language thoughts

Shut the Gate

Niall O'Donnell 18 Comments

No-one would ever accuse the average tabloid writer of a great love for the breadth of the English language. They go for a particular sensationalist and informal tone, with a specific vocabulary, and stick with it. Unlike broadsheet journalists, who tend to play it down the middle or go highbrow, they have a particular house style. This is even more true for tabloid sub-editors, who write the headlines, except for the odd occasion when they go above and beyond the call of duty.

I’m thinking of a specific journalistic trend, which, in fairness, isn’t restricted to tabloid journalism. And that trend is the tendency to add the suffix -gate to a word to refer to any manner of scandal. Some notable recent examples include Continue reading →

The Best Words

Niall O'Donnell 20 Comments

I don’t like to get too overtly political in this blog. While I think everyone should be conscious of what’s going on around them, ultimately this blog is language-focussed, and I prefer to keep it that way. And while it’s hard not to avoid politics at the moment, I want to take a brief look at Donald John Trump, President of the United States of America, but specifically the words he uses. Continue reading →

Eleven

Niall O'Donnell 12 Comments

One of the first things most people do when learning a new language is to learn the numbers from 1 to 10, and shortly after that, from 11 to 20. And it’s generally quite easy to remember them in the case of European languages, as they’re somewhat similar to their English counterparts. Look at French, for example:

Un, deux, trois, quatre, cinq, six, sept, huit, neuf, dix.

Not necessarily all obvious individually, but seen all together, they’re clearly the first ten numbers. The same goes, I think, for 11 to 19:

Onze, douze, treize, quatorze, quinze, seize, dix-sept, dix-huit, dix-neuf.

Clearly a combination of ten and the relevant number, and the same applies to English (eighteen = eight + ten, for example). Except, that’s not quite true in every case, is it? What about 11 and 12? Continue reading →

Worst. Sentence. Ever!

Niall O'Donnell 11 Comments

If they wouldn’t have been released, I don’t know when I would have ended up seeing Star Wars, and if I wouldn’t have seen Star Wars when I did, I don’t think my life and career would be what it is now.

Yeesh, just look at that. Ok, maybe it’s not necessarily the worst sentence ever, but it’s an unwieldy beast to say the least. A little context: I came across this in an online article about the theatrical release of the “Special Editions” of the Star Wars films in 1997, and this sentence was a quote from someone asked about the impact the films had on her.

And that person chose to use a hypothetical situation, therefore all-but ensuring the presence of an if and a would, and making the sentence a little complex. Fair enough, but still! It’s longer that it need be. And look at all those would‘s. Every time I read it, knowing the meaning, it still has no rhythm to it at all. Really, just look at all those would‘s in there! Apart from how it reads in your head, there’s also the issue of meaning. The sentence gets so weighed down by the different conditions and outcomes contained within it that it’s hard to parse the intended meaning.

How to improve it then? Continue reading →

Note Well!

Niall O'Donnell 16 Comments

Latin, as I’ve probably mentioned quite a few times by now, has been very generous to the English language. We have many words which have evolved quite directly from Latin, as well as many other words which haven’t changed at all. Sometimes though, Latin phrases just sound too archaic, but still, they serve a very useful function. So we compromise, and abbreviate them. More specifically, we usually turn them into initialisms, like e.g. or i.e. that we use regularly. Let’s have a look at what these stand for, and what they mean… Continue reading →

What’s in a Name? Part II

Niall O'Donnell 1 Comment

As it’s been a while since I did a post like this, and lately I’ve been thinking about some interesting names, I decided that once more I wanted to look at the meaning and origins of some common English-language names. So then…

… what’s in a name?

Continue reading →

Hey! You!

Niall O'Donnell 11 Comments

Yeah, you.

It’s a strange word, you, when you think about it for too long.

You.

It’s the only personal pronoun to be both a subject pronoun and an object pronoun. You can say You talked to him and He talked to you, but never Him talked to you and You talked to he.

It’s also used as both a singular and plural pronoun, in standard English at least. Because it’s sometimes confusing when someone says you and we don’t know if they’re talking to us alone or to as part of a group, colloquial plural forms of you do exist around the world.

Continue reading →