Earlier in the year we reported on how Cambridge city council in the UK had decided not to use apostrophes in street signs and how examiners for Cambridge Assessment (the ones who do all the TEFL exams) had supported this idea. It was, of course, ridiculous of them to do […]
How hard is it to learn English? Well that’s not easy for me to say since I’ve been learning it since the day I was born (actually, recent research suggests I’ve been learning it since I was in the womb1). But it got me thinking. I searched around a bit […]
Please… whatever else you do… spell GRAMMAR with an A at the end and not an E. GRAMM A R – yes GRAMM E R – no According to Google, a search for ‘grammer’ brings up over 4 million hits. Google results for GRAMMER However, things seem to be getting […]
An interesting sideline to the eternal debate about taboo words. The BBC reports that the English term, shitstorm, considered by many to be vulgar and not a word to be used in public as such, has entered the German vocabulary. However, it has entered as a perfectly acceptable term and, […]
Explaining the difference What to Know: Capitol has a rather narrow meaning referring to a building or group of buildings in which a legislative body meets and performs the functions of government. Capital has a wide range of meanings: as an adjective, it can mean “important,” “relating to the seat […]