I don't profess to be an expert on the English language, but I do make an effort to "get it right" and avoid certain common mistakes like placing an apostrophe in the word its at the wrong time! As far as this website is concerned, my aim is to keep each of the following "pledges":

• I will spell correctly on these web pages. If you ever see a word spelt incorrectly, please let me know. My spelling will be English English however, not American English, so we'll have a "u" in the word colour, an "s" in the word "recognise", etc.


• I will never put an apostrophe in the possessive word its. It's with an apostrophe is short for "it is" (or "it has"), otherwise it has NO apostrophe.


• I will not use an apostrophe simply because a word is in its plural form. "Lots of trees" is okay - "lot's of tree's" clearly isn't!


• I will not use the word amount when I really mean number. By that I mean I will not talk about "the amount of pages" on this site any more than I will talk about "the number of rain we had yesterday".


• When abbreviated, the words "you are" become "you're".
  I will never say "Your looking good today" when what I'm meaning is "You're not looking so good today".


• I will not say "a nonsense" or "a fantasy" when it is not necessary to use the word "a" in those instances. Is that nonsense or merely fantasy?


• I will not "reverse back" when to reverse means to go backwards anyway! Nor will I "return again" - unless I am going there a third time. "Re-" usually means it's happening
  a second time, so there's no need to use the word "again"! Do I need to repeat that again?


• I will not use the word rung when I really mean rang (or replace sang with sung, etc). By that I mean I will not tell you "I rung her today" any more than I will ask "have you rang her yet?"

And by the way .....


• If referring to any sports match I will, as a matter of course, mention the home team first, the visiting team next. That's how it's done in British football - and it makes good sense. If, for example, Wellington is playing Canterbury at Wellington, it's Wellington v Canterbury (not Canterbury v Wellington).