Tag Archives: language

The Slang Dictionary from 1874

Dear Reader, As you may know by now I am fond of language and languages. On Ebook-Friendly I have discovered this little gem I really want to share with you: The Slang Dictionary from 1874 is hilarious (and you can download it for free) Do you know what “pin” is according to slang dictionary from 1874? Used in an expression… (more…)


15 most unbelievable words

Dear reader, Do you sometimes wonder about words? Yes? Welcome to the club. No? Prepare to enter the club. Grammar.net once prepared a list with 15 unbelievable words in English. Here is the list: Agerasia (n.) A lack of the signs of old ages; a youthful old age “The agerasia of that fellow is amazing; look at him darting around… (more…)


What is remarkable about this sentence?

“I do not know where family doctors acquired illegibly, perplexing, handwriting nevertheless, extraordinary pharmaceutical intelectuality counterbalancing indecipherability transcendentalizes intercommunication’s incomprehensibleness.” What is it about this twenty-word sentence that marks it out from the ordinary? No, there’s something other than the fact that it makes some sort of sense and the original writer had a remarkable vocabulary and a tendency to… (more…)


One book, two languages

Dear reader, I am venturing into an experiment. Through a series of events I had an idea for a new story. (Reminder to events: kindly  stop eventing for a while, my box with story-ideas is still overflowing. Thank you.) One of the events is co-writing a story with a friend. As she is Dutch and much better at Dutch than… (more…)


Mind your words

Dear reader, Have you ever noticed how much some words can sound alike and have a different meaning? It is surprising to me how many people have problems distinguishing between certain words. For instance affect and effect. Quite often I encounter bits of text (even in edited books) where these two words are mixed up. It didn’t effect me at all. This of… (more…)


Languages like English

Dear reader, I love languages. They fascinate me. Languages are the carriages with which we move our thoughts, ideas and emotions into the world, to other people, and it is incredible that there is such a plenitude of language on our Earth. English, French, Spanish, German, Italian, Turkish, Arabic, and many more. A while ago I was pondering the English… (more…)


12 Most Unforgivable Writing Mistakes

Posted by Jacqui MacKenzie on Mar 29, 2012 at 12most.com. We all make mistakes. But there are some mistakes that writers should know to never make. While the casual, personal tone of blogging has allowed us to be less formal with the written word, that doesn’t mean we can simply ignore the fundamental rules of writing and grammar. Certain typos can often… (more…)


ENGLISH IS A STUPID LANGUAGE

Lets face it English is a stupid language. There is no egg in the eggplant No ham in the hamburger And neither pine nor apple in the pineapple. English muffins were not invented in England French fries were not invented in France. We sometimes take English for granted But if we examine its paradoxes we find that Quicksand takes you… (more…)


A picture…

A picture tells a thousand words, as the saying goes. I discovered though, that same picture can tell different words depending on the person watching. In that respect the right words are much better. For this, we have writers. – Paul Kater


Paraprosdokians

Paraprosdokians are figures of speech in which the latter part of a sentence or phrase is surprising or unexpected; frequently humorous.  (Winston Churchill loved them.) Where there’s a will, I want to be in it. The last thing I want to do is hurt you. But it’s still on my list. Since light travels faster than sound, some people appear bright… (more…)


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