Dealing with delays
If you’ve been near an airport this summer there’s a good chance that you’ve come across the English word ‘DELAYED’ at some point. Delays seem to be a fact of personal and professional life these days, but this is dangerous territory if you have to do business with...Saying the Months in English
What the February…? In my previous blog, I recognised how hard it is to pronounce the days of the week in mydysfunctional language. This time, we’re dealing with the months, so there are twelve of thebastards, but the good news is that not all of them bite… Badly...
Blue Mondays
A History of the Days of the Week in English (And how to pronounce them) When it came to calendar stuff, Germanic people generally copied the Romans, who named their days of the week after gods or planets. The traditional first day was given the name of the most...
AS for AS
Last time, I tried to summarise the uses of the keyword LIKE in English. This time, I’m attacking its confusing partner in crime: the even-more-useful AS. AS versus LIKE The first problem with this word for many people is how to distinguish it from LIKE. I said last...