Have you ever wondered why we say tick-tock, King-Kong, and flip-flop? And why do kong-king and tock-tick sound so awkward to our ears? Why is it fiddle-faddle and pitter-patter rather than faddle-fiddle and patter-pitter? Why?…well ’cause! It turns out that this is one of the unwritten rules that English native speakers know, but don’t know they know. I will unravel this amazing rule here for you. Please bear with me.
Continue reading “Here is why we say Tick Tock, Flip-Flop, and Hip Hop, But not Tock Tick, Flop-Flip, or Hop Hip.”Category: Words
Major differences between American and British English.
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Americans and their British neighbors may share a language, but that doesn’t mean they speak exactly the same version of it. There are many unsubtle differences between British and American English that make each one unique, from small spelling changes to entirely different words for common concepts. GrammarCheck ingeniously illustrated these differences in a beautiful infographic that we brought to your fingertips. Check it out and share with us any other differences you think the infographic left out. Enjoy!
Continue reading “Major differences between American and British English.”10 Innocent words that sound completely inappropriate in other languages.
When you speak more than one language, you realize that words mean different things in different languages, even if they sound the same. Sometimes an innocent word in a language can sound really bad in another, and that’s where the real fun is. Below are some words that are completely innocuous in their native language but sound downright inappropriate and rude to the ears of speakers of other languages.
Continue reading “10 Innocent words that sound completely inappropriate in other languages.”These Are The Words With The Funniest And Weirdest Origins.
If you’re a language nerd, you probably find great joy in the origins of words. That’s because it’s fun! It’s always a joy to track the etymology of words. You can never know what you will find. Some words have pretty much fine etymologies. Other words, however, stun us with their completely unexpected etymologies. The Language Nerds did a little digging and compiled for you some of the words which have completely unexpected etymologies. Let’s see what we’ve got!
Continue reading “These Are The Words With The Funniest And Weirdest Origins.”20 Fascinating Words with no English Equivalent.
No language has all of the words, and English is no exception. While you can express the complex feeling of “insecurity, fear, concern, and envy over relative lack of possessions, status or something of great personal value, particularly in reference to a comparator, a rival, or a competitor.” with one word (i.e. jealousy), some other very simple concepts need to be expressed with more than one word, like the day after tomorrow. With input from our amazing followers at The Language Nerds, we have compiled a list of some of the most interesting words that exist in other languages but have no equivalent in English. You really don’t want to miss any of them.
Continue reading “20 Fascinating Words with no English Equivalent.”Here is why it is impossible to know how many words a language has.
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People like counting. People like to compare things. These two trends are exaggerated even further on the internet. So it’s no wonder that there are websites like this, Global Language Monitor, that tout that the number of words in English as some precise number (1,013,913 and growing at 15/day), as compared to woeful 2nd place finisher Mandarin.
English Words You Didn’t Know Come From Arabic.
Arabic is one of the most ancient, varied, and beautifully scripted languages. It is spoken by nearly 400 million users, placing it among the most 5 spoken languages in the world. Its influence on Spanish since the time of the Moors is well known, but what’s less well known is how many commonly used English words were actually taken from Arabic. English didn’t borrow all of the words directly; they mostly came filtered through Latin, Turkish, French, Spanish, German, and/or Italian, and have changed in form — and sometimes meaning — since they left Arabic. Here is a list:
Continue reading “English Words You Didn’t Know Come From Arabic.”