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 …
Marcel Iseli
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 — …
This article centers around a delightfully nerdy episode from Crash Course Linguistics, hosted by the ever-expressive Taylor. The video in question is all about pragmatics—aka the fine art of reading between the lines, catching sarcasm without blinking, and realizing that “Can you close the window?” probably isn’t a question about arm strength. If you’ve ever …
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 …
If ‘whom’ were a person, it’d be the one at a dinner party correcting everyone’s grammar and quoting Shakespeare before dessert. It sounds formal, stiff, and maybe a little smug — but for some reason, it’s still hanging around in our emails and official letters. Most people avoid it. Some people use it to sound …
Exploring the Fascinating Origins of Month Names This summary highlights a compelling video by RobWords, exploring the historical origins and meanings behind the names of our calendar months. Blending Roman mythology, Old English traditions, and linguistic history, the video reveals how each month got its modern name, along with intriguing historical alternatives. Key Takeaways ? …