How Millennials Are Changing the English Language
For as long as language has existed, it has changed, morphed, and warped as the world and people’s references around them have changed. It is no surprise that, with changing references and realities symbolized by new generations, the youth of each generation changes language and makes it their own. Language, of course, is for communication […]
The Schwa: A Native Speaker Feature
[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text c_id=”.vc_1479224444507″]The schwa sound is a revelation that comes to learners of English as they progress to higher levels. Considered as a ‘native speaker feature’, it helps both pronunciation and understanding by changing the stress of words and sentence. Often referred to as a reduced, weak or unstressed sound, the schwa doesn’t involve the lips […]
British English versus American English
American English is the form of English used in the United States. British English is the form of English used in the United Kingdom and the rest of the British Isles. It includes all English dialects used within the British Isles. American English in its written form is standardized across the U.S. (and in schools […]
Is the comma on its way out?
It’s probably one of the most difficult forms of punctuation to get to grips with and, for some, it’s starting to be more and more unnecessary. The question is, will the comma will eventually die out completely in the future? Let’s take a look at the arguments… Linguist and Columbia University professor John McWhorter is […]
Does the English Language lack beautiful phrases to describe positive emotions?
Tim Lomas, a psychology lecturer from the University of East London, published an article in the Journal of Positive Psychology that lists 216 of the world’s astoundingly rich phrases for feelings of beauty, positivity, and well-being that simply cannot be translated into English. As Lomas’ article illustrates, there are literally hundreds of terms and phrases […]
Longest English Word
When an English Rule Deserves to be Broken – Part II
Continuing on with our last article, on English rules that deserve to be broken, this time we’re going to take a look at a longstanding “rule” that has dismayed translators, writers and students alike: Double negatives are always wrong. Taught since childhood, this rule seems to be a logical one: after all, our Math teachers […]
When an English Rule Deserves to be Broken – Part I
Unlike Spanish, which has the Royal Spanish Academy that – together with the other twenty-one national language academies in Spanish-speaking nations – ensures a common standard for Spanish, English has no such body. Instead, there are a number of rule books or “style guides”, each with its own set of rules and guidelines. The Oxford […]
New dictionary words for 2014
New words are born and become part of the English language all the time. Sometimes these words are entirely new, though it is more common for already-existing words to morph into new ones, often by adding a new definition, or through processes such as clipping (the shortening of a longer word), blending (the combination of […]
Up the apples, she’s got a lovely pair of bacons – what do East Londoners mean?
Cockney rhyming slang is jam-packed with references to fruit, vegetables and other kinds of foods. This East London working-class slang, structured around a simple rhyming system, was the East Londoner’s language code which prevented bosses, the police and other authority figures from understanding what was being said. Some of the most popular food-related cockney rhyming […]
