Heh heh: Uranus!
No other celestial body has been so generous to the English language in terms of puns as Uranus, owing to its pronunciation. But you’ve probably noticed that there are two common pronunciations: Uranus (/jʊərənəs/, emphasis on the first syllable), and Uranus (/jʊreənəs/, emphasis on the second syllable: look, this is the one that sounds like your anus). Which one is correct? Continue reading
I don’t have enough time to finish this project!
What time is it?
I’ve been to France four times.
Three times two is six.
Those four sentences are all pretty simple, aren’t they? They’re the kind of sentences you might use in everyday situations without thinking about them. But look more closely at that word they all have in common: time. Continue reading
I came across an interesting false friend recently, when a student referred to a person as genial. Now, this might seem fine to me, but is was clear from the context that a word like brilliant would have been more appropriate. How can we explain this seemingly strange error, confusing two such obviously different words? Continue reading
It’s not at all uncommon to come across homonyms in English: words that are spelled and pronounced identically, but have entirely different meanings. Today though, I thought for the first time about a rather curious example of this: light. Continue reading
The word adamant (unwilling to change one’s opinion, certain in one’s belief) is a very interesting word. And if you read Greek mythology, fantasy literature, and/or comic books, you might know why… Continue reading
You’ve probably noticed this phrase (and of course you hate to see it) online in the last year or so, particularly on Twitter. I’ve got no patricularly strong feelings about the expression itself, but it has made me think a lot about how language spreads, and how that’s changed recently. Continue reading
I was listening to Radiohead this afternoon, specifically their most recent album, A Moon Shaped Pool (it’s pretty good).
I’d noticed, as I often have before, the pun in the lyrics of the song “Decks Dark:” in split infinity. A play, of course, on split infinitive, but it made a question come to my mind that had never occurred to me before: what’s the link between the words infinity and infinitive? Continue reading
English-Language Thoughts 