Spelling PSA: Easily Confused Words Edition

discreet, adj.: 1. Careful and prudent in one’s speech or actions, especially in order to keep something confidential or to avoid embarrassment. 1.1 Intentionally unobtrusive (“a discreet cough”)

discrete, adj.: Individually separate and distinct.

(Definitions from Oxford Dictionaries.)

The words are related, but the two different spellings have been assigned to these distinct meanings in English. I mostly see people use “discrete” when they mean “discreet,” just because people are more likely to want “discreet” (especially in fanfiction), but I have seen the confusion going both ways.

Another spelling/grammar PSA

philosopherking1887:

Millennium, meaning a single period of 1000 years, has 2 l’s AND 2 n’s. That’s because it’s derived from the Latin words mille, meaning “thousand,” and annus, meaning “year” (not anus, which means “ring” or… something else. Or “old woman,” but that’s unrelated).

The plural of millennium is millennia, which also has both 2 l’s and 2 n’s. This is because millennium is a second-declension neuter noun in Latin, and the plurals of neuter nouns end in -a. Other examples of this that have been borrowed into English include datum (sing.)/ data (pl.), addendum/ addenda, memorandum/ memoranda, forum/ fora (though I don’t think anyone uses that plural anymore). (Incidentally, opera is the plural of the 3rd-declension neuter noun opus.)

It may be that the language is changing so that millennia becomes the singular form, and if/when it does I will be a relic as with the transitive lay/ intransitive lie distinction… but in the meantime I’m going to be an obnoxious borrowed Latin grammar enforcer.

Another spelling/grammar PSA

Millennium, meaning a single period of 1000 years, has 2 l’s AND 2 n’s. That’s because it’s derived from the Latin words mille, meaning “thousand,” and annus, meaning “year” (not anus, which means “ring” or… something else. Or “old woman,” but that’s unrelated).

The plural of millennium is millennia, which also has both 2 l’s and 2 n’s. This is because millennium is a second-declension neuter noun in Latin, and the plurals of neuter nouns end in -a. Other examples of this that have been borrowed into English include datum (sing.)/ data (pl.), addendum/ addenda, memorandum/ memoranda, forum/ fora (though I don’t think anyone uses that plural anymore). (Incidentally, opera is the plural of the 3rd-declension neuter noun opus.)

It may be that the language is changing so that millennia becomes the singular form, and if/when it does I will be a relic as with the transitive lay/ intransitive lie distinction… but in the meantime I’m going to be an obnoxious borrowed Latin grammar enforcer.

Spelling PSA especially for people in the Thor fandom, but for everyone really (including writers for Time Magazine, jfc):

Lightning is the thing you see before you hear thunder. Lightening is an instance of something becoming lighter. Lightning does involve the lightening of the sky, but they’re not the same thing.