English

What Yacht?

Niall O'Donnell 2 Comments

Just  a short post tonight as it’s late, I’ve had three pints of delicious local Buried at Sea chocolate stout, and I’m quite tired after watching Ireland dramatically beat Italy in the European Championships to qualify for the next round.

I think those last two might be related actually…

Also, well done to Wales, Northern Ireland and England for also qualifying. And well done to Italy and my Italian friends who might be reading this: you still finished top of the group, though I’m not sure playing Spain is a fair reward for that!

Anyway, less football, more English. These last few days, there’s been quite a nice yacht in Galway docks and out sailing in the bay. Apparently it’s a superyacht, according to Google. Well. it’s certainly very nice. Seeing its mast over the rooftops of the Claddagh as I’ve walked to work in the mornings has made think again about how strange the word yacht is.

Yacht.

Look at it there, with a silent ch and not caring who knows about it! It’s the only modern English word with a silent ch.

Pronouncing ch as the old Greek /k/ as in charisma, character and psyche? No problem.

Or with a soft, swishy French /ʃ/ as in machine, chef or machete? Oui, bien sûr!

But a silent ch!? It takes a really special word to get away with that. A word like yacht. Continue reading →

The Error of our Ways

Niall O'Donnell 8 Comments

After doing my shopping today, I was approached by a young couple. They were from Argentina, and were travelling round Ireland as part of their journey across Europe. They were looking for the apartment they were couchsurfing in (I hate giving directions in Galway, as there are too many small, non-parallel streets, and no-one in Galway knows streetnames apart from the best-known ones).

I spoke with them for a bit and was impressed by their level of English. I knew immediately that they were Spanish speakers, but they spoke quite fluently, and were very easy to understand. Of course they made some tiny errors, none of which affected my ability to understand them, and I probably didn’t notice some other errors. That can actually be a drawback to teaching English: you get so used to some of the more common errors that you stop noticing them. Continue reading →

What’s in a Name?

Niall O'Donnell 5 Comments

I thought today I’d write a short post about some common names, and their origins. I’m always interested in names, where they come from, and the links between names and other names, and words in general. Here are a few of my favourites: Continue reading →

IT

Niall O'Donnell 18 Comments

Where would the English language be without this simple two-letter word? Without it we wouldn’t be able to refer to an object that isn’t clearly male or female for a second time, without repeating the whole word. Like any pronoun it makes speech and writing simpler and more fluid.

But it also has its little quirks. Like when we say:

It’s raining.

What’s raining?

Just, it, you know? It’s raining!

See also it’s cold, it’s quiet, it’s five o’clock etc.

The meaning of these sentences wouldn’t cause much difficulty for any students, beyond absolute beginners. Yet some people still get confused by them because they expect it to refer to something concrete. This is another classic case of confusion caused by thinking about what grammatical rules would seem to demand, as opposed to looking at the practical use of language. It might not seem to make sense to use it when it doesn’t refer to a clear object, yet, every English sentence needs a subject, and impersonal verb phrases don’t have an agent doing the action, so let’s just stick It at the beginning of the sentence and not think too much about it. Continue reading →

Getting Rid of your Accent?

Niall O'Donnell 10 Comments

While in London recently, I came across a book entitled Get Rid of Your Accent: The English Pronunciation and Speech Training Manual. My initial reaction was to get quite annoyed, and my feeling hasn’t really changed since then. Accents and pronunciation are often on my mind, as an English teacher, and at the time I was particularly conscious of this area of language as I was on a course with fellow teachers from England, The Isle of Man, Scotland, Australia, India, Serbia and Portugal. Everyone of course had quite different accents, but was perfectly comprehensible, which is obviously important for an English teacher.

And comprehensibility is naturally a primary concern for language students. You want to make sure that people can understand you when you speak. Which is why I understand when students are concerned about their accent causing communication problems. And that can happen, depending on the person’s native tongue, nationality, and particular way of speaking. Therefore one can help students with developing their accent in terms of certain words and phrases, or specific sounds. But getting rid of one’s accent? Not only do I think that it’s never necessary, I actually find the thought quite abhorrent. Continue reading →

Isn’t it Ironic, Don’t you Think?

Niall O'Donnell 15 Comments

Irony is a concept that’s referred to quite often, but can be very hard to define. People tend to say something is ironic when it’s coincidental, or simply interesting or unusual in some way.

So what, specifically, is irony? There are a few different varieties, but in the most basic sense, irony always features a complete contrast between something’s surface appearance and its true nature. Continue reading →

Stop the Monkey Planet, I Want to Get Off

Niall O'Donnell 6 Comments

—Have you seen the new Monkey Planet film?

—The what?

—Monkey Planet! You know the ones with the talking monkeys. That guy’s in this one, what’s his name, James Franco. It’s pretty good.

—Monkey Planet!?

—Yeah, you know the first one, it’s from the 60s, with the astronauts and they crash land on a planet with talking monkeys!

—Are you ok?

—Monkey Planet, it’s a classic, how do you not know it!

—You’re talking nonsense, I’m leaving!

—Monkey Planet!! Ah, putain, attend, en anglais c’est Planet of the Apes!

Monkey Planet. Beneath the Monkey Planet. Escape from the Monkey Planet. Conquest of the Monkey Planet. Battle for the Monkey Planet. Tim Burton’s ill-advised Monkey Planet remake. Rise of the Monkey Planet. Dawn of the Monkey Planet. Untitled Monkey Planet Sequel.

How many of these films would you like to see (Battle for the Monkey Planet sounds like it could be good fun to be honest)?

They might all sound like fun, but aren’t they lacking the grativas of the title Planet of the Apes? It’s a good thing that the film’s producers went with that title then. But that wasn’t always the case… Continue reading →