english language

Language and the book of life

During the final rallies of her election campaign, US presidential candidate Kamala Harris drew on one metaphor time and time again. She said that she was determined, or she saw a nation determined, ‘to turn the page on hatred and division’. It’s an effective rallying call. It certainly sounded positive,… Read More

Parts of a sentence

This week's Learning English blog focuses on the different parts of a sentence - learn all about what each part of a sentence does and how they work together. Read More

Commas

The comma marks a short pause between elements in a sentence. Main clauses that are joined together with and or but do not normally have a comma before the conjunction unless the two clauses have different subjects. You go out of the door and turn immediately left. It was cold outside, but we decided to… Read More

Quotation marks

Quotation marks are mainly used in direct speech. Direct speech gives the actual words that a speaker is using or has used. It is common in novels and other writing where the actual words of a speaker are quoted. In British English, these marks can also be called ‘inverted commas’. The… Read More

Welcome to the ton: 7 new Bridgerton words

Dear reader, we are honoured to welcome you back to the ton! Last time we spoke, we gave you 9 words to sweep you into the world of Bridgerton, and now, with season 3 streaming on Netflix, we thought it was high time to return to everyone’s favourite Regency-era… Read More

Semicolons

The semicolon is used to mark a break between two main clauses when there is a balance or a contrast between the clauses. A useful test to work out when to use a semicolon is to ask yourself whether the two clauses could be written instead as separate sentences. If… Read More

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