I’ll be driving to Cologne in the morning, so I may not get much writing done over the weekend.
Cologne of course, is a city in western Germany.
Cologne though, as in cologne with a lower-case C when it’s not at the start of a sentence, is something a man sprays on himself to smell nice.
The reason we use the name for both is pretty straightforward.
Yesterday, Donald Trump recognised (or recognized, if you prefer) Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. Don’t worry, I’m not going to get political this time. There’s nothing I can add to the numerous international condemnations of this move anyway. Once I’d finished shaking my head and sighing with resignation, I began to think about how apparently strange it is to use the verb to recognise in this way.
While writing yesterday, I was thinking about my tendency to think about language in general as I’m going about my daily life. Obviously this is something I do more often since beginning to work in the English-language teaching industry, but I realised that I’ve actually been doing it for a long time: just not in the same way.
I think about words quite a lot (you may not be surprised). I had an interesting example of this last night.
You? Why for you, both are correct!
😉
Seriously though, are both of these correct? Do they have the same meaning?
I hope today finds you well.
Yesterday I mentioned that well is quite a common filler in English, used to give us a moment to think, or even for no particular reason at all. After I finished writing, I asked myself, Why well?
In many ways, like is one of the most, well, disliked words in the English language. There are few words which are more synonymous with the perceived decline in ability to use English effectively among native speakers. How better to imitate lazy, inarticulate teenager than by peppering your speech with a few like‘s?
However, I have to ask: is like really so bad?
English-Language Thoughts 