I’ll have to make up some excuse for why I’m late.
They often argue, but they always make up soon afterwards.
Let me just finish putting on my make-up and then we can go.
I’m often impressed by the economy of the English language.
Make Up
language learning
2018 Goals
I don’t have any 2018 goals to be honest. I just wanted to set that out straight away so you’re not disappointed. I’m one of those terrible people who never set New Year’s resolutions.
I don’t have any particular problem with them. I just think that if you want to make some change, you don’t need to wait for a particular point in time to start. And if it’s a big change, it’s probably better to ease into it, rather than making a sudden change. The word goal though, is somewhat interesting to me.
What Time is it?
A pretty straightforward question generally, but one with a surprisingly complex range of possible answers.
Can I Get a Coffee?
There are many things that annoy us about how others use our native tongue. That’s just the way our brains work. There’s one interesting example though, that’s often mentioned by British-English speakers: Can I get…?
I Me Mine
Over breakfast today, thinking about what to write today, I noticed this article on the BBC website:
Colon
While writing about military ranks last week, I wondered if the word colony, which I’d touched on briefly the week before, was related to the word column, from whose Italian translation the word colonel comes from.
My mind then thought of other words, like colony and colon: maybe they could be related too. Colony, maybe that comes from the Latin for column, columna, because it originally referred to a garrison town, where a column of soldiers were stationed. That sounds plausible, doesn’t it?
In One Fell Swoop
In a news article today about the new US tax bill, the writer said:
In one fell swoop, the Republicans have introduced some of the largest changes…
In one fell swoop is a pretty common phrase, perhaps almost to the point of cliché. But where does it come from, and what exactly does it mean?
English-Language Thoughts 