Using a comma after a particular word is guided by punctuation rules that are fundamentally and arbitrarily based on syntax and stylistics. Put simply, a particular word does not necessarily determine the comma placement, but instead, it is either the sentence structure or the writing style. In our article today, we cover the comma-placement subtleties …
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“Especially” appears quite a lot in texts, and a comma sometimes appears before it, but other times doesn’t. Why is this so? Are there rules that guide the pre-comma placement? If you’ve reached this site because of these queries sitting apprehensively at the back of your head, you certainly came to the right place. …
You think you’ve got your language game together. Two tongues, one brain, endless possibilities, right? But bilingual brains have a way of betraying us in the most unexpected moments. You’re not just switching languages. You’re mangling them together. You’re pausing mid-sentence because you suddenly forgot a word you’ve known for 20 years. You’re accidentally calling …
This article is based on the video Is there a better alphabet for English? by RobWords, a YouTube channel known for its smart, funny takes on language and history. The video asks a surprisingly tricky question: Could English be written more clearly with a different alphabet? Turns out, quite a few people thought so — …
On the surface, humans are polite. We say please, thank you, and ask about people’s weekends with an alarming degree of interest. But underneath that shiny layer of etiquette? A whole arsenal of phrases that sound friendly but hit like a truck. Welcome to the world of weaponized niceness—those little linguistic landmines that seem harmless, …
This article is based on a TED-Ed video by linguist Martin Hilpert, who takes one of the simplest-sounding questions in language and shows why it’s anything but. When does a way of speaking count as a language, and when is it just a dialect? If your instinct is to say it depends on how different …
English spelling is a menace. A beautiful, rule-breaking, logic-defying menace. And no matter how many degrees you’ve got hanging on your wall—or how many Grammarly plugins you’ve installed—there are still words that will trip you up faster than a Lego in the dark. These are the traitors. The deceptively innocent-looking words you’ve probably typed a …
This article summarizes a thought-provoking video by Lamont, a language YouTuber (channel name: Days and Words) known for his honest and personal take on how people really learn languages. In this episode, he takes aim at the word “immersion” — a term so widely used (and misused) in the language-learning world that it’s basically lost …
Scottish English is English… sort of. It’s like the language popped up north, grabbed a can of Irn-Bru, and decided the rules were optional. If you’ve ever heard someone say “Ach, I’m fair scunnered” and your brain quietly gave up—that’s normal. The accent’s just the warm-up. It’s the phrases that really mess with you. They’re …