Author: kiwi

Different cultures end the day at different points. The French, for example, tend to eat supper later than Americans do, and so their period designated as “evening” extends later than it does for Americans. Such differences can make it difficult to distinguish evening from night.

Most English speakers would not use “Good night” as a greeting, regardless of the hour. When you meet someone after dark and you intend to spend time talking with them, you should use, “Good evening” as your greeting, and “Good night” as your parting, if you are not likely to see them again that night. Radio hosts follow this pattern on their programs, saying, “Good evening, everyone” when they open the show and something like “Have a good night” when they close it.

In the home, family members do not greet each other formally with “Good afternoon” or “Good evening,” though they sometimes bid each other “Good morning” when they see each other for the first time that day. They also use “Good night” when they retire for bed.

“Good evening” is sometimes used in parting when it is recognized that only the interview, and not the night’s activities, has concluded. For instance, a restaurant server might bid his customers a good evening after collecting the check, because he knows that they are unlikely to go straight home and to bed after dinner. So, while 7:30 is probably “evening” for most, whether you bid someone a good evening or night depends on the circumstances.

One little word that has so many synonyms in the English language is “interesting.” The simple definition of the adjective “interesting,” according to the Mirriam-Webster Dictionary, is “attracting your attention and making you want to learn more about something or to be involved in something.” Interesting describes a person, place or things that arouses your curiosity and catches your attention. Since much of what we write or talk about is interesting to us, it is an adjective that gets thrown around a lot. Luckily, there are many synonyms for interesting that can be used instead.

Used in a sentence, it indicates that the subject is something which you might want to learn more about, such as “It was the most interesting book I have ever read,” or “There was something interesting about her that drew me in.” Interesting can have two slightly different connotations, which determines which synonyms might be best used in its place.

Something that is interesting might be stimulating. It may make you think and pique your interest. In that case, you might also describe it as thought-provoking, engaging, curious or appealing. If it is especially interesting it might be attention-grabbing, beguiling, stimulating or intriguing.

You could also describe something as interesting if it grabs you and holds your attention. An interesting thing draws you in and captures you. Other words with similar meanings are absorbing, engrossing, riveting, mesmerizing, enthralling, captivating, spell-binding, exciting, fascinating, or entrancing. An informal word, when describing a book in particular, is unputdownable. Someone or something that is exciting is likely noteworthy and out of the ordinary, extraordinary even, and unforgettable

The antonyms of interesting are boring, uninteresting, or dull.

The expression, “safe travels” is used when someone you know, such as a friend or relative is going on a trip. It might be used when they are going on vacation or traveling for work. But it can also be used when someone is traveling for a shorter distance, such as driving home from a party. In short, it can be correctly used at any time that someone will be traveling, by whatever means.

“Safe travels” is used as a way to express your wish for someone to have good fortune during a trip. When you say, “safe travels,” you are expressing that you hope someone’s journey goes well. It is used in a similar fashion to another commonly used expression, “good luck.” It can serve as a reminder to drive carefully as much as anything else. But it is also used to express your hope that nothing goes wrong while they are on the road or in the air.

As an example, imagine that your sister is flying to California to visit her boyfriend. She says goodbye to you, and as you help her load her suitcases into the taxi she will take to the airport, you might then say, “Safe travels.”

Imagine another scenario in which the phrase may be used. You are driving from Nashville to Chicago for a work conference. Your spouse kisses you goodbye, and then says, “Safe travels.”

Some other ways of expressing the same sentiment include: “be safe,” “stay safe,” and “drive carefully.”

“Have a good day” is a very common American English expression. It is used in casual conversation between friends, acquaintances, and even strangers on a very regular basis.

The expression can be used at any time of day, although it makes more sense to use it earlier in the day, or at least before evening. However, if it is late afternoon or evening, one might say, “Have a good evening,” or “have a good night” instead. But there are no hard-and-fast rules as to when the phrase should be used.

As a more formal greeting, cashiers and people-greeters at retail stores are notorious for using the phrase when speaking to customers. It is meant as a pleasantry, or an automatic response, with the intent to make the clientele feel like they are cared about personally. A waitress also might use the phrase after you have paid for your meal and you are about to leave the restaurant. Other people who might say this phrase to you even if you do not know them personally include: a bank teller, a librarian, or a telephone operator.

The phrase is used among friends and acquaintances too. When you are speaking to someone you know, however, you might extend the phrase to make it more sincere. For instance, to your best friend you might say, “It was nice to see you. I hope you have a really nice day.” Or you could also say, “I hope that the rest of your day is good.”

Perhaps you request something of someone, and he or she replies with the phrase “duly noted“. That person is communicating that he or she understood what you said and will follow through on your request, but what does “duly” in the phrase “duly noted” actually mean? It may not be as abstract as it seems on the surface.

“Duly” is actually just an adverbial form of the commonly used adjective “due”. When something is “due”, that means it is to be done in a punctual and correct manner. When saying something is “duly noted”, there one is announcing that the information has been correctly and accurately recorded. What is interesting is that the word “duly” is most commonly thought of or used in this context of “duly noted”, but in reality this use of the word is on a small fraction of how it can actually be used in the English language.

“Duly” is very specifically defined as “in accordance with what is required or appropriate” or as “following proper procedure or arrangement”. An example might be a report card that a student takes home that night to have duly signed by his or her parents and returned to the teacher the next day. Synonyms of “duly” therefore include appropriately, properly, correctly, fittingly, and suitably. “Duly” has an undertone of correctness but also one of timeliness. In this context, “duly” can come to mean “punctually”, “on time”, or “in a timely manner”. This tiny English word can have many applications.

