COBUILD

What’s the difference between shadow and shade?

This week we are looking at two words which are commonly confused: shadow and shade. shadow A shadow is a dark shape made on a surface when something stands between a light and the surface. The tree cast a shadow over the garden. If a place… Read More

Sue Atkins – pioneering lexicographer and linguist

Beryl T. Atkins, one of the founding editors of the Collins Robert French Dictionary, died in September 2021 at the age of 90. Always known to friends and colleagues as Sue Atkins, she first joined Collins Dictionaries as a freelance compiler in the mid-1960s. Over the next twenty years, working… Read More

3. Gender and identity: new words in COBUILD English Usage

In the next two blog posts about the new edition of COBUILD English Usage, Julie Moore looks at some of the changes in language usage that emerged from research for the new edition. In this post, she explores how language shifts reflect changing ideas about gender and identity. Traditionally,… Read More

2. COBUILD English Usage: Changes in vocabulary and grammar

In the second of our blog posts about the new edition of COBUILD English Usage, Penny Hands details some of the findings that came out of the team’s research into the ways in which new words and uses are created, and usage changes in vocabulary and grammar. The second… Read More
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1. COBUILD English Usage: Updating the examples

In the first of our blog posts about the new edition of COBUILD English Usage, Penny Hands details some of the changes she made to the examples to ensure they reflect changes in society, and ponders on how future-proof these changes are likely to be. One of our aims… Read More
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