The Oxford essential guide to the English language - John Ayto

This is a new edition of the "The Oxford School A-Z of English". This reference book should answer all the questions readers may have on problematic words, their meaning, use, spelling, pronunciation and their grammatical functions. Alphabetically ordered for easy reference, it gives guidance on how to speak and write correctly and effectively. The book aims to be approachable and jargon-free, and makes unambiguous usage recommendations. The guide contains about 2000 entries of individual words which create problems because of their: confusability (eg accept and except); spelling (eg -ize or -ise); controversial usage (eg hopefully); controversial pronunciation (eg controversy); choice of inflected forms (eg lighted/lit); disputed collocations (eg different from/to); disputed grammatical points (eg the media is/are); cliches (eg basically); and differences between British and American English (eg wash up). The reader can also look up general language topics such as sexist language, racist language, and controversial grammar points.