The English language is illogical: is it because it’s a mixture of so many different languages?
The English language is illogical: is it because it’s a mixture of so many different languages?
Native speakers of English don’t really realize how absolutely insane some of the rules of the language can be – even teachers of English can sometimes find the rules they need to teach their students dizzying, and with so many exceptions, they often seem a bit more like guidelines that steadfast anchors. English spelling can(…)
English is a quirky language. Because it’s been constantly changing and borrowing from other languages for hundreds of years, it’s no surprise that the spellings of some words make little to no sense at all. From silent letters to vowel and consonant combinations that are pronounced differently despite looking similar, it can be quite confusing(…)
Hanukkah is nearly over for this year, but there’s still time to consider how it’s spelt: Chanukah or Hanukkah? The Jewish Festival of Lights apparently has no “correct” spelling – it is a transliteration of a Hebrew word into English. Rabbi Daniel Zemel of Washington, DC was asked by NPR about the spelling, and this(…)
Some people are more fastidious about correct spelling and grammar than others. Then there are those that take their passion for correction to a new level – like Jeff Deck and Benjamin D. Herson. Deck and Herson travelled around the perimeter of America, looking for typos and attempting to correct them. And now they’ve written(…)
Workers in North Carolina misspelled the word ‘school’ – on a road leading to a high school. Instead of the correct spelling, they painted “shcool” on the road to mark out the school zone. Perhaps they were trying to show how cool it is to go to school? (Source: BBC News)
The annual Scripps National Spelling Bee often provokes wonder – at the words that the kids are asked to spell, at the kids themselves for spelling them – but seems fairly non-controversial. At this year’s event though, there were protesters. They weren’t protesting because they thought terribilita was a made up word. They weren’t protesting(…)