French word of the week: si

This series of weekly blogs takes a closer look at words from our French dictionaries. The word we're focusing on this week is the French word 'si'. Read More

British Pudding Day

Pease pudding hot… Saturday 9 November marks British Pudding Day. It’s at the weekend, giving anyone who likes cooking the leisure to prepare a proper pudding. Puddings are central to British culture. So central that we plonk them in nursery rhymes (see the heading above) and in proverbs (the proof… Read More

Spanish words of the week: seto or seta?

Here we examine a new pair of Spanish nouns whose form is deceptively similar but whose meaning is quite different depending on their ending and gender.  This week’s masculine and feminine pair are 'seto' and 'seta'. Read More

A year when hedonism and anxiety combine

Lacking in confidence? Feeling a bit sub-par? I have just the mindset for you, and it’s encapsulated in a single word: brat. Brat is different things to different people; a spiky attitude, a garish aesthetic, even a campaign slogan (the phrase “Kamala IS Brat” proved snappy enough to go politically… Read More

Spanish words of the week: cero or cera?

¡Tres, dos, uno, cero! (Three, two, one, zero!) It’s time to polish up our knowledge of the different meanings of the Spanish nouns cero (masculine) and cera (feminine). You can listen to the pronunciation of cero (masculine) here: Cero with an -o… Read More