A Lot or Alot?

A lot.

It’s two words. This one’s easy.

But of course, a lot of people make the mistake of writing alot instead of a lot. And I’m curious as to why. Continue reading →

Socket to Me

1. “There’s a plug under your table. Yeah, just there, yeah!”

2. “Sorry, is there a plug beside you there?”

    “Yeah.”

I heard both of these utterances at the weekend: the first in a pub on Saturday, and the second on a bus on Sunday. Nothing strange about that, except for one thing: in both cases the people were lying!!! Continue reading →

Do Re Mi Fa Sol La Ti Do

Do Ti La Sol Fa Mi Re Do!

Beautifully done! (and yes, it is Sol, not So!)

Even if you haven’t seen The Sound of Music, you’re probably quite familiar with this little method of assigning syllables to the seven major musical notes.

It’s known as solfège, and is used to help a musician distinguish between different pitches of notes. It’s not something I’d ever given much thought about until one day, likely while I was living in Belgium, I saw The Sound of Music dubbed into French… Continue reading →

You, of All People

Oh, hi there.

It’s been a while, I know. I’ve been busy, and I think I wanted a little break from writing.

But then an idea comes, and here we are! Continue reading →

So Many Clothes

Yes, but how many? Wait, that doesn’t make sense, does it…?

Obviously you can’t say four clothes or five clothes. But why? Continue reading →

Magazine

I often write about false friends and various other confusing words for learners of English. But one of my recent French lessons reminded me of a word that often confuses Anglophone learners of French: magasin. Continue reading →

The Reflex!

No, not more classic pop.

I was doing my French homework this evening, and one of my tasks was to find the reflexive verbs in a Youtube video about French clichés. What’s that? What’s a reflexive verb? Good question. Continue reading →