Lifestyles
Watch your language: The beauty and challenge of writing in another language
Grading short essays and compositions in Spanish can be both rewarding and frustrating. Native speakers of English learning…
Latest Watch your Language
Lifestyles
Watch Your Language: Language rules can be perplexing
It turns out that this semester I have had to teach past participles to students in two different…
Lifestyles
Watch Your Language: Is this correct or is it a blooper?
It’s June, the regular school year is finished, and it’s time to relax with a new set of…
Lifestyles
Watch your Language — Correct or incorrect use?
Today’s language column is devoted to a look at the many ways in which everyday language use can…
Lifestyles
Watch your language — Learning a lesson in language
was in the south of England a few weeks ago (part of a research trip to learn more…
Lifestyles
Watch your language — The wrong word often slips in to a sentence
It’s July and while tomatoes are just starting to turn red and we’re waiting for a tasty harvest,…
Lifestyles
Typos and Errors
Today’s column presents the latest batch of typos and errors. Typos are often due to our typing quickly…
Lifestyles
Watch your language — ‘There are leeks in the bottle’
This column is dedicated to another set of examples of those pesky little misspellings and grammatical infelicities that…
Lifestyles
An autumnal harvest of bloopers
Language and the multiple ways we use and misuse it continue to fascinate many of us. In these…
Lifestyles
Insights from a forgotten food writer
If you’ve never heard the name Clementine Paddleford and you enjoy reading good writing, then you are in…
Lifestyles
It’s been a year filled with ‘uniquities’
While some things have changed in our recent past, other things remain the same. Bloopers abound, and they…
Lifestyles
COLUMN — Board game explores sayings from around the world
If you are looking for a new game to play during the holidays, you may be interested in…
Lifestyles
Some thoughtful sayings to ponder
This column is dedicated to interesting, inspirational and/or original sayings from mainly U.S. English. A future column will…
Lifestyles
‘Class’ical spelling issues abound
This past academic year was one of the most challenging and unforgettable years many of us have ever…
Lifestyles
Out of the mouths of children
As we continue to confront the consequences of the coronavirus and deal with the effects, humor is more…
Lifestyles
Fun with puns and signs
In the spirit of keeping things light and cheery, while keeping a keen eye on our language, today’s…
Lifestyles
Some levity from church bulletin faux pas
Because we are living in strange and uncertain times, I thought I’d dedicate this column to bringing a…
Lifestyles
More bloopers
‘Tis the season not only for more bloopers but for unpleasant illnesses for students. I received an email…
Lifestyles
What’s in a word
A few weeks ago, a colleague in math, who is keenly aware of language patterns and inconsistencies, asked…
Lifestyles
Books about language
With all the back-to-school preparations and focus, this is a good time for a column dedicated to books…
Lifestyles
Duel enrollment, large rolls and participation grapes
If you caught the last episode of “Call the Midwife” you might recall that Fred, the Nonnatus House…
Lifestyles
The formation of words
The study of the formation of words is morpohology. Morph is from the Greek meaning form or shape…
Lifestyles
More from the Great British Baking Show
With the enormous popularity of the Great British Baking Show, the U.S. audience enjoys seeing the competition in…
Lifestyles
Language bloopers
It’s time for another column on language bloopers, those unexpected and humorous misuses of words and phrases that…
Lifestyles
Translation humor
This semester I’m teaching a class in translation from Spanish to English. One of the texts I enjoy…
Lifestyles
Toponymy, study of place names
Toponymy is the study of place names and this column explores some of the many interesting and unusual…
Lifestyles
Is everything tickety-boo?
It wasn’t too long ago that PBS broadcast a wonderful show from the BBC called “My Mother and…