You probably won’t be amazed if I tell you that the past simple and past participle forms of regular verbs in English are formed by adding -d or -ed. You also wouldn’t be very surprised if I told you that that E is usually silent, except when it follows a T or D (e.g. contrast commenced and finished with started and ended).
What about a word like beloved then? Continue reading
What voice do you read in? Whenever I read, it’s just my own voice I hear in my head, like when I’m thinking to myself. And that works fine. Most of the time, anyway, but then sometimes I’ll read something which makes this seemingly normal practice feel a bit odd. Continue reading
Laurel, obviously.
While writing about the word Bluetooth the other day, I was struck by how obviously unusual it seems for a name for wireless technology, yet how equally not unusual at all it seems.
This evening I was at my parents’ house, watching a little TV after Sunday dinner. I don’t really watch much TV anymore, at least not in the conventional broadcast sense, apart from Sunday afternoons at home. Gaelic football matches are the usual background noise to Sunday-afternoon dinner, but we had it a bit later today, so I found myself watching an interesting nature programme.
Is the T silent or not?
If you start a new job, or agree to buy something, you might have to sign a contract.
The word contract was originally usually used to refer to marriage, and comes from the Latin com (with, together) and trahere (to draw). Which makes sense really: if you give marry someone, you’re agreeing to draw closer together, and if you sign a contract with a company, you’re agreeing to draw together with them.
Isn’t if funny though, when we use contract as a verb?
English-Language Thoughts 