To answer this question, let’s first look at the difference between the simpler words “go” and “come.” These two verbs describe movement, but each one is used in a specific way.

An easy way to remember how to use them is the phrase “go there, come here.” Simply put, we use “go” when we are leaving our current location and moving to a new destination. We use “come” when move from another destination to our current location.

i.e. I go to South Korea for business meetings.
(I leave my current place and travel to a new place.)

i.e. I came home three days ago.
(I left another place and returned to my current location.)

The words “emigrate” and “immigrate” function the same way. One speaks about leaving one’s current country to live in another while the other speaks about coming to a new country from a previous one.

Can you guess which one is which? If not, that’s okay. Let me show you.

• to emigrate: to leave one’s current country in order to live in a new country
• to immigrate: to come to a new country to live after leaving one’s previous country

So, if you live in Canada and plan to move to the United States, you would say that you are planning on emigrating.

However, if you have family living in the United States and they speak about your plans, they would say that you plan to immigrate.

Go there, come here. Emigrate there, immigrate here.

When people wish one another luck, they might simply say “good luck”, or they might say “all the best” or “best of luck”. These latter two seem somewhat interchangeable, but are they really? Do they technically have different meanings and uses?

“All the best” is more commonly used as a farewell gesture than its cousin, “best of luck”. It has more of an air of departure or finality in it than simply wishing someone the “best of luck” does. The difference is kind of like saying “goodbye” versus “see you later” – there’s an undertone of expecting more time to pass before seeing the person again than by simply saying “best of luck” or “see you later”.

On the other hand, “best of luck” doesn’t have as much of implication underlying it. This phrase seems more appropriate to use in situations where you are cheering someone on. Again, part of this has to do with the time lapsing between events. Standing on the sideline to cheer someone in a race, it would seem more appropriate to wish them “best of luck” rather than to shout “all the best”. Saying “all the best” would sound more like you do not plan to stick around to watch them race. On the other hand, “best of luck” is more synonymous to “good luck” and could easily imply you plan to stick around to see the outcome. It is not uncommon for phrases like this to have no true distinction, only by popular use.

Sardonic” and “sarcastic” are two words with similar meanings and are sometimes used interchangeably. However, their actual meanings, origin and usages are distinct.

“Sarcastic”

This word is derived from the Greek word “sarkasmos,” meaning “to sneer” or literally “tearing of flesh.” Both of these meanings embody unpleasantness. Hence, “sarcastic,” is a bitter, contemptuous remark that an individual makes to hurt the other. Despite the fact that sarcasm and irony are not one thing, sarcastic remarks carry a lot of irony because what a person says in a sarcasm is the opposite of the message he intends to convey. Therefore, sarcasm is made with the intention to ridicule or bull someone. For instance, the sentence, “He cannot afford buying a car because he is very rich” is a ridiculous and hurtful statement because if basically means that the person being referred to as “very rich” is actually poor.

“Sardonic”

This word is derived from the Greek word “sardonios,” which literally means scornful smiles or laughter. The word is based on the Greek story of Sardinian plant which kills when eaten. Prior to death, the patient’s face would undergo convulsion so it looks like the person was laughing. Hence, sardonic expressions are mocking, cynical, derisive and scornful remarks that carry humor intended to hurt the feelings during adversity. For instance, the sentence “the prisoners’ food is so good that prisoners hardly chew it” is sardonic in nature. Additionally, unlike a sarcasm, which is always meant to hurt other people, a sardonic remark can target oneself. For instance, “The food I cook is so delicious that people don’t eat it.”

The phrase “Wish you a happy weekend” would only be correct with the addition of a subject to accompany the transitive verb “wish.”

For example, we could say “I wish you a happy weekend.” This would be grammatically correct, although it would sound a bit formal.

If we left off the subject and just started with the verb “wish”, we would technically be creating a command. All commands come with the understood subject of “you”. If we added that understood subject to the phrase, we can see just how silly it sounds and the further grammar error it creates.

“(You) wish you a happy weekend.”

With the subject doing the action to the subject, we now have a reflexive verb. As such, the pronoun that follows must be the reflexive one (yourself). While you could command someone to wish himself a happy weekend, it would be rare.

On the other hand, the phrase “Wishing you a happy weekend.” can be used quite satisfactorily as a closing statement in an informal letter. Rather than signing off with “Sincerely” or “Regards”, you might precede your signature with this phrase.

This conveys a shorthand version of the phrase “I am wishing you a happy weekend.” A similar situation can be seen in the phrase “Looking forward to seeing you.”

With all that said, the combination of the words “happy” and “weekend” is a bit odd. In the U.S., we tend to say “a nice, good or great weekend” instead.

Have a great weekend!

No, “what’s the date today” and “what day is it today” are not interchangeable. These are two different questions, and will yield two different answers.

When asking for the date, what you are actually asking for is the calendar date. If you ask somebody for the date, you will get “March 23,” or “June 11,” or maybe something exciting like “December 25.” If you want the day of the year, this is the question you need to ask.

Alternatively, if you ask for the day, what you will generally get is the day of the week. If want to know if it’s Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, or Sunday, this is what you should ask. Depending on the context, a person asking for the day might also be asking if it is a specific day. For example, if it is obviously Halloween and there are pumpkins and spooky decorations set up in every yard, a person unfamiliar with Halloween might ask, “what day is it?” Overall, however, the former connotation is more common.

This is a very subtle difference, but an important one. Even people who are fluent in English and have spoken it their entire lives often mess this up, especially since the two words sound so similar. If you ask either question, people will often ask to clarify whether you mean “day or “date.” There is a significant difference between the two, so make sure you get the right one.