Spanish word of the week: importante

26th Aug 2020

importante ADJECTIVE important, significant; large Importante is one of those intriguing Spanish words that has one meaning which looks similar to English — important — and another that is a bit unexpected: large: Tu padre es un hombre muy importante en la política. Your father is… Read More

From glamping to drivecations: the search for the best staycation

25th Aug 2020

Riddle: When is a staycation not a staycation? To me it seems like centuries ago that we Brits first cottoned on to that handy word staycation. I’d place it at about 15 years ago – which at today’s speed of change feels more like 150. Unsurprisingly, the word… Read More

Spanish word of the week: apetecer

19th Aug 2020

apetecer VERB to feel like If you like something you probably know that the basic way to say so is with gustar: Me gusta jugar al béisbol. I like playing baseball. Apetecer is a word you are likely to come across in Spain, but not in Latin America, and… Read More

From confirmation bias to owo: discover the latest words added to the Collins Dictionary

18th Aug 2020

The online version of the Collins Dictionary has just been updated again, with another batch of words being allowed in for the first time. These new words are a rather mixed bag, and they show the dictionary in both its serious and light-hearted moods. On the one hand, you can… Read More

Spanish word of the week: tras

12th Aug 2020

tras PREPOSITION after Tras is an alternative way of saying after – después de – and tends to be used in writing more than in speech, except in some set phrases: Salimos corriendo tras ella. We ran out after her. Tras unos días de vacaciones volvió a… Read More

Anticipation and rain check are among the most frequently looked-up words in July

11th Aug 2020

Perhaps the most striking thing about the list of words that people have looked up in the Collins Dictionary in July is that it no longer contains a lot of words that were being looked up earlier in the year. Back in March and April, the list was dominated by… Read More

Spanish word of the week: igual

5th Aug 2020

igual ADVERB maybe; anyway Igual as an adverb has some interesting uses. If you really don’t mind about something, you use the phrase me da igual or me es igual: Me da igual or Me es igual hoy o mañana. Today or tomorrow, I don’t mind. Colloquially,… Read More

Eat Out to Help Out: the new scheme for UK restaurants

4th Aug 2020

Talk about mixed messages! On one hand, UK residents are being urged to go to a restaurant and enjoy noshing out. ‘Eat Out to Help Out’, the UK government instructs – healthily or otherwise, according to taste. Indeed, the government is incentivising that message by subsidising a 50 per… Read More

Masks and face coverings: the new normal?

28th Jul 2020

Think of masks and what comes to mind? Does your subconscious link them to glamour and derring-do…or pleasure…or even terror? Perhaps some mythical swashbuckling character from film or fiction …Zorro, the Lone Ranger, even Batman or Robin. Or something more sinister, like Hannibal Lecter? Whatever their associations, getting used to… Read More