Audience and spectators

The words audience and spectators have slightly different meanings. An audience is a group of people who have assembled at a place to see or hear a film, a speech or a performance.

To blackmail somebody is to exhort money or something else of value from them by the threat of exposing information that will harm them in many ways. Blackmailing is a punishable offence.

Carte Blanche is one of those phrases loaned from French. This French expression is pronounced ‘cart BLONSH’. Note that the main stress falls on the second word. To give somebody carte blanche is to give them complete freedom to do whatever they want.

Is it distinct or distinctive?

The words distinct and distinctive have slightly different meanings. In most cases, they are not interchangeable.

Distinct

Distinct means ‘clear’ or ‘unmistakable’.

Ago is used with a past tense and a time expression to count back from the present.

His father died three years ago.

He left ten minutes ago.

The words affect and effect are often confused. Affect is a verb. It means ‘cause a change in something’ or ‘influence’.

The cold weather affected my health.

There are many ways and words to talk about a person’s physical appearance.

Age

A senior citizen is a very old person. A large number of them have retired from active employment and get a pension. So they can also be called pensioners.