Some Japanese words are complicated to use, but easy to understand. Others are simple to use but have complicated contexts. In this post, we’ll look at one of the latter, the word 黒人 (kokujin). What does the word 黒人 (kokujin) mean in Japanese? The word 黒人 (kokujin) means a person with black skin. It …
Marcel Iseli
A teacher once asked, “What else could be more perplexing than the punctuation system?” One student answers, “Punctuation decision before words, which belong to multiple parts of speech.” The straight-A student cringed and thought, “You should’ve used that. Not which.” No matter which kind of student you used to be, or you still are, this …
Questions on comma placement before subordinate clauses seem to pop up quite a lot on the internet. This might be because the term “subordinate” sounds a bit too technical, or perhaps, most people think that the punctuation system is too complicated and hard to digest. One thing’s for sure though, and that is, the role …
English has plenty of odd proverbs that you can use to describe just about everything. In this post, we’ll look at expressions used to describe differences between two people or things. What does the expression “(like) chalk and cheese” mean? The expression “chalk and cheese,” more fully written as “like chalk and cheese” or …
There are too many other things to worry about in the world, so why even bother taking the time to learn the punctuation system, right? Before I start discussing the nuances behind commas, I’d like to stress the point that having good writing skills could move mountains. Not literally, of course, but writing is the …
What is the most annoying punctuation mark in English? You guessed it right! Commas. But, are they really a hard nut to crack? Please read through the end of this post, and you’ll find out how easy peasy it is to punctuate sentences with commas, especially with the word “overall.” Do we always need …
A recurring topic here on Linguablog is how different communities develop their own words, expressions, and even entire languages. And, these communities don’t have to populate a country. They can be a relatively small group of people meeting online to talk about gaming. After all, it’s the Twitch community that has given us words like …
What about the punctuation of the temporal expression “yesterday”? Do I need a comma after it or not? Well, not so fast, please! The answer to this question is probably more difficult than you would expect. That said, the short answer to the question is simply: Sometimes, it is followed by a comma, and sometimes, …
Different subcultures enrich the language we speak every day. For instance, sports have given us countless phrases and expressions that we use daily, such as “knocked it out of the park,” “slam dunk,” “hail mary,” “take one for the team,” and “to get the ball rolling.” These phrases populate both our private and professional lives. …