Difference between ‘particular’ and ‘concrete’

The words “concrete” and “particular” get commonly confused by English learners. Of course, we are not talking about “concrete” in the sense of “made of concrete” (the building material), as in “a concrete wall”. We are talking about “concrete” as in “a concrete example”.

Statistically speaking, if you are reading this, the word you are probably looking for is “particular”, which is about 10x as common as “concrete” in English. It is used to emphasize that you are talking about just a single individual or thing, for example:

Have you already agreed on a particular date? (correct)

Have you already agreed on a concrete date? (wrong)

I couldn’t find the particular book you were talking about. (correct)

I couldn’t find the concrete book you were talking about. (probably wrong)

“Concrete”, being much less common than “particular”, is most commonly used in the sense of “tangible, real” when talking about evidence and proofs:

They had just a suspicion; no concrete evidence was found. (correct)
They had just a suspicion; no particular evidence was found. (unnatural)

or in the sense of “not abstract, specific” when talking about examples:

Your example is very abstract; could you make it a bit more concrete? (correct)
Your example is very abstract; could you make it a bit more particular? (unnatural)

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English words in which ‘ss’ is pronounced as ‘z’

In French, Italian, German and some other languages that use the Latin alphabet, the spelling difference between “s” and “ss” is used to indicate a difference in pronunciation, namely between /s/ and /z/. More precisely, in certain positions (between two vowels, for example), “s” is pronounced as /z/ in many languages. If the given word is indeed to be pronounced with an /s/, the spelling changes to “ss”.

This rule has partially disappeared in English—there are many words now in which “s” is pronounced as /s/ even in positions in which it would be pronounced as /z/ in most other languages. But it still holds the other way round: “ss” in English is virtually always pronounced as /s/.

For this reason, English learners often tend to pronounce “ss” invariably as /s/, but this is not always the right pronunciation. Nonetheless, the number of exceptions is so low that we can easily list them all here (and some of them are quite common words). Here they are:

• dessert /dɪˈzɜːt/ (di-zə’ət) (UK), /dɪˈzɝːt/ (di-zərt) (US) is a sweet course that concludes the meal. Don’t confuse it with desert /ˈdɛzət/ (de-zət) (UK), /ˈdɛzɚt/ (de-zrt) (US) which is a large area of dry land.
• scissors /ˈsɪzəz/ (si-zəz) (UK), /ˈsɪzɚz/ (si-zrz) (US) are a tool used for cutting.
• possess /pəˈzɛs/ (pə-zes) means “to own”.
• dissolve /dɪˈzɒlv/ (di-zolv) (UK), /dɪˈzɑːlv/ (di-zaalv) (US) means “to mix with a liquid and become part of it”.
• brassiere /ˈbræziə/ (bræ-zee-ə) (UK), /brəˈzɪr/ (brə-zir) (US) is a formal word for (and the original source of) “bra”.
• hussar /həˈzɑː/ (hə-zaa) (UK), /həˈzɑːr/ (hə-zaar) (US) was a type of cavalry soldier.

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‘Graphics is’ vs. ‘graphics are’ – singular or plural?

There are many singular English nouns that end with an “s”, such as mathematics, physics, or politics. Those are typically names of certain fields of science or human activity.

The word “graphics” fits the above pattern. It can be used in the singular to refer to the field of graphic art or the process of making graphics:

Computer graphics is one of the fields you can choose to study. (correct)

Computer graphics are one of the fields you can choose to study. (dubious)

There is, however, one important difference. While there is no “one mathematic” and “one physic”, there in fact is “one graphic”. A graphic, apart from its traditional meaning of a drawing or a picture used as an illustration in a book or a newspaper, can also refer to a computer-generated image viewed on a screen. And here’s the catch.

When “graphic” refers to a computer-generated image, it is usually used in the plural (since what you see on your computer screen is a sequence of images, not just a static image). When people say that a computer game has good graphics, the intended meaning is usually the plural of “graphic”. In other words, most people would say:

This game’s graphics are really good. (correct, common)

On the other hand, some people refer to the process via which the graphics were generated, which would be the singular graphics:

This game’s graphics is really good. (possible but uncommon)

Such a sentence should be understood as “this game’s process of generating what we see is really good”, which also makes perfect sense. Be it as it may, it is much less common than “graphics are”, to such a degree that many native speakers would consider it to be an error. Hence, it is advisable to use the plural when speaking about a game’s graphics.

