It's amazing how many homonyms (aka homophones) there are in English - and probably other languages too, but English is the one that concerns us. Let's see if our friends from The Sentinel can give us a little help to distinguish between aisle and isle. ( Read more... )

Both of our sayings today are British in origin. Luckily, Blair from The Sentinel is an anthropologist and has travelled widely, so he can give us some help.( Read more... )

These are only two of several well-known words in English that begin with the letters kn, where the k is silent. Let's see if our friends from The Sentinel can give us any help.( Read more... )

This is a perfect example of how a phrase or sentence can have two completely opposite meanings. Let's call on our Sentinel friends for a little help.( Read more... )

Today, with a little help from our Sentinel friends, we're looking at two food-oriented sayings. ( Read more... )

Not many people have travelled really extensively, so when it comes to writing a story set in a specific area, especially in a country foreign to you, it's almost certain you've never visited it. Let's get a bit of help from our Sentinel friends.( Read more... )

When I was at school, we were given a simple rule - use 'who' (or whom) for people, 'that' for animals, and 'which' or 'that' for places or things. Simple. Straightforward. A rule I still use. But do our Sentinel friends use it?( Read more... )

The apostrophe (') may be the simplest and yet most frequently misused mark of punctuation in English. It was introduced into English in the 16th century from Latin and Greek, in which it served to mark the loss of letters ( Read more... )

Although they might look quite similar, there is a big difference in the meanings of recant and recount. Let's see if our friends in The Sentinel can help. ( Read more... )

These two verbs - as well as immigration and emigration, immigrant and emigrant, the nouns formed from the verbs - are opposite sides of the same coin. Let's see if our friends in The Sentinel can help explain the difference. ( Read more... )