French word of the week: après

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 'après'. Read More

What’s the difference between industrious and industrial?

This week we are looking at two words which are sometimes confused by learners of English: industrious and industrial. industrious An industrious person works very hard. She was industrious and always trying to improve herself. Michael was an intelligent, industrious man. industrial Use industrial to describe things related… Read More

National Picnic Week

Who doesn’t love a picnic? Eating is one of life’s great pleasures, second only to being outdoors and in contact with Gaia in all her soothing variety. Add to those two the social element involved and bingo! you’ve got a well-nigh perfect event. Is thinking of… Read More

Dinna fash: 11 essential Scots and Gaelic words for Outlander fans

Dinna fash, sassenach. With those three little words, a thousand Google searches were launched. The sizzling romance between Jamie and Claire from Diana Gabaldon’s bestselling Outlander series have had people glued to their screens for almost 10 years. The hit show has helped fuel an increase in people wanting to… Read More

7 differences between British and American English words for clothing

Although the British and the Americans understand each other the vast majority of the time, there are still many important differences between UK and US English, which can lead to confusion or humorous misunderstandings. One area where there are different words in American and British English is clothing. Here are… Read More

French word of the week: accord

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 noun 'accord'. Read More

What’s the difference between lucky and happy?

This week we are looking at two words which are sometimes confused by learners of English: lucky and happy. lucky You say that someone is lucky when something nice happens to them, or when they always seem to have good luck. The lucky winners were given… Read More
collinsdictionary