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‘Effect’ vs. ‘affect’ in English

Both “effect” and “affect” can be used as a noun or as a verb. If you have found this page using a search engine, the odds are that if you want to use a noun, you want to say “effect”, as in “it has a negligible effect on me”, and if you want to use a verb, you want to say “affect”, as in “it affected me negatively”.

“To effect something” means “to implement something”; for example, one can “effect political changes”. “An affect” (pronounced /ˈæfɛkt/) is a term used in psychology to mean a subjective feeling experienced in response to a stimulus.

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‘Clothes is’ vs. ‘clothes are’ in English

The word for “clothes” is singular in many languages, e.g. la ropa in Spanish or die Kleidung in German, and its plural in most contexts does not even make sense (you would virtually never hear someone say las ropas or die Kleidungen). In English, however, the situation is completely reversed.

The word “clothes”, pronounced /kləʊðz/ or /kləʊz/ in the UK and /kloʊðz/ or /kloʊz/ in the US, is only used in the plural:

His new clothes look good. (correct)

His new clothes looks good. (wrong)

The word “clothe” is not the singular of “clothes”, as one might think. It is a verb meaning “to dress” or “provide clothing” and sounds quite formal and is not very common. For example, a newspaper headline could read “Third-World parents are desperate to feed and clothe their children”.

Also, don’t confuse “clothes” and “cloths”. A cloth (pronounced /klɒθ/ (UK), /klɔːθ/ (US)) is a kind or piece of fabric. For example, you can wipe a table with a damp cloth.

Finally, there is “clothing”, a singular noun similar in meaning to “clothes”, but it is typically used to refer to a certain type of clothes, e.g. “protective clothing”, rather than a particular piece of clothing:

I wear these clothes every day. (correct)
I wear this clothing every day. (unnatural; overly formal)

When referring to a specific “number of clothes”, we would say “piece of clothing”, “article of clothing”, or “item of clothing”, for example:

I bought a new piece of clothing. (correct)
I bought a new clothes. (wrong)
You will get a discount if you buy five or more articles of clothing. (correct)
You will get a discount if you buy five or more clothes. (unnatural)

There is also a more traditional and formal word for a piece of clothing: a garment. It is not so common in spoken language, but it still very popular in print publications.

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Pronunciation of ‘archangel’ and ‘archenemy’ in English

In contrast to “arch” /ɑːtʃ/ (aatch) (UK), /ɑːrtʃ/ (artch) (US), “archangel” is pronounced with a hard “ch”, i.e. /ˈɑːkeɪndʒəl/ (aak-eyn-dzhəl) (UK), /ˈɑːrkeɪndʒəl/ (ark-eyn-dzhəl) (US). 

You can remember that the Mormon Church teaches that Noah (the builder of Noah’s Ark) is actually the same person as Archangel Gabriel, if it helps you to remember the correct pronunciation.

An archenemy of God would be the “opposite” of archangel, which will hopefully help you remember that it is not pronounced the same; it is /ˈɑːtʃˈɛnəmi/ (aatch-en-ə-mee) in the UK and /ˈɑrtʃˈɛnəmi/ (artch-en-ə-mee) in the US.

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‘I am agree’ vs. ‘I am of agreement’ vs. ‘I agree’ in English

Saying “I am agree with you” is a common error among native speakers of Romance languages. For example, when you want to say that you agree with someone in Spanish, you would use the phrase

Estoy de acuerdo. = (literally) I am of agreement.

and there is no single Spanish verb having exactly the same meaning as the English verb “agree”. It is important to understand that “agree” in English already means the same as “estar de acuerdo”, not just “acuerdo”, so “I am agree” literally means

Estoy estar de acuerdo.

which is clearly not right.

Although “estoy de acuerdo” literally means “I am of agreement”, the latter is not used in English. Some learners try to improve on “I am agree” by saying “I am agreed”, which makes sense grammatically but which is unfortunately also not used. The correct form is:

I agree with you. (correct)
I am agree with you. (wrong)
I am of agreement with you. (unnatural)
I am agreed with you. (unnatural)

It is possible to say “to be in agreement with someone”, but this is rather formal and much less common than “agree with”:

I am in agreement with you. (possible, but fairly formal and uncommon)

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