Going Vegan

I’m not a vegan, nor am I planning to go vegan either. And I’m not a vegetarian either. I really like meat a lot. I did pretend to be a vegetarian once, though the pretence didn’t last long. But that’s another story. I really want to look at the word vegan. Continue reading

Furlough

This word has been in the news a lot lately, specifically American news stories. It’s mainly only used in American English, and for that reason I’ve actually never heard it spoken aloud. Continue reading

More Grammar Thoughts

I spent a little time in the classroom yesterday, correcting a test. One of the exercises required the students to finish the sentence Is the climate cold, or… with one of three options. One was …is it too hot? and another was …is it multicultural?

Obviously the correct answer was …is it too hot? But one student asked if …is it multicultural? could be right too. And of course it wasn’t, but then I thought: It also kind of is. Continue reading

Weird Flex, but OK…

This is slang, modern internet slang, as you’re probably aware. I’ve been aware of it now for a few months, so that means it’s probably about three or four years old. And already out of date.

You also probably know that flex in this context means boast. Until very recently though, I’d assumed it meant fetish. Continue reading

The Jakes

I’m still reading that Shakespeare book (work and househunting is time-consuming), and still learning interesting things. Well in this case, it was being reminded of something I’d heard about before: the jakes.

Continue reading

Bye-bye!

What is it that makes bye-bye so inherently juvenile compared to goodbye, or simply bye? Continue reading

Vavasour

Huh? Vavawhat?

Vavasour. Never heard of the word?

Don’t worry, neither had I before this evening.

It’s been an interesting couple of weeks for me. I’ve learned a few new English words. First there was neck-verse, and now vavasour. Though this one has nothing to do with Shakespeare. Continue reading