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

Useful mnemonic:
beTween = Two
aMong = Many
amount/number
A rhyming mnemonic: use amount for things we cannot count.

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That’s a large amount of sugar for one cup of tea.
What is an acceptable number of sugars for one cup of tea ?
as/like
Something looks like something else – they physically resemble one another.
He looks like his mother and she looks like Margaret Thatcher.
However:
It looks as if a storm is coming.
Teenagers use words such as ‘like’ far too often.
As with all homework, pupils can now research geography topics online.
*10
‘He rose like a trout to the fly of any phrase.’
V
IOLET
A
SQUITH ON
W
INSTON
C
HURCHILL
complement/compliment
May I compliment you on your new hairstyle? The colour complements your dress
beautifully.
Useful mnemonic:
A compl E ment adds something to make it E nough.
A comp LIME nt puts you in the LIME light.
continual/continuous
Continual  means  ‘happening  over  and  over  and  over  again’;  continuous  means
‘happening constantly without stopping’. You may continually receive unwanted
telephone  calls  from  telesales  people.  However,  if  this  were  happening
continuously , you would never be able to put the phone down .
Useful mnemonic:
continu AL = A ble to L eave off
continuou S = never S topping
defuse/diffuse

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You  defuse  a  situation,  by  (metaphorically)  taking  the  fuse  out  of  it  before  it
catches fire.
Diffuse  means  ‘to  spread  out’  if  it  is  a  verb,  or  ‘already  spread  out’  if  it  is  an
adjective.
due to/owing to
This is another of those ‘strictly speaking’ problems. Chambers Dictionary says
that due to means ‘caused by’ with a second definition of ‘owing to, because of’,
which, it adds, is ‘a use still deprecated by some but now almost standard’. So,
for the benefit of the pedants among us:
Due to means ‘caused by’.
Owing to means ‘because of’.
To determine which to use, decide whether you would replace due to or owing to
by caused by or because of.
The collapse of hundreds of buildings was due to the earthquake.
Owing to collapsed roads and bridges, it was impossible to get outside help.