language thoughts

How did the Oceans Get their Names?

Niall O'Donnell 16 Comments

Quite simply, in the case of the Pacific at least.

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Learning English with Yoda

Niall O'Donnell 11 Comments

…is not a good idea. But let’s see what we can do. Even if you’re not a big Star Wars fan (I quite like the original three and Rogue One, though I first saw the originals when I was 14, slightly too old for them to really have a nostalgic hold on me. The Force Awakens, the first new Star Wars film in 32 years, is OK, but a bit derivative), you probably know Yoda.

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Get your Mind out of the… Restroom? Euphemisms for Toilet

Niall O'Donnell 23 Comments

Seriously, please. After I wrote about eau de Cologne recently, a few of you referred to eau de toilette in the comments, and it’s clear similarity to the English word toilet (and in fact, eau de toilette could be directly translated as toilet water).

Toilet is a surprisingly interesting word. On the surface of course it just refers to the object that stands in your bathroom, but how and when people use it (the word, not the actual toilet) varies quite a bit around the world.

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Almost…Almost…!!

Niall O'Donnell 4 Comments

While searching for a bathroom in a hospital in Liège this morning (I’m OK, I was donating blood, and I’m writing this on Friday afternoon, so I’m not in Cologne yet), I began to become slightly concerned, as one was hard to find, and I really needed to go. I began to think I’d have to ask someone for directions, and as I do when I know in advance what I’ll need to say in a certain situation, I quickly went through what I’d say in French:

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Cologne

Niall O'Donnell 15 Comments

I’ll be driving to Cologne in the morning, so I may not get much writing done over the weekend.

Cologne of course, is a city in western Germany.

Cologne though, as in cologne with a lower-case C when it’s not at the start of a sentence, is something a man sprays on himself to smell nice.

The reason we use the name for both is pretty straightforward.

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I Recognise You…

Niall O'Donnell 4 Comments

Yesterday, Donald Trump recognised (or recognized, if you prefer) Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. Don’t worry, I’m not going to get political this time. There’s nothing I can add to the numerous international condemnations of this move anyway. Once I’d finished shaking my head and sighing with resignation, I began to think about how apparently strange it is to use the verb to recognise in this way.

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Taking Things Literally

Niall O'Donnell 7 Comments

While writing yesterday, I was thinking about my tendency to think about language in general as I’m going about my daily life. Obviously this is something I do more often since beginning to work in the English-language teaching industry, but I realised that I’ve actually been doing it for a long time: just not in the same way.

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