Language Lovers

International Day of Yoga and Sanskrit words

Get those yoga mats out! The twenty-first of June is, to say the least, a rather different ‘day’. It’s not just one of those (*sigh* or *yawn*) ‘Everything has a day these days’ days. It’s the International Day of Yoga as officially endorsed by the United Nations (UN). It… Read More

It’s a Taylor Swift blog, baby, just say yes

There’s a brand-new fever sweeping the UK and Europe. That’s right, Taylor Swift’s Eras tour has officially made its way across the pond, and we are all enchanted. Having visited Edinburgh, Liverpool and Cardiff, and with her sights now set on Dublin and London, Taylor has also been debuting performances… Read More

Environment Day 2024: a world of vocabulary

World Environment Day – 5 June – is a United Nations (UN)-designated day to raise awareness of the manifold environmental problems our world faces. Given the scope of the word ‘environment’, those problems include a broad swathe of often interconnected issues. This year the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, together with… Read More

Sting-Nettle Day

Don’t get nettled! Have you ever been stung by a stinging nettle? I bet you have. I’m sure I was as a youngster – more than once. And I’m equally sure I learned by the age of five or six how to identify and apply a… Read More

‘100 Words for Rain’ by Alex Johnson

Rain, rain, go away! Come again another day! British weather, eh! Who would have it? March this year, though rainy and dismal, was not in fact the rainiest March on record. That happened in 1947. But now that spring is springing upon us fast, it’s been a delight to delve,… Read More

9 weird and wonderful collective nouns

A pride of lions. A gaggle of geese. A murder of crows. The English language is full of peculiarities, but collective nouns are among the most remarkable. But what is a collective noun? Collective nouns are used to refer to a group of people or things, with some of the… Read More

Traversing the language of fantasy

With fantasy dominating the bestseller lists, it’s easy to imagine that major bestsellers such as Sarah J. Maas, Rebecca Yarros, and George R.R. Martin are a 21st-century phenomenon. In reality, fantasy writing has been capturing imaginations since long before the romantasy takeover. Human history is steeped… Read More

National puppy day

National Puppy Day falls on 23 March, as it has ever since its inaugural year of 2006, but this year it falls on a Saturday. Which means that dog owners will probably be lucky enough to have more time than ever to pamper their perfect pooch. Read More

False friends: 7 deceptive English words

As a great actor once said, ‘You keep using that word, I do not think it means what you think it means.’ It’s universally acknowledged that English is a tricky language to master – even for native English speakers – thanks to its vast number of rules, illogical language patterns,… Read More