PARAPHRASE

This word means an attempt to rephrase a poem or piece of prose in your own words without shortening it. If it is reduced in the number of words it is called a precis (with an acute accent on the e.)

MINUSCULE

Note the spelling of this word (often used colloquially) which means extremely small: minuscule with a u in the middle.
A good way to remember is to see the word minus at the beginning..

METONYMY

Metonymy is device by which the attributes of an item connected to a person are transferred to that person. It has become popular recently in critical terminology and seems to have moved away from its earlier more limited use whereby the crown refers to the King or Queen more like a simple emblem.
An example would be that in Chapter 24 of Jane Austen's Emma when Frank Churchill is buying "sleek, well-tied parcels" of gloves and we feel that he is also smooth and covering something up.
See my analysis on my website Classics of English Literature: essays by Barbara Daniels

The y rule

Change the y to i when adding a suffix (syllable at the end of a word) if the word ends in a consonant plus y. party becomes parties.
BUT not if you are adding ish, ing or ist. (You never use ii in English except when skiing.)
If the base word ends in a vowel plus y keep the y: donkey donkeys
To sum up: change the y to i unless there is a vowel before it or an i after it.

CHRONIC and ACUTE

These are medical words: chronic means a long-lasting condition and acute means one which is short-lived and flares up suddenly: chronic rheumatism but an acute attack of 'flu.

Chronic has spread into general usage as in chronic disrepair and in colloquial speech it can mean very bad as in: the book was chronic, though this now seems somewhat outdated.
Acute is also used outside medicine as in: I was acutely aware or: He felt an acute sense of guilt where it means sharply or piercing..

i before e

This is a commonly quoted rule but a vital part of it is often omitted. It should read:
i before e except after c but only when the ie sound says ee.
e.g. chief, field but deceive, receive
Exceptions are: seize, protein

When the ie sound does not say ee, the e can go before the i: weight, height.

This rule has one very useful application: Internet fraudsters can rarely spell receive correctly!

Outside

The expression is outside the shop never outside of the shop.