About

Hello

In more than 35 years working in print and other media, I’ve come across examples of English that I would describe as atrocious, hilarious, puzzling and educational.

English isn’t my mother tongue. I’ve found it a difficult, convenient, perplexing, intriguing language … the rules seem to change without reason, the same word can be pronounced in different ways depending on the context, letters of the alphabet can produce different sounds, and plurals can be singular and vice-versa. But I can express myself better in English than in any other language, mainly because it’s the language I use most.

For a lot of my working life I helped to prepare articles for printed publications. My aim always was to be able to make sure the reader was able to understand those articles easily and quickly. Often it meant rewriting news stories or features differently to suit the audience we wanted to reach. We tried to provide information in a clear, accurate and interesting way.

I’m hoping to bring my experience to these pages. I’m using those examples and more to help make your struggle with the language a little easier.

Vimal Madhavan
info@whatstheword.co.uk