Learning another language as an adult can be frustrating. We’re problem-solvers. We look for patterns in language and try to formulate rules. Unfortunately, there’s not always much logic to be found in English.
In his book The Story of English in 100 Words, linguist David Crystal explains why.
“English has been this vacuum cleaner of a language, because of its history meeting up with the Romans and then the Danes, the Vikings and then the French and then the Renaissance with all the Latin and Greek and Hebrew in the background.”
This big mix makes English frustrating, but also fascinating! In this week’s article we’ll walk you through some of the myths and mysteries of English.
At first glance English grammar is a walk in the park. Nouns are easy, they just come in two forms (singular and plural). Verbs are too, they don’t have all the complicated conjugations like some languages. There are some irregular verbs, of course, but once you’ve learnt them, they stay the same whoever you’re talking about!
But take a closer look and you’ll see that things aren’t so simple after all. For example, we often use the present tenses to talk about the future:
And we can use the future tense for something we’re just about to do:
Then there are other forms like inversion, where the subject and auxiliary verb switch places:
Even when you’ve reached a good level of English, don’t be surprised if you struggle to make sense of English place names. They can be utterly confusing!
Some cities in the UK are especially difficult to pronounce and the spelling provides very little help. Have a guess how to pronounce these places below, then click on the link to hear the correct pronunciation for each one.
There are other places in the UK that don’t make any sense at all. Due to the fact that English is made up of a combination of languages, there’s a risk of saying the same thing twice (or three times!). For example, Bredon Hill in England, literally means ‘Hill Hill Hill’!
Check out this interactive map for more interesting British place names and their meanings:
It’s true that in Modern English we don’t divide all nouns into masculine and feminine groups. A house is a thing, an ‘it’ with no gender. But there was grammatical gender in Old English.
Even today, we have words that refer exclusively to someone of a particular gender. For example, we say ‘widow’ for a woman whose husband has died and ‘widower’ for a man whose wife has died. The same with ‘waitress’ and ‘waiter’.
However, gender-specific job titles are being used less and less. Instead of ‘fireman’, we tend to say ‘firefighter’ and ‘policeman’ has been replaced by ‘police officer’.
Have you ever thought about that little -ly at the end of adverbs? You know…like ‘quickly’, ‘carefully and ‘happily’. Well, in fact, it’s an abbreviation of ‘-like’. The long form of the suffix is rare, but it still exists in words such as ‘lifelike’ and ‘childlike’.
And it doesn’t stop there. ‘Like’ comes from the Old English ‘lice’, meaning ‘body’. It’s kind of funny that English adverbs use a suffix relating to the body (-ly), whereas Spanish/Catalan adverbs use a suffix relating to the mind (-mente).
This is a rule of thumb, intended to help with spelling certain words. Following this rule, ‘I’ should always precede ‘E’ (e.g. believe and friend), except when they come after a ‘C’ (e.g. receive and ceiling).
That’s great, but there are so many exceptions that the rule is hardly worth learning. For example, what about ‘eight’, ‘neighbour’ and ‘leisure’…or ‘efficient’, ‘society’ and ‘science’?
Basically, there aren’t any concrete spelling rules for English. So, for every new word, it’s important to check the spelling and learn the right pronunciation. You can do this using an online dictionary like Wordreference.
Frustrating or fascinating?…you decide!
Find the following words in the article and then write down any new ones you didn’t know.
a walk in the park (exp): something which is easy to do.
utterly (adv): absolutely or completely.
lifelike (adj): representing real life.
childlike (adj): having the qualities associated with a child.
rule of thumb (exp): an approximate way of doing or measuring something.
Key
exp = expression
adv = adverb
adj = adjective
28/02/2024
16/02/2024
24/01/2024
10/01/2024
19/12/2023
13/12/2023
21/11/2023
13/11/2023
30/10/2023
18/10/2023
04/10/2023
23/08/2023
09/08/2023
02/08/2023
21/06/2023
31/05/2023
17/05/2023
03/05/2023
19/04/2023
05/04/2023
22/03/2023
08/03/2023
22/02/2023
08/02/2023
17/01/2023
04/01/2023
21/12/2022
07/12/2022
16/11/2022
02/11/2022
19/10/2022
12/10/2022
28/09/2022
14/09/2022
24/08/2022
10/08/2022
27/07/2022
06/07/2022
15/06/2022
01/06/2022
18/05/2022
04/05/2022
20/04/2022
06/04/2022
16/03/2022
02/03/2022
15/02/2022
02/02/2022
19/01/2022
05/01/2022
15/12/2021
01/12/2021
24/11/2021
10/11/2021
20/10/2021
06/10/2021
22/09/2021
15/09/2021
25/08/2021
11/08/2021
21/07/2021
07/07/2021
23/06/2021
16/06/2021
01/06/2021
19/05/2021
05/05/2021
21/04/2021
07/04/2021
29/03/2021
24/03/2021
10/03/2021
17/02/2021
03/02/2021
20/01/2021
07/01/2021
16/12/2020
02/12/2020
24/11/2020
11/11/2020
03/11/2020
19/10/2020
05/10/2020
24/09/2020
09/09/2020
20/08/2020
06/08/2020
20/07/2020
02/07/2020
25/06/2020
09/06/2020
27/05/2020
13/05/2020
29/04/2020
22/04/2020
21/04/2020
15/04/2020
03/04/2020
25/03/2020
18/03/2020
13/03/2020
11/03/2020
04/03/2020
26/02/2020
19/02/2020
12/02/2020
05/02/2020
29/01/2020
21/01/2020
15/01/2020
09/01/2020
07/01/2020
23/12/2019
19/12/2019
11/12/2019
26/11/2019
25/11/2019
13/11/2019
07/11/2019
31/10/2019
23/10/2019
17/10/2019
18/09/2019
04/09/2019
28/08/2019
22/08/2019
15/08/2019
07/08/2019
31/07/2019
24/07/2019
17/07/2019
03/07/2019
26/06/2019
19/06/2019
05/06/2019
29/05/2019
23/05/2019
15/05/2019
23/04/2019
10/04/2019
03/04/2019
27/03/2019
20/03/2019
13/03/2019
06/03/2019
20/02/2019
13/02/2019
07/02/2019
30/01/2019
23/01/2019
04/01/2019
12/12/2018
21/11/2018
14/11/2018
07/11/2018
31/10/2018
24/10/2018
04/10/2018
25/09/2018
19/09/2018
13/09/2018
06/09/2018
29/08/2018
22/08/2018
16/08/2018
02/08/2018
18/07/2018
03/07/2018
27/06/2018
20/06/2018
14/06/2018
06/06/2018
31/05/2018
22/05/2018
09/05/2018
02/05/2018
26/04/2018
18/04/2018
13/04/2018
04/04/2018
29/03/2018
21/03/2018
14/03/2018
07/03/2018
28/02/2018
22/02/2018
15/02/2018
07/02/2018
31/01/2018
24/01/2018
10/01/2018
27/12/2017
20/12/2017
13/12/2017
07/12/2017
29/11/2017
22/11/2017
08/11/2017
01/11/2017
25/10/2017
18/09/2017
11/11/2015
22/09/2015
Oxford House Language School
C/Diputación 279, Bajos
(entre Pau Claris y Paseo de Gracia).
08007 - Barcelona (Eixample)
Tel: 93 174 00 62 | Fax: 93 488 14 05
info@oxfordhousebcn.com
Oxford TEFL Barcelona
Oxford House Prague
Oxford TEFL Jobs
Legal Notice – Cookie Policy
Ethical channel
1 Comment
4 Ways English Words are Born | Oxford House Barcelona