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
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
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
You might have noticed this structure used by native speakers, particularly from Ireland or the UK. And you might have thought: Well that’s not right. It should be I was sitting there, shouldn’t it?
Yes, it should. But also, well, not really, no. Let’s investigate… Continue reading
This sentence is one any English teacher working online has possibly heard quite often recently. Or, more likely, We don’t listen you!
Of course, We don’t listen you is clearly not the correct sentence to use if your teacher’s been rendered momentarily inaudible. But what about We don’t hear you!? To a native speaker, that’s clearly not correct either. But why? Continue reading
Until recently, I would probably have told you that easier is the only correct version. Now though, I’m not sure it’s quite so simple. Continue reading
English-Language Thoughts 