Artificial Intelligence Suggestions to My Twitter Reply

I was replying to this tweet (I apologise for still calling it a tweet)… and I couldn’t quite get my sentence right.

On a dream holiday with perfect weather, accompanied by loved ones.

— IonBuck (@IonBuck) January 5, 2025

So what the heck, let’s get help from Apple Intelligence. Here are the results:

Rewrite version:

On a dream holiday with perfect weather and loved ones by my side.

Concise version:

Dream holiday with perfect weather and loved ones.

Professional version:

During an idyllic vacation with ideal weather conditions and the presence of cherished companions,

The friendly version turned up the same. Yay!

Bare Bear

We Bare Bears is a popular American animated series. There is little doubt that the title is a wordplay with the homophones “bear” and “bare”. I always get confused with the words and often misuse them. Hence, it is worth looking into their usage.

In its adjective form, bare usually means naked, devoid of any coverings; simple and basic. As a verb, it means to expose or uncover. Here are some sentences that will help to provide some context:

1. A bare, chubby baby is cute and cuddly but a naked, fat adult will be avoided at all costs!
2. The couple stands by the doorway to their new house which is bare of any furnishings.
3. The bodybuilder bares his muscular body from the waist up for all to admire.

Meanwhile, a bear is a furry, giant animal that we all know. It is often portrayed as a friendly beast in the movies but that is far from the truth, so don’t go near one. Sometimes, it is also used figuratively to depict a giant or huge person. The confusion with bare comes when it is used as a verb where it means to carry, support or withstand.

1. The old structure will not be able to bear the weight of the new equipment.
2. Greg’s parents could not afford to bear the expenses of his lavish lifestyle anymore.
3. Her husband can’t bear the taste of pickles.

It will not be easy to separate the two words, but hopefully, this article helps to shed some light. There are plenty of posts online that will be able to do a better job than me. Last but not least, for the fun of it, here’s a sentence that utilises both words:

Chased by a family of bears, the jogger ran for his life and barely made it out of the woods alive.

Phew!

Amber is not Ember

Embed from Getty Images

The Amber I know is the actress that starred in the Aquaman blockbuster. Not that I personally know her, of course. The other ambers I thought I knew were those red hot burning particles that come after a fire. When I wrote my short story “The Wizard and His Magic Flask”, I had used “ambers” whenever I wanted to describe the hot particles.

Thank goodness I did a search when I was looking for inspiration on how to phrase “ambers”. It took me quite a while to figure out what was wrong. My search did not return the “ambers” that I wanted. Then, I searched for “fire” in Thesaurus.com and voila! There it was. I had spelt the word wrongly. It should have been “embers”.

So… let’s clear things up:

According to Oxford Dictionary, “amber” is a yellowish hard translucent fossilised resin from extinct coniferous trees. If I’m not wrong, in the first Jurassic Park movie, researches discovered the mosquito with dinosaur DNA preserved in “amber”.

“Amber” is also a colour - honey yellow. It’s often described as the “ready to stop” yellow traffic light.

“Ember” on the other hand, is a small piece of burning or glowing coal or wood in a dying fire - precisely the one I wanted to describe in my story. I was lucky to have discovered my mistake before I posted the story otherwise it would prove embarrassing!

“Let’s” or “Lets”

Looking at this title, I was pretty sure that there is no such word as “lets” but I was wrong. A quick search from Grammarly blog cleared all my doubts and queries about these two words. They both originate from the same verb “let” but their usage differs.

“Let’s” is the contraction of “let us” which is something like how “I’m” is the short form of “I am”. It is used when the speaker wants to suggest him/her and at least another person to do something together. Some examples:

• Great weather! Let’s go for a jog.
• Let’s visit Larry tonight.
• I doubt he’s telling us everything. Let’s shadow him to find out the truth.

Now that we’re clear about the usage of “let’s”, we shall take a look at “lets”. It is the third-person present tense of the verb “let”. It is used as a singular verb “to allow” or “to grant”. For example:

• If Jonathan lets her go, he will lose her forever.
• Besides being a place to read, the library lets others do their work without being disturbed.
• Having produced the complete documentation, the customs officer lets the immigrant through the gate.

Hope the above clarifies the usage of both homophones. Let’s not forget how to apply them correctly, all right?

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Grammarly is both a website and a keyboard app that helps verify and correct English usage. The basic functions are free while there are more comprehensive features that require monthly/annual subscriptions. It’s easy to use. Try the free features by clicking on the banner below.

It is “all right” to be “alright”, is it not?

Are there any differences between “all right” and “alright”? Can they be used interchangeably? According to Dictionary.com, they mean the same except “all right” is the formal standard while “alright” is not. If you want to use the single word, it should only be utilised in a dialogue.

You will find that Grammarly blog and the YouTube video from Miriam-Webster below concur with more elaborate explanations.

I will not be surprised if one day "alright" will be accepted officially. However, at the moment the English teacher (or anyone else concerned with proper English use) will not be pleased with its usage. Ultimately, in most situations, it is quite “all right” to use “alright”, especially in modern context unless you are being graded.