Jan 6, 2025 Chunk of the day, Chunks, Lexis Maritime English 1 I guess the vocabulary of every language is shaped by the history and geography of the places it developed in – and English is no exception. The United Kingdom has almost 8000 miles of coastline and a long history as a seafaring nation, so it’s no surprise that many words and phrases that were originally […]
Dec 20, 2023 Chunk of the day, Chunks More fictional characters who appear in everyday English After the positive reception that my last post on literary figures in everyday speech got, I figured it made sense to write a follow-up exploring the way the names of some more fictional characters are used in daily conversation. Today, we’ll look at five famous characters and consider how they’ve passed into the language. First […]
Dec 6, 2023 Chunks, Word of the day Word of the day: Harry Pottered out I spent last Friday and Saturday in Bologna, Italy, where I was talking at an excellent conference for English-language teachers. In one of the talks that I saw, a teacher was describing a one-week summer school course for kids that she’d helped organise. The week had been based around the Harry Potter books, so kids had made their own costumes, acted […]
Dec 5, 2023 Chunk of the day, Chunks From a trickle to a flood: water metaphors and their emotional pull One of the most depressing things about British politics right now – and trust me, there are plenty of things to get depressed about – is the fact that there aren’t really any mainstream politicians who’re willing to be honest about the fact that the country needs immigrants . . . and that without significant […]
Oct 13, 2023 Chunks, Phrase of the day Everyday English drawn from Greek mythology A while back, I wrote a blog post about words and expressions that come from literature, but have passed into everyday use. Today, inspired by a recent conversation with my daughter, who’s currently obsessed with Greek mythology, I wanted to dig a bit deeper into the way the ideas from old myths and stories become […]
