A big thank you to Payal Tyagi for nominating me for this award! You can find her fascinating blog here.
Here are the rules:
Blogger Recognition Award
English language
The English Alphabet
Carrying on from yesterday’s look at the NATO phonetic alphabet, I thought today I’d spend a little time thinking about the regular English alphabet in general. It’s something we take for granted, but there are plenty of interesting things about it. Continue reading
“‘M!’ As in ‘Mancy!'”
It’s easy to forget that there are other alphabets other than one’s own. Not just languages which use different characters, or languages which use the same Latin alphabet as English, but without some letters or with some additional ones. There are other alphabets which we come across a lot which we don’t think too much about. Like the International Radiotelephony Spelling Alphabet, or as it’s more commonly known, the NATO phonetic alphabet. Continue reading
Red Herring
A red herring is a piece of information designed to distract or mislead one. It’s most often found in murder mysteries, specifically of the whodunit variety, in which the primary interest lies in figuring out the identity of the murder. A red herring in such cases is usually an apparent clue designed to make you think that someone apart from the actual murderer is the killer. All well and good, but what does any of this have to do with herrings? Continue reading
Lemur
Lemurs are pretty cute, aren’t they? With their big eyes, long ringed tails, and cheeky little hands: what’s not to love? Interestingly enough though, the story of their name is not so cute. Continue reading
“‘Inflammable’ means ‘flammable!?’ What a country!”
This is something that hopefully you’re already aware of. If not, let me perform a public service by informing you of the following:
Flammable and inflammable both mean the same thing. And just to make it absolutely clear, something described as flammable/inflammable can burn easily. This has long been held up as an example of the confusing nature of English, but it’s also particularly noteworthy in that it could have a serious practical effect on someone’s life. How easily might someone assume that something inflammable is safe to use around fire, and end up setting it alight? Why then, when the word is so obviously confusing, do we have it at all? Or, why does it not mean can’t be set alight? Continue reading
English Lesson: Present Simple & Continuous
Today I thought I’d provide a slightly more detailed look at how we usually go about teaching English. If you’re a native speaker, it might be interesting to get a look at the rules and structures of the language which you’re not normally aware of. If you’re a non-native speaker, you’ve probably learned this already, but it might be useful to get a top-up!
I’m going to go through a fairly typical lesson, then make a few notes about it afterwards. Continue reading
English-Language Thoughts 