What a glorious thing it is to have Henry V represented on stage, leading the French king prisoner, and forcing both him and the Dolphin to swear fealty.
The above are the words of the English Elizabethan writer Thomas Nashe, as quoted in 1599: A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare, which I’m obviously getting a lot of inspiration from. What obviously interested me about that quote was… the Dolphin. Continue reading
Last week I wrote about the word animator, and how we don’t use it in a general sense in English. Reading about the word though, I did discover that English features the word animateur. Continue reading
You might understandably be confused if you heard someone say this. At least if you’re in an English-speaking country. Continue reading
Q is unique among the letters of the English alphabet in that it always has to be partnered with another letter (not counting loanwords like Quran, Qatar, and Iraq).
Why does it always have to be followed by a U? Continue reading
I had crème brûlée for dessert this evening.
I’m not normally so decadent, but it was a special occasion, so why not have some fine French food? Continue reading
MILK!!
Did you hear me!? I said MILK!!
I had to laugh when I saw this today. I get the idea of course. Milk seems pretty healthy, so why not emphasise that ingredient? If it were the main ingredient, the manufacturers wouldn’t need to do anything, as it’d be listed first (did you know that ingredients are always listed in descending order of how of them much are featured in the product?) Continue reading
I’d never heard of Barbara L’Italien, an American politician with the Democratic party, before today. She was accidentally invited onto a Fox “News” programme instead of a Democratic supporter of ICE, the U.S Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency. With L’Italien being a staunch critic of ICE, the interview didn’t exactly go as the hosts had planned: Continue reading
English-Language Thoughts 