My Grammar and I (Or Should That Be 'Me'?): Old-School Ways to Sharpen Your English

contranym .
The government sanctioned the lifting of sanctions against Cuba.
The two halves of the rock will cleave together unless someone cleaves them apart
with an axe.
The term can also be used more loosely to describe words with two apparently
contradictory meanings that aren't quite opposites.
That horse will bolt unless you bolt the stable door.
The soldier was bound for home, when they caught him and bound him .
We escaped from the mudflats as fast as we could, before we were stuck fast .
These examples are all grammatically correct – every word is used accurately –
but they still manage to sound silly. Best to avoid them.
Smart Alec: What’s another word for thesaurus ?

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Choose your words carefully
As  we  said  earlier,  English  is  full  of  easily  confused,  similar-sounding  words,
with plenty of opportunity for deliberate puns and inadvertent verbal gaffes.
Visiting relatives can be boring .
Are they visiting you
or are you visiting
them?
I had been driving for forty years when I fell
asleep at the wheel and had an accident.
No wonder, I expect
you were rather tired.
Q: What gear were you in at the moment of
the impact?
A: Gucci sweats and
Reeboks.
The  former  Deputy  Prime  Minister  John  Prescott  was  a  master  of  this  form  of
miscommunication  –  ‘The  Green  Belt  is  a  Labour  initiative  and  we  intend  to
build  on  it’  –  but  while  not  many  of  us  would  aspire  to  his  heights,  he  is  an
object lesson in what can happen if you don’t mind what you say. On the other
hand, you can have a lot of fun with words if you don’t mind what you say. See
what we mean?
‘In my sentences I go where no man has gone before.’