Category: Word lovers

Our famous Q&As!
Dean Koorey

Q&A: Supposedly vs Supposably

Each week here at the Australian Writers’ Centre, we dissect and discuss, contort and retort, ask and gasp at the English language and all its rules, regulations and ridiculousness. It’s a celebration of language, masquerading as a passive-aggressive whinge about words and weirdness. This week, is “supposably” a real word?

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Our famous Q&As!
Dean Koorey

Q&A: Past tense vs Past participle

Each week here at the Australian Writers’ Centre, we dissect and discuss, contort and retort, ask and gasp at the English language and all its rules, regulations and ridiculousness. It’s a celebration of language, masquerading as a passive-aggressive whinge about words and weirdness. This week, things get tense… real tense…

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Word lovers
Australian Writers' Centre Team

Meet the 10 new dictionary words of 2025

Recently Oxford Dictionaries released this year’s list of new words that due to popular use had made their way into the dictionary; a validation of their mainstream (or at least very fervent niche) existence. We’re talking about terms such as “manspreading”, “wine o’clock”, “mic drop” and “awesomesauce”. It can be hard

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Our famous Q&As!
Dean Koorey

Q&A: WHICH vs THAT? And a zebra.

Each week here at the Australian Writers’ Centre, we dissect and discuss, contort and retort, ask and gasp at the English language and all its rules, regulations and ridiculousness. It’s a celebration of language, masquerading as a passive-aggressive whinge about words and weirdness. This week, a real crowd favourite… WHICH

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Our famous Q&As!
Dean Koorey

Q&A: Relative pronouns – Who vs That?

Each week, we chat about the quirks & anomalies of the English language. And there are many to choose from… Q: Hi AWC, this week we have a question from Carolyn. A: Carolyn? Who’s that? Q: Precisely! A: Huh? Q: WHO and THAT! She was keen to find out about

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Word lovers
Australian Writers' Centre Team

23 words you didn’t know were named after people

1. Saxophone Back in 1846, a Belgian by the name of Adolphe Sax decided to invent the sort of musical instrument he wanted to see – something with a little Sax-appeal. The result was a very cool looking single-reed woodwind design, a conical bore, and all that jazz. Along with

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Our famous Q&As!
Dean Koorey

Q&A – Story vs Storey?

Each week, we chat about the quirks & anomalies of the English language. In fact, if English were a building, it would have many storeys and many stories to tell… Q: Well hello there AWC. A: How’s your week been? Q: I’ve been helping a friend move house. The elevator

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Grammar and Punctuation
Dean Koorey

Q&A: Quotes and punctuation – evil or not?

Each week, we chat about the quirks & anomalies of the “English” language. Like how you’re now thinking we’re being ironic because we put quote marks around English… Q: Hi AWC – I’d like to ask you about quotation marks. A: What’s your question? Q: Actually, just tell me everything

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Our famous Q&As!
Dean Koorey

Q&A: Fully sick: nauseous vs nauseated vs nauseating?

Each week, we chat about the quirks & anomalies of the English language. And sometimes, it really is enough to make you sick… Q: Hi AWC. A: Ah, there you are. Where have you been? Q: I’ve been rather sick lately. A: We’re sorry to hear that. Q: Actually, that’s

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Our famous Q&As!
Dean Koorey

Q&A: Who vs Whom? “Whom ya gonna call?”

Each week, we chat about the quirks & anomalies of the English language. And sometimes that means discussing why we disobey the rules because it just sounds better… Q: Hello. I need to know about “who” and “whom”. I’ve heard conflicting opinions. A: From whom have you heard that? Q:

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Our famous Q&As!
Dean Koorey

Q&A: Collectable OR Collectible?

Each week, we chat about the quirks & anomalies of the English language. And this week’s one could become quite the collectable item… Q: Hello AWC, I was watching that new show Storage Antique Pawn Shop Roadshow Wars last night. A: That’s not a show. Q: Well, something like that.

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Our famous Q&As!
Dean Koorey

Q&A: The natural order of things like adjectives

Each week, we chat about the quirks & anomalies of the English language. And this one moves in an orderly fashion for a change… Q: Hello AWC, we had a question recently from Marianne. A: Hello Marianne. Q: Her grammar gripe goes something like this: “Why do we say ‘the

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Our famous Q&As!
Dean Koorey

Q&A: “More than” vs “Over”

Each week, we chat about the quirks & anomalies of the English language. There are, after all, more than 1000 of them. Or is that over 1000? Now we’re confused… Q: Hi AWC, I read somewhere that you’ve produced more than 24,000 graduates since you started. A: Sounds about right.

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picture of magnetic alphebet
Word lovers
Australian Writers' Centre Team

11 words you can stop misspelling

The modern age has given us amazing tools like spell check, but that’s a little like having an excellent team of paramedics always waiting at the base of the cliff (surely a dubious use of medical resources?). What happens if you can’t use ‘spell check’? Wouldn’t you rather not leap

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Our famous Q&As!
Dean Koorey

Q&A: Analogue vs Analog?

Each week, we chat about the quirks & anomalies of the English language. Although this week it’s more analogy than anomaly… Q: Hi AWC, what time is it? A: It’s GRAMMAR TIME! Q: Ah, okay. NO. That’s very cute, but I actually want to know what the actual time is.

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Grammar and Punctuation
Dean Koorey

Q&A: The Oxford/Harvard/Serial comma explained

Each week, we chat about the quirks, oddities and anomalies of the English language. Like whether we needed a comma after the word “oddities” in that last sentence… Q: Hi AWC, one of our readers recently wrote to us to say that her mother always said that you should never

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Grammar and Punctuation
Dean Koorey

Q&A: Is it Winter or winter? Capitalising the seasons…

Each week, we chat about the quirks & anomalies of the English language – meaning we’ll have enough material to last us another century. This week, it’s the winter of our discontent… Q: Hi AWC, is it cold or is it just me? A: It’s winter, so we’re pretty sure

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Our famous Q&As!
Dean Koorey

Q&A: Percentages: Is it fewer than or less than?

Each week, we chat about the quirks & anomalies of the English language. And this week, we are 100% sure that would like to know about percentages and fewer/less… Q: Hi AWC, I was wondering if we’d ever discussed the whole fewer vs less thing? A: We sure have –

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