Interesting Word Origins
Most words are very old. Even though English (in the way we speak it today) has only existed for around 300 years, the roots of most words can be traced back for thousands...
Monthly Archive: January 2018
10-Minute Pronunciation Boost 2: This or these? Yolks and jokes.
If English vowels were as simple as Spanish vowels, then I wouldn’t be writing this article. In Spanish, there are 5 vowels, and 5 vowel sounds. Perfect. In English, however, there are the same...
How to be polite in extreme circumstances.
Admit it. Sometimes, you want to tell a customer how annoying they are. You are only human, and your urge to point out stupidity is a completely normal human response. However, you...
“I was fast asleep with the window wide open!” Single-use intensifiers.
While I was teaching an English class recently, I described a car as being “brand new”. A student asked me what “brand” means in this context, and I said “Very”; like “very new”....
New Years Resolutions 2018
Every year, hundreds of thousands of people make New Year’s Resolutions; a promise to oneself to stop or start a habit for the month of January, or, hopefully, a lot longer. People quit smoking,...
