em dash: substitute for interrupted punctuation marks like comma, semi-colon and adding spurs to the linguistic flow. As Soks mentioned the explanation on rules and guidelines is 'anything but quick'. When in doubt, I use different graphical notation to spruce my writing clearing the dust settled on some of the puppy-eyed keys pining for touch Very resourceful links, Soks. Thanks.
The one in the mirror is a mandrill! You are right, thinking about it, purple and green - scarf and boots, scrunchies and earring, belt and buckle may turn few heads. Hmm..it seems to be a vivid combination. Speaking of colors - how to make colors more colorful though language? Blue - is that azure, capri or cyan? Green - teal , verdigris, chartreuse? Red - cerise, carmine, crimson? And if these words don't simmer the blood of your fiend the mention of incarnadine should. It would incarnadine him! Bright red, originally the color of flesh but these days melted to color of blood is something that will hurtle few imprecations on the usage of this poetic word. From Latin incarnare, from English incarnate, can a color get more descriptive than this?
Irritated, wait till you shake a caxirola ? Pronounced as ca-shi-rola, it is Brazilian's take on South African's vuvuzela. Marketed for 2014 FIFA World Cup, it is a hand held prolated rattle that looks like a er...things that you don't want to throw at each other. Would the games still be the same without the Mexican Wave, Vuvuzela and Caxirola? May be, but not the auriculars of the Bard's language.
'No time' - is the unassailable excuse we thrust on the face of our well-wishers when they suggest, recommend must-do things. I've used it several times while watching re-runs of BBT, painting nail color like frenzied Picasso on my toe-nails and drawing elaborate bath with lavender and Style magazine featured essential oil of the season which reduces the visibility of ugly but invisible skeins in the dermal layer. When it comes to enhancing vocabulary, it is only felicitous to utter this excuse askance in vehemence, but with the the jet-paced, blink-and-miss lifestyles we are leading, where do we look for word stock - yes , yes I know we have no time to go and look for it, expecting it to crawl on all 26 legs and come to us? You are in for luck as it does not crawl but gallops towards us! As a kid, I might have said 'tella' before 'mamma' or 'dada' as that was the age of entertainment boxed in 21" and I used to wake up at five in the morning even on sundays to watch my favourite cartoon 'Pinky and the Brain'. In this era, subtitles on television is a boon. Enjoy entertainment and education like never before when you watch your favourite shows with concurrent text on the screen to represent the onomatopoeic sounds, titles of incidental music, words that befuddle yet add to your linguistic cache. Next time you visit a hair salon, shave and haircut is not scraped on your body but will be playing in your ears with other stinger, loop and nameless overtures you always wanted to find out...ah huh ..only if you turned on the text. Do you read your emails, pay attention when people talk? There will be atleast one logophile in your team who will infiltrate unsuspecting and o'ye hard-working run-by-the clock work force. Some of the rhythmic words , funny phrases and head-jerking idioms were quoted by my colleagues. Whoa..throw more epicycles, where, what, how ..pay attention in the meeting rooms as the walls ricochet with vocable booty, but don't forget to invite that language bully- it is easier to entrap by listing zweiback for refreshments instead of biscuits in meeting invite to lure from the camped cubicle. Lord created Eden, woman and then expelled them to an even better land - super-markets! At times, I'm amazed at the products and innovative advertising. Tidbits on production line, origin, ingredients and trivia like 'I have pretty fetlocks' on a juice carton. You don't have to run to a dictionary to unlock the meaning as the accompanying picture hints that fetlocks are tuft of hair on the lower part of the leg of a horse. Can learning get more time-saving than cultivating observant eye, tuned ear, curious mind in daily routine and you don't even need to flip a page or portal with your hectic lifestyle.
Dear Uttaraa, For your info, to learn afresh, I don't even need an observant eye, tuned ear or an observant mind! All that can be spared for all I need to do is read your posts and I am enriched by leaps and bounds!:exactly: L, Kamla
Do I need an advert in yell.com to hire a commentern to toss a repartee at you like a cyber cyrano (profession hired to write matrimonial profiles) or cyber [résumé writer] (to be filled by the incarnate Cosimo wandering in Aspen art gallery or Barefoot Contessa baking cinnamon buns when they return to EM) because no matter how much I scratch my head, I fail short of words when you do that on me ..(make me blush)
Dear Uttaraa, thank you for that cheat sheet. I do not know why, I am in no mood to learn about those commas and hyphens and things like that! Oh wait I think I do - I am usually struggling with understanding that business paper and will worry too much if I have to pay attention to another aspect. These are the times when I can clearly step back from myself and muse over how different I am now and actually feel happy when acceptance dawns! Well I went off there again. This last piece that you have posted is simply beautiful. I agree with you, just being observant can make learning so much fun and it was just that that told me that my DS knew alphabet.....well when he was a year and half! Before going off at a tangent again, what you wrote reminded me of what I heard on a business news channel. Speaking about an idea, the anchor used the phrase "It was like catching lightening in a bottle". Makes sense to use that when we really don't know how to articulate just something humongous happened! Urban Dictionary offers meanings that go like this and thanks to the last explanation, got to read up a little more about BB King! "lightning in a bottle Capturing something powerful and elusive and then being able to hold it and show it to the world. Performing a rare feat. A moment of creative brilliance. Also a movie about BB King." You are right, there is always something to learn! Can't stop loving that learning!
and things like hyphenated adjectival words and open compounded nouns e.g 'round pound' is noun where as round-pound is adjective. Grrr..those prescriptivists! No misspelling of initialism of Burger King but golly it is B.B King!
'Lightning in a bottle' - nice phrase to shoot on someone and swagger like David Blaine. I've already marked the victim to scribble on FB wall tomorrow
Srama, After posting here, checked in 'The Elements of Style' by William Strunk Jr. on hyphen usage. A hyphen is usually required for compound adjective (when two or more words are combined). Download the book (free) from Apple store and refer page #116. Nice read with cuppa chocolate while watching Sheldon! Words are attracted as open compounds, court in hyphens and finally married as closed compounds! The music playing is Spice Girls - 'Two become One' - on my laptop for the lovey-dovey euphuistic wording
