Why Are Some Words Homophones? Alveolar Flapping!

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The Grammar Girl Week in Review Why Are Some Words Homophones? Alveolar Flapping! A couple of months ago, I answered a listener’s question about how to remember the meanings of the adjectives hearty, spelled H-E-A-R-T-Y and hardy, spelled H-A-R-D-Y. I said that the words were confusing because their meanings overlapped somewhat, and this is true, but there’s another reason for the difficulty in keeping these words straight: They’re...Read More 07/29/2016 2:15am View           'Lit' or 'Lighted'? Have you ever wondered why we have two past tense forms of the verb to light? Should you say Squiggly lit citronella candles, or Squiggly lighted citronella candles? Maybe you’ve even wondered whether one is wrong. Lighted sounds kind of weird in that sentence, right?...Read More 07/28/2016 7:05pm View           What Does 'Malarkey' Mean? “That’s a bunch of malarkey," Vice President Joe Biden said in his speech at the Democratic National Convention on Wednesday, referencing Trump's claim that he cares about the middle class. As usual, people on Twitter had a lot of thoughts about the use of this unusual word...Read More 07/28/2016 11:59am View               FROM QUICK AND DIRTY TIPS Get More Grammar Girl Visit the website. Subscribe to the Grammar Girl podcast at iTunes or via RSS. Find Grammar Girl books, gear, and more at the Quick and Dirty Tips store. Have Questions? Search the Quick and Dirty Tips website. We have more than 600 articles about grammar and language. There's a good chance your question has already been covered.                 Best wishes, (and the Quick and Dirty Tips Team)                 Want more tips? If this was forwarded to you by a friend and you'd like to receive future tips, you can sign up here. Please don't use the subscribe/unsubscribe link at the bottom of the page because this will overwrite your friend's subscription. (If this came directly to you, you can use the subscribe/unsubscribe link below to manage your subscription.)                 FOLLOW ME

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