I’ve been thinking recently of lots of the finer details of learning a second language. Maybe that’s because I’ve because I’ve been doing some speaking examining, and that really requires you to pay close attention to what people are (and aren’t!) saying. Continue reading
Recently I was talking to a student about the pronunciation of the word duty. And as is so often the case with English, it became one of those well-it-depends moments. Continue reading
A common question that comes up in the English-language classroom is, what’s the difference between seeing and looking? And sometimes watching is thrown in there for good measure.
Explaining them is pretty straightforward. Continue reading
I might not write that expression many more times in my life. I might actually have never written it before to be honest, but I’m probably less likely to use it from now on.
Just as I might not mention that yawning, for example, is contagious very often. And that would of course be due to the current coronavirus pandemic. Continue reading
Hello from quarantine!
Yes, I’m currently under quarantine here in Palermo, as part of the national lockdown in Italy to curb the spread of COVID-19. Continue reading
Yes, but how many? Wait, that doesn’t make sense, does it…?
Obviously you can’t say four clothes or five clothes. But why? Continue reading
Without getting too political, I’ll just say that this word has been in the news quite a bit today. After seeing it a few times, I began to wonder if there perhaps were an interesting story behind it.
And of course there is! Continue reading
English-Language Thoughts 