Collective nouns: Un meurtre de corbeaux? (Fr) / Un asesinato de cuervos (Sp) / Ein Mord von Krähen
The eccentric collective nouns in English are more fun than useful, but do they have the equivalent absurdities in other languages?
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Andrew Wenger
- May 1
- 6 min
A lot of 'nyms', and a bit of nimbyism
The suffix -nym comes from Greek (name). We all know about synonyms and acronyms, but what about contronyms and exonyms? And plenty more...
Andrew Wenger
- Apr 2
- 3 min
“As camp as a mushroom”
Which is the odd one out: mushrooms, Champagne, bell-ringing, effeminate behaviour? The Latin word 'campus' has fathered most of them...
Andrew Wenger
- Feb 28
- 5 min
The Celtic influence on English
English is between 2 stools: A Germanic language heavily influenced by Latin/French? Vice versa? The role of Celtic is often over-looked...
Andrew Wenger
- Jan 28
- 4 min
What are phrasal verbs (in English)?
Phrasal verbs: The 2nd in the series of hints about an aspect of English, and how this knowledge can be useful when learning Latin languages
Andrew Wenger
- Oct 9, 2022
- 2 min
What links monks, coffee and crested tits?
The word 'cappuccino' crops up in several contexts, with almost as many spellings. Here's how several semantic tangents can all meet up...
Andrew Wenger
- Jun 27, 2022
- 2 min
Abbreviations, acronyms and initialisms
FYI, RSVP is not an acronym, it's an initialism. LOL, however, appears to be making the change. Are you confident to tell which is which?
Andrew Wenger
- May 31, 2022
- 3 min
Question tags
Question tags are tricky in English, aren't they? Some great news: They are dead easy in other languages ¿no? Read on for reassurance
Andrew Wenger
- Dec 27, 2021
- 1 min
27 Patching Mares Day 3
Can you find a link between the pics, or as Dr Spooner might have said, a pink between the licks?
Andrew Wenger
- Dec 18, 2021
- 3 min
18 Is English a particularly “rich” language?
To put the title question another way: Are there more synonyms in English than in other languages? The simple answer is yes. The Oxford...
Andrew Wenger
- Dec 16, 2021
- 1 min
16 The peak is not the goal
Pausing for breath you look up from the steep mountain path and see nothing but blue sky beyond the ridge, visible only now that the mist...
Andrew Wenger
- Dec 15, 2021
- 3 min
15 What’s in your Portsmouth?
Some eponymous inventions from around the world One of the best things about teaching/learning languages is that there is always an...
Andrew Wenger
- Dec 8, 2021
- 1 min
7 December: The stress of language-speaking
Discussion point: “English is the most tonal of all European languages.” The Swede could make a similar claim, but they do it in a...
Andrew Wenger
- Aug 11, 2021
- 4 min
The language of football
Whichever foreign language you are studying, you may or may not be familiar with the nomenclature of English Sunday-league football. Voilà
Andrew Wenger
- Jul 21, 2021
- 5 min
“In case of fire, please alarm the hotel porter” and other amusing mistranslations
Humour: one of the best tools of the linguist, whether to understand the target language/culture or to laugh at ourselves - and with others
Andrew Wenger
- Jul 7, 2021
- 3 min
Skimming stones
Reflections, skimming stones on a Swedish lake, the silence is total.
Andrew Wenger
- Jun 16, 2021
- 1 min
Word nerd and bird nerd
Learning birds' names in foreign languages is considered 'next level' vocabulary. Here's a start...
Andrew Wenger
- May 6, 2021
- 3 min
How to type special characters/accents on foreign words
how to type accents on foreign words, special characters, “diacritics”. Here is a range of options for how to do it
Andrew Wenger
- Mar 9, 2021
- 2 min
French animal idioms
Learning idiomatic expressions in a foreign language can pose a series of challenges, but feels great when you get it right
Andrew Wenger
- Feb 20, 2021
- 2 min
Dodging the machine gun Spanish bullets
Are you learning Spanish? Of the four main skills: reading, writing, listening and speaking, which do you find the most difficult to make...
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