It’s football time again! I can’t believe it’s only been two years since I last thought about the English language and football.
Are you excited about the World Cup? Continue reading
Hat-Trick
languages
Why do so Many Negative Words Begin with N?
No, not, nothing, neither, nor, none, nil, no-one, nobody, nowhere.
Notice a pattern?
Why do so many negative words begin with N? Continue reading
Lie or Lie?
Lying is bad. Except when you’re tired, and need to go to bed, in which case, it’s good. Continue reading
Ha Ha, Charade You Are!
Well, I’m a badass Cowboy livin’ in the Cowboy days.
Wiggy, wiggy, scratch, yo, yo, bang, bang.
Me and Artemus Clyde frog go save Salma Hayek from the big metal spider.
A wiggy wig wig wiggy wiggy wig
Fresh cowboy from the west side
Wiggy wiggy scratch yo yo bang bang
Me and Artemus Clyde frog go save Salma frog polly prissy pants
Go down to, well… rumpletumpskin
Yes, this is the second post I’ve got from a single song. One thing that really struck me when listening to “Pigs (Three of Them)” was the phrase in the title. I’d heard it before, you see, and I knew straight away from where. Continue reading
Hey you, Whitehouse!
I was listening to my newest musical purchase, Pink Floyd’s Animals, today (I’m hip to the music of 1977). Continue reading
Saint Martin/Sint Maarten
I occasionally like to visit this site’s statistics to have a look at all you lovely readers come from. I’m always amazed and grateful to see people from all over the world (I’d love to know if the two visits from Greenland were two different people, or the same person visiting two different pages).
It was interesting to notice that I’ve had a few visits from both Saint Martin and Sint Maarten. Continue reading
There is or There are?
This isn’t something I’ve ever really wondered. For a native English speaker, which one to use is rarely in doubt. Sure some regional dialects might use is and are in non-standard ways, but if asked, most speakers of these dialects would know the “proper” form of the verb to be to use.
Which is why I was surprised to see the following headline on the BBC website: Continue reading
English-Language Thoughts 