thoughts on the English language

An Orgy of Evidence

Niall O'Donnell 2 Comments

While writing yesterday’s post about future forms, I took a little time to think of useful example sentences for each form. Not as much time as I might in the classroom though because if you’re reading this you know and use these forms quite well, either through being a native speaker, or having learned to a high enough level to be able to read blogs in English. The examples therefore didn’t need to do any heavy lifting in terms of demonstrating meaning.

But of course that’s different for people who are still figuring things out, and therefore need a little more guidance. Consider the following exchange:

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English Lessons for Experts: The Future

Niall O'Donnell 7 Comments

Having already looked at how we talk about the present and the past, let’s have a look at how we talk about the future in English. You’re probably feeling confident now: maybe you were initially surprised at the complexity of how we refer to the present and/or the past, but now you’ve got this figured out, and you can easily identify how we refer to the future. OK, well, let’s see.

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Elbow Grease and Snipe Hunts

Niall O'Donnell 7 Comments

Elbow grease. This is a term that’s long bugged me. It never really seemed logical. How exactly could it relate to hard work or effort? The grease I can kind of understand as a metaphor, because it could make a job easier if it involved moving stubborn parts. But why elbow?

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Words for Things You (Probably) Didn’t Know Had Names (Except for “Aglet,” Because Everyone Knows that now)

Niall O'Donnell 6 Comments

Estimates vary as to the number of words in the English language (171,476 in current use according to the OED), but for most of us, it’s not really important, as we never use the vast majority of them. But what exactly are these other words? A lot of them are scientific and technical terms we never come across or need to know. But there are quite a few words to describe common situations or objects, that you may not have known had names at all. Such as…

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Twin Peaks

Niall O'Donnell 9 Comments

You might be aware that the classic early 90s TV programme Twin Peaks is returning tonight. In an era of so many different viewing choices, in terms of both content and medium, it’s hard to imagine how much it was talked about when it first aired. Even though I was only six at the time, I still remember everybody talking about it, and have never forgotten the image of a bloody and battered Ronette Pulaski walking along the train tracks.

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Supposably

Niall O'Donnell 14 Comments

I can still clearly remember watching an old episode of Friends when I was much younger, which featured a scene in which Chandler explained that he had dumped a girlfriend because she pronounced supposedly as supposably. I immediately had a moment of panic until I reassured myself that I had been pronouncing the word correctly. I had doubted myself for a second because supposably actually sounds quite natural, and I could easily imagine pronouncing it that way without really thinking about it.

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Blogging Anniversary

Niall O'Donnell 19 Comments

It’s hard to believe that I’ve been doing this for a year now. It really only feels like a few months ago. A really big thanks to everyone who’s been reading and commenting. I hope you’ve found something interesting and perhaps illuminating every now and then. It makes it much easier to put in the work to write regularly when you know someone’s going to read it, so thank you.

It’s a strange thing, writing.

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