English language

1,000s are Using this App to Learn 10 Languages! Find out How!!

Niall O'Donnell 15 Comments

You may have come across lots of ads like this online recently. I know have, though I think that might be targeted advertising based on my interests in language. Obviously, most of the ads like this are just clickbait, but there are some language-learning apps such as Duolingo and Babbel which are quite popular and seem to be well-regarded.

I admit to being a bit sceptical about such apps, probably because if they’re really as effective as they claim to be, I’ll be out of a job! But also, having seen how much work goes into both teaching and learning a language, I find it hard to imagine a simple app could be up to the job. Here are some of the aspects of learning a language that I assume an app would struggle to provide: Continue reading →

100

Niall O'Donnell 6 Comments

First, let me say a big thank you to every one of you reading this. Yesterday I got a lovely notification to tell me I that reached gained 100 followers on WordPress. Which was a lovely surprise. As I’m writing about quite an uncool, niche topic, and just sharing my own thoughts every day, without really planning things, I didn’t expect to attract too many followers. And yesterday was also my first time with over 100 views, which was a nice little instance of serendipity. These numbers may not be so big in the grand scheme of things, but I appreciate everyone who takes the time to read blog, so I’m delighted for every single person who follows me.

So if you’re reading this, and enjoying it, thank you so much, and I hope to keep your mind occupied with mindless trivia about this beautiful language. Continue reading →

3 Days 3 Quotes | Day 3

Niall O'Donnell 5 Comments

First, let me say thank you one last time to Fatma at https://aminfatma.wordpress.com/ for nominating me; I encourage you all to visit her site before you continue reading.

One last time, here are the rules:

  1. Thank the person who nominated you .
  2. Post a quote for 3 consecutive days ( 1 quote for each day )
  3. Nominate three new bloggers each day.

To end the challenge, I knew I had to go with my favourite author, and some of the best, most practical advice about writing in any format: Continue reading →

Profound

Niall O'Donnell 14 Comments

Being a response to the Daily Prompt: https://dailypost.wordpress.com/prompts/249091/

Profound, and its more common synonym deep, are quite versatile words. There’s the literal sense of the words, measuring how far down something goes. Though we tend to use just deep for that. You’re hardly going to go to the profound end of a swimming pool, perhaps to discuss Proust and the films of Ingmar Bergman.

And then there’s the more abstract meaning of the words, to describe something with an important, valuable intense meaning. Someone can be a very deep person, or a novel can have a very profound meaning. You can feel something, deep down in your heart. We tend to use profound more often in this sense though. You might make a profound statement, or have a profoundly inspiring experience. What makes profound so special that we reserve it for when things are so, well… profound? Continue reading →

Wherefore Must Thou Misquote Me?

Niall O'Donnell 24 Comments

I could write a number of different posts about William Shakespeare, and I probably will end up doing so. Genius is a word that can be thrown around too easily, but I think we can safely apply it to Shakespeare. The number of words he coined, the beauty of his language, and the thematic richness of his works are incomparable to much else. But I won’t write too much about him now. What I’m interested in for the moment is when people get Shakespeare wrong. There are many of his quotations everyone is familiar with, regardless of how much they know about his work. But quite often, we misquote or misinterpret them. For example: Continue reading →

Muckanaghederdauhaulia

Niall O'Donnell 14 Comments

The above is the longest place name in Ireland, and is obviously quite a mouthful. It’s an Anglicisation of the original Gaelic name Muiceneach idir Dhá Sháile, which, as you all know, means “pig-shaped hill between two seas.” Most modern placenames in Ireland are similar Anglicisations. For example, many Irish towns begin with Bally- or Balli-, coming from the Irish word Baile (town) being part of the original name. A town like Ballycastle would have originally been name Baile an Chaislean (town of the castle).

Such Anglicisation can lead to redundancy. This is often the case with rivers, as many of them begin with Owen-, from the Irish word abhainn, meaning river. So Abhainn Buí, meaning the Yellow River, was translated to the River Owenboy.

Some pretty ordinary sounding placenames have such origins, but some can be a bit of a mouthful due to some clumsy translation: Continue reading →

“Ok?” “Okay!”

Niall O'Donnell 33 Comments

Ok (or okay) is one of those words (like hiccup/hiccough), wherein I always thought the different spellings could be attributed to one being an older, more formal spelling of the word, and the other a modern abbreviation. I assumed that okay was the original spelling, and ok the modern version, after some clever individual realised that the two letters pronounced one after the other sounded the same as okay. But like hiccough and hiccup, I was wrong to assume so. Continue reading →