The books in this bite-sized new series contain no complicated techniques or tricky materials, making them ideal for the busy, the time-pressured or the merely curious. Foolproof Spelling is a short, simple and to-the-point guide to learning the basic principles of correct spelling in a few short steps. Whether to brush up on writing skills, do better in exams or simply to feel more confident, in just 96 pages you will discover how to master the essential rules and feel more in control of ...

This practical guide to spelling will help you to feel more confident by teaching you simple strategies to boost your ability. You'll learn which words are commonly misspelt and how to avoid falling into these traps. With simple rules and guidelines to follow, you'll discover when it's acceptable to misspell and when it's not, and you will finally learn how to enjoy - rather than fear - the written word. With plenty of exercises, crosswords and games to practice and perfect your skills, yo...

Essential English Grammar is packed with easy-to-follow explanations and summaries, practical tips on how to avoid common grammar mistakes, interesting facts about the historical and regional use of English and a special section on punctuation. This clear, straightforward guide to modern English grammar will help you to improve your knowledge of the language and perfect your grammar.NOT GOT MUCH TIME?One, five and ten-minute introductions to key principles to get you starte...

**#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The “mercilessly entertaining” (Vanity Fair) instant classic “about the nature of identity and the terrible secrets that can survive and thrive in even the most intimate relationships” (Lev Grossman, Time “One of the Best Books of the Decade”)—now featuring never-before-published deleted scenesTHE NEW YORK TIMES’S BEST THRILLER OF THE CENTURY • ONE OF TIME'S 100 BEST MYSTERY AND THRILLER BOOKS OF ...

For word nerds and grammar geeks, a witty guide to the most commonly mispronounced words, along with their correct pronunciations and pithy forays into their fascinating etymologies and histories of use and misuse.With wit and good humor, this handy little book not only saves us from sticky linguistic situations but also provides fascinating cocktail-party-ready anecdotes. Entries reveal how to pronounce boatswain like an old salt on the deck of a ship, trompe ...

Collins Easy Learning English Spelling is suitable for anyone who wants to improve their spelling and write more accurately and impressively. By describing the important features of English spelling and rules to use, this e-book makes spelling easy.Using simple explanations and corpus examples, Collins Easy Learning English Spelling describes the patterns and rules you need to understand and predict how words are spelt in English. It also provides practical advice on learning words...

'My first English lesson was grammar with the terrifying Mrs Petrie. She spent the entire time marching up and down the classroom, thwacking various items of school furniture with a ruler while she banged on about the ING part of the verb. I sat there, vibrating with fear, desperately trying to figure out what on earth she could mean. Irregular Negative Gerund? Intransitive Nominative Genitive? It was only years later, when I was teaching English to foreign students, that I realised that E...

How does good writing stand out?If its purpose is to convey facts, findings, or instructions, it need be read only once for its content to be clear. If its purpose is to entertain or to provoke thought, it makes readers want to come back for more.Revised and updated, this guide covers four essential aspects of good writing:• Individual words - spelling variations, hyphenation, frequently confused homonyms, frequently misused words a...

It's important in our daily lives for us to write clear English which is easily understood. If we get the basics wrong, our words may be misinterpreted and cause confusion. To make sure our written words convey our exact meanings, we need to understand the fundamentals of the English language, such as the parts of speech, how sentences and paragraphs are constructed, and the correct use of punctuation. We also need to spell the words correctly!This indispensable reference guide to ...

‘Let’s eat Grandma’ OR ‘Let’s eat, Grandma’?This fun yet informative book offers bite-sized tips and advice on everything you need to know about grammar – including common misspellings, how to use punctuation correctly, applying the right tense – and will turn you from a logophobe to a grammarphile in no time!

Decode the mystery of English grammar to add polish to your papers, emails, business letters, and moreEnglish Grammar Demystified teaches the fundamentals of the subject in an easy, step-by-step approach that allows you to learn at your own pace. With help from this book, you will understand the parts of speech, learn to use punctuation correctly, master verb tenses, spot and avoid common grammatical errors, and improve your overall sentence structures.

Mark Forsyth - author of the Sunday Times Number One bestseller The Etymologicon - reveals in this essay, specially commissioned for Independent Booksellers Week, the most valuable thing about a really good bookshop.Along the way he considers the wisdom of Donald Rumsfeld, naughty French photographs, why Elizabeth Bennet and Mr Darcy would never have met online, and why only a bookshop can give you that precious thing - what you never knew you wer...