Perhaps it's because Anglo-Saxon food isn't meant to be enjoyed! Such lexical gaps are really quite subjective. As languages deal with the stuff of human experience, it is always possible to translate well-formed language. However, a certain language may have a particularly succinct or beautiful way...

Well, guys, technically, only light, wake, weave, cleave (cling) and plead count as being of the same class as speed, but thanks for finding them for me.

-- Garzo.

Hi all, This is my first time to post. I am a Japanese student learning Enghlish. :D Here's my question. Are the following sentences both correct? If so, what is the difference between them? (1) I decided to wait at the station until my wife came . (2) I decided to wait at the station until my wife...

For the phrase to speed up , speeded up is the most usual past form. I have heard sped up in speech, but it looks awkward written. I know of no other verbs that form alternative pasts by either regular -ed or vowel gradation. There are a handful that form alternative pasts with either -ed or -t , ho...

My attention was drawn to a packet of cigarettes from Finland. Being bilingual, the law requires the EU health warning to be in Swedish as well as Finnish. The packet read: Älä pakota lapsia hengittämään savua. Låt inte barn andas rök. This, I gather, translates as Don't force children to inhale smo...

Ah, now I am enlightened. It's quite a nice thing to have a psychological turning points in the calendar. We have the last Monday in August off -- a kind of last chance get away weekend. I think it's officially called something rather mundane like Late Summer Bank Holiday. As for Labo(u)r Day, we te...

I think it must be a US thing. A friend from the States mentioned that this is a holiday weekend. Could anyone enlighten me what he's celebrating?

-- Garzo.

Well, there have a number of thunderstorms recently, and I haven't been allowed to play outside, so I've had to sit in watching cowboy films. I wonder if all you lovely people could embroider me a comprehensive history of the phrase rootin' tootin' . Please feel free to add any other cowboy slang yo...

Yup, e-duc-ere means 'to draw out'. A duke (dux) was originally a battlefield leader: he led the troops out. So, thank you, Katie, for making me think of all those dukes of education preparing to take the strain: heave-ho!

-- Garzo.

I think the differentiation between because and so is a bit of a red herring. The first factor here is the nuanced use of like . It most usually means a considered enjoyment of something. However, it can be used to say 'this is how it is': "I would like to talk to you in my office now!" Th...

I once taught Spanish students English. Teaching litotes was one of the hardest jobs (beside bowels!). I remember paedagogically castigating a student with "We do not say 'What a beautiful day' in English: we say 'What a nice day'"!

How do you like them light oats?

-- Garzo.

Called implied subject. Is used all the time. Use it all the time. Quite handy really. Most often seen on postcards: "Wish you were here". Wouldn't worry about it. S'long's context giving necessary.

--?

Actually, rather can mean a reduction in the strength of a meaning, but it can also mean an increase! Either way, this word causes the strength to shift only a shade each way. Because of this, rather is usually more than a little or a bit , but less than quite . For example, to say that someone is r...

The difference between the use of the gerund and the infinitive with the catenative like is so mild that it's probably not a good thing to teach: teaching it might induce more confusion than is necessary. Generally, the infinitive with like implies habitual action: the infinitive is the verbal noun ...

Oh dear, Turkish sounds like Scots Gaelic! I think those languages have very distinctive phonetic palettes, but that's just me. The registering thing is not such a bind: they just want you to tell them where you come from, so they can see how people from different places hear accents. I don't imagin...