Oh, God, I don't know what's more difficult, life or the English language.
Jonathan AmesBecause of social strictures against even the mildest swearing, America developed a particularly rich crop of euphemistic expletives - darn, durn, goldurn, goshdad, goshdang, goshawful, blast, consarn, confound, by Jove, by jingo, great guns, by the great horn spoon (a nonce term first cited in the Biglow Papers), jo-fired, jumping Jehoshaphat, and others almost without number - but even this cautious epithets could land people in trouble as late as the 1940s.
Bill BrysonTags: humor language swearing english
The English language is like London: proudly barbaric yet deeply civilised, too, common yet royal, vulgar yet processional, sacred yet profane. Each sentence we produce, whether we know it or not, is a mongrel mouthful of Chaucerian, Shakespearean, Miltonic, Johnsonian, Dickensian and American. Military, naval, legal, corporate, criminal, jazz, rap and ghetto discourses are mingled at every turn. The French language, like Paris, has attempted, through its Academy, to retain its purity, to fight the advancing tides of Franglais and international prefabrication. English, by comparison, is a shameless whore.
Stephen FryTags: humour language french paris english london
We are all full of discourses that we only half understand and half mean.
Rae ArmantroutTags: language philosophical discourse