FIONA DONOVAN
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My Blog
My Blog
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Grammar anomaly
| Posted on August 25, 2017 at 9:27 AM |
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Another grammar anomaly seen and sent to me by a dear friend. The following appeared on a coffee mug; i before e Except when your foreign neighbor Keith receives eight counterfeit beige sleighs from feisty caffeinated weightlifters. Weird. Borrowed from WritingaboutWriting.com. So I challenged myself to see how many random words I could come up with, using I before E, and use as many as I could in a sentence like the one above. Upon review it is the belief of the Police Chief that a dark fierce fiend was what caused the courier to die, causing my friend to suffer much grief as she seeks some brief relief by viewing the field's sadly dried up crop yield she cried deeply. I challenge you to do the same, but don't use google instead use a dictionary or thesaurus. I found 22 words and used 16. |
It's been a while
| Posted on April 25, 2016 at 12:07 PM |
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 It's been a while since I posted anything. I have actually begun writing the 3rd novel in the John O'Bryan series. As usual I'm taking my time as I don't want to give my fans a sub standard piece of work. Found this litle grammer gem to help you remember all those confusing words that sound the same. |
A comma is a comma.
| Posted on November 14, 2015 at 11:35 AM |
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 Thought that this was kinda cute and thought that I'd share it with you.Not much news to report on the new book I'm afraid, it's slow right now. My health tends to get in the way which doesn't help matters. I really need to get with John and do some in depth talking with him so that I can get going on writing again. |
word definitions
| Posted on September 17, 2014 at 11:40 AM |
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OK my fellow book addicts, great news to share. Yesterday I submitted my finished manuscript, The Beginning, to my publisher. Its going to the editor today. I'm hoping that it may be out in time for Christmas, if not it'll be January. I saw a fun quizz on the internet the other day, of course it caught my attention as it was word play related. It really made me stop and think as I had never before heard some of the words. Do you know the meaning of the following words? See how you do: 1/ Fond of company, a social individual a. Gregarious b. Perceptive 2/ Bendable; able to be manipulated without breaking a. Malleable b.Milieus 3/ To be deciphered or understood only by a few a. Ancient b. Arcane 4/ Wicked to an extreme, malicious a. Nefarious b. Pedantic 5/ Bombilate a. loud humming/buzzing b. to repeatedly bomb 6/ Jargogle a. To confuse or jumble b. to run under water 7/ Lubitorium a. lubricating device b. a service station 8/ Abusion a. Misuse; outrage;deception b. cut; bruise; open wound 9/ Characterized by a narow, often ostentatious concern for book learning and formal rules. a. Pedantic b. Pediatric |
More words
| Posted on July 1, 2014 at 6:47 PM |
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 Here is what I call a real humdinger!! If you can read it and pronounce it correctly all the way through, then you can speak English.! This is a true tongue twister! |
Word games
| Posted on June 12, 2014 at 12:01 PM |
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 Hi Folks, just another brain twister that I came across. You know how I love word play. I am working hard on the sequel to The Pick Up. I'm hoping to have it published before this years end. Fingers crossed. |
The difficulties of the English Language
| Posted on May 18, 2014 at 12:35 PM |
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 For those of us who struggle with all the words that sound the same, but have different meanings, here's a little help. |
More word puzzles
| Posted on November 12, 2013 at 7:05 PM |
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Hi there, I know its been a while but I'm back into writing mode again, working feverishly on the second book. Anyway, to keep you going for a while, have you heard of PARAPROSDOKIANS? Neither had I. Apparently Winston Churchill loved them. It is a figure of speech in which the latter part of a sentenc or phrase is suprising or unexpected. Here are a fw to tickle your fancy; Where there is a will, I want to be in it. Since light travels faster than sound, some people appear bright until you hear them speak. They begi the evening news with "Good Evening", the proceed to tell you hy it isn't. I thought that I wanted a career. Turns out I just wanted pay checks. In filling out an appliction, where it says,'In case of emergency, notify' I put DOCTOR. Change is inevitable, except from a vending machine. Going to church doesn't makeyou any more of a Christian than standing in a garage makes you a car. Where there's a will, there ae relatives. Hope you enjoyed a chuckle. Ta Ta for now. |
word play
| Posted on October 12, 2013 at 6:00 PM |
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So, we are constantly being told how important it is to spell our words correctly. In school we were bombarded with spelling tests and teachers red pen correcting our work. Well do I have something that will not only dispute the issue but will knock it clearly out of the park. I really like this one. Believe me you can read this; I cdnuolt blvelee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg. The phaonmneal pwoer of the hmuan mnid aoccdrnig to rscheearch taem at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoatnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit aporbelm. This is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey ltteer by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. This is known as TYPOGLYCEMIA. |
The English Language as we know it
| Posted on September 24, 2013 at 10:29 PM |
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Being a writer I've always had a facination with the English language. Let's face it, it can be a crazy language. Here are a few examples of what I mean, no wonder it's the hardest language to learn with all it's paradoxes. There is no egg in eggplant, nor ham in hamburger. No apple or pine in pineapple. English muffins weren't invented in England, or French fries in France. Sweetmeats are candies while sweetbreads, which aren't sweet, are meat. Quicksand can work slowly Boxing rings are square AGuinea pig is neither from Guinea nor is it a pig. Why is it that writers write but fingers don't fing? Grocers don't groce and hammers don't ham? If the plural of tooth is teeth, why is the plural of booth beeth? One goose, 2 geese. So one moose, 2 meese? If teachers taught, why didn't preachers praught? If a vegetarian eats vegetables, what does a humanitarian eat? How can a slim chance be the same as a fat chance? While a wise man and a wise guy are opposites? You have to marvel at the unique lunacy of a language in which your house can burn up as it burns down, in which you fill in a form by filling it out and in which, an alarm goes off by going on. English was invented by people, not computers, and it reflects the creativity of the human race, which, of course, is not a race at all. That is why when the stars are out they are visible, but when the lights go out, they are invisible. Is it just me or does our language contradict itself constantly? |