Kate Clark Words

04/15/2022

It’s the Clarklets! 🐥🐥

You may have surmised that I’m not quite posting in real time so my whirlwind adventures haven’t been quite as… whirlwind, but… Denver.

Amazing stay with the Petersons, and the added bonus of and

Stunning scenery (vast), ice hockey (Go Avalanche!), old mining towns (beautiful), family fun (love you all), lavender gin (yum) and indoor skydiving (hair raising fun)…

01/26/2022

The Suite has once again relocated… this time to

Still a few days to go until competition starts in some amazing venues around the city, but getting into the swing of things… it’s cold!

03/26/2021

I love this. It’s so true.

If fat chance and slim chance mean the same thing, have you ever thought how 'quite' can mean two different things?

If someone says “that meal was quite delicious” the ‘quite’ means very.

But if they say “that meal was quite tasty” the ‘quite’ here means fairly.

I think – and I have no sound basis to back this up other than thinking of examples – that the strength of the sentiment of the word following quite determines the difference. 


So…
If something is quite horrifying - it truly is awful. 
If something is quite unpleasant - it’s just… well, fairly unpleasant.

These are the things that keep me awake at night 🤔😂

What do you think? I’m very happy to be proved wrong!

03/22/2021

**I've reposted this as the text in the video was too small**

Sometimes it’s really hard to proofread your own work, particularly if you’ve spent a long time on it and have spent time editing and rewriting 😫

Here are some tips to help. The first two are to try to stop your brain from telling you what it expects to read rather than what’s there, and the third is a little way of gauging the flow.

🤫 I actually have quite a lot of fun pretending to be a newsreader… paper shuffling at the end of course.

03/20/2021

Well, the Suite definitely wouldn’t function without SEVERAL compulsory tea breaks each day.
This article about the discussion of tea breaks in 1928 is fascinating for so many reasons... “The main objections urged by employers against any kind of break for women were that such breaks resulted in the temporary idleness of highly paid skilled men” (did men not share that hankering for an afternoon cuppa?).
But it’s this photo I love - china cups and teapots, as the caption says “on top of a gasometer” in 1918.
It’s put me to shame with my kettle, mug and teabags 🫖
Who still uses a real teapot? I think I might fish mine out.

19 March 1928: Government backed body finds that a cup of tea acts as a powerful but harmless stimulant to flagging energies of workers, boosting output

03/19/2021

Here’s one that crops up a lot in the suite… complimentary vs complementary. Thanks for the suggestion Waterworth 👏


We all have different ways of remembering things, but I find that visual prompts help me a lot.

So for me, I remember free Ice cream🍦and handsome Iguanas 🦎 as complImentary. And Edam 🧀 and Eggs 🍳 go quite well together - complEmentary.

Practise vs Practice coming soon Rachael Casstles

What other words do you mix up? 🤔

03/17/2021

I just wanted to ask…


How many of us start emails this way? Or ‘I was just wondering’ or ‘I’d just like to…’

Apparently, women do it more than men - I certainly do it a lot.

But what I do now is when I’ve finished writing my email, I go through and delete every ‘just’. In this context the meaning stays the same, and the email immediately sounds more assertive and less like an apology. 



It’s not about the correct use of English, but it is about making your words more effective.

07/01/2020

While I love the idea of being greeted at the door by someone in a space suit (that’s what a space marshall is, right?) this is sad. We need to adapt because we absolutely need our brilliant libraries to survive.

Space marshalls at the door, librarians behind perspex screens ... book borrowing may never be the same again

06/18/2020

Interesting. Edibles - and a few creatures - have withstood the the journey from Nahuatl to modern English.

Avocado, chocolate, and more

06/12/2020

Great news.

Beloved author of We’re Going on a Bear Hunt was in intensive care for 47 days, but as his recovery continues he has resumed tweeting

06/12/2020

At this time of year I would be getting myself ready for my annual stint in the bunker. I'll miss the thrills, the laughs, the people and of course the amazing tennis. I can pretend though... 🎾🎾🍓🍓

06/04/2020

With half term over for me, I took a break from the suite to watch some other mums at work - it’s a busy time!