There are books that are good and books that are bad. Then you have the delightfully atrocious English As She Is Spoke — a book that is so bad that it is […]
James while John had had had had had had had had had had had a better effect on the teacher
If you have figured out how to derive the meaning of a sentence containing nothing other than eight uses of the word “buffalo,” then roll up your sleeves and tackle this beauty: […]
Is it Kitty-Corner or Catty-Corner?
Suppose a friend asks you for directions to the nearest coffee shop. Your friend knows how to get to the grocery store on the corner of Main Street and Oak Avenue. You […]
Join the Effort to Save These Words and Phrases From Extinction
They are on the precipice of extinction. Without decisive action, all fifty of them will be gone, only to appear as footnotes in the textbooks of the future. Saving them is going […]
An Important Distinction Between Trousers and Drawers
The English language is infinitely flexible, providing multiple synonyms for almost every word. While that is helpful in most situations, it can also contribute to some confusing and embarrassing slips of the […]
I Before E Except After C — And Other Lies Your Grammar Teacher Told You
“I” before “e,” except after “c,”Or when sounded as “a” as in “neighbor” and “weigh.” This easy-to-remember jingle is one of the first spelling rules we learned as children. It has been […]
How Do You Pronounce GIF?
There’s nothing we like better than to be able to write about a totally non-controversial subject. It is difficult to express our joy when the matter is so clear and accepted that […]
Andrew Carnegie and Theodore Roosevelt’s Doomed Effort to Simplify Spelling
Wy duz English hav such weerd spelling? Sum words uze silent letters. Others use dubel letters inconsistently for ekwal sounds, such as “blizzard” and “lizard.” Wat if we cud mak it eezy? […]
The Chaos — The Aptly-Named Poem About the Insanity of the English Language
Those of us who love the English language have to admit to a bit of schizophrenia about the love affair. On the one hand, English is an utterly-flexible and ever-changing language, allowing […]
Why Grammar Nerds Get Sick to Their Stomachs When You Say You Are Nauseous
Have you ever used the excuse of staying home, saying, “I feel nauseous”? You probably meant that you weren’t feeling well, and that is the way most people interpreted your words. It’s […]
Prisencolinensinainciusol — The Nonsensical Hit Song that Sounds Like English to Non-English Speakers
Italian pop star Adriano Celentano wrote a song that rose to hit No. 1 on Italy’s music charts but wasn’t in Italian. It was inspired by English, but its words weren’t from […]
What Happened to the Lost Letters of the English Alphabet?
Although the English language presents more than its fair share of challenges, its alphabet is pretty cut and dry. Granted, there are simpler alphabets to learn. Rotokas, spoken in parts of Papua […]
Take a Leap into Kangaroo Words
Have you ever heard of a “kangaroo word”? You may not recognize the term, but you use kangaroo words all the time. Just as an adult kangaroo carries a joey around in […]
Practicing Pandiculation
How often do you pandiculate? You may not be familiar with the word, but you almost certainly do it on a regular basis. Pandiculation is the act of stretching and yawning at […]
The First North American Bible Was in a Language No Longer Used
The Bible has been translated into over 3,000 languages (including Klingon, as is detailed in this post). The first Bible printed in North America was in one of those 3,000 languages — […]