English Language

Learn the English language, and discussion about the English language

Origin of the word idiom ‘son of a gun’ I love the origin of words, they help me learn new words in a foreign language by adding richness to the word I am trying to learn.  Here is an English word origin that is interesting.   In English we say ‘son of a gun’.  The [...]

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The easiest language to learn Easiest language English- no cases, no gender, no word agreement, arguably no grammar. The language is everywhere and can be heard, absorbed and used anywhere.  Short words, verbs change only in the third person. Native speakers are very forgiving of mistakes as so many people speak it as a second [...]

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Like in France and other counties that are being exposed to English,  there is some degree of encroachment of English on the Russian language.  Ussually young people travel to the west or at least see American movies and shows and pick up slang.  It is just not that pick up slag, it is they use [...]

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Understanding a foreign language Foreign language If you have never understood a foreign language to the point of comprehension, what it feels like before you reach fluency is – he is saying ‘something about this’ or ‘something about that’.  It does not feel like our beloved English, but it does not feel all bad either. [...]

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Film titles in foreign language movies Living in another country has made me aware a small annoyance.   I noticed when I go to rent a DVD at the local video store, I often give people the English Title translated into Polish for example (I live in Krakow).   The movie in English will be something like [...]

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A method to learn new vocabulary If you want to learn new vocabulary in your target language, I have a fun way to learn. Create a list of the famous Politicians, actors and actresses, historical figures etc that you already know. Then create a list of friends you know. Then create a list of towns [...]

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Which language has more words Polish or English Conventional wisdom will tell you the English language has the most words of any language in the world, as it is the most universal and the pax lingua of today.  And when you compare it with a language like Polish with only fifty million native speakers, certainly [...]

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English has invaded other national languages. Trends in business and demographics is like global warming, often there is little that can be done to reverse these trends. So is the case with the English language. “English has already invaded the languages of Moliere, Cervantes and Goethe, dominating the fields of technology and business and even [...]

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Since 2004 when Poland joined the EU, there has been an influx of Polish people working in professional and other jobs in the UK.  Many of these jobs have been in the field of day care.  In the UK there are legions of Polish nanny’s watching over UK children especially kids from age 0 to [...]

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English as the official language for the Untied States of America     I am American.  I was born in United States.  I learnt no other language than English, until I learnt French in school.  My parents spoke Polish and Ukrainian, but in the 1960s when I grew up, the conventional wisdom  in the United States [...]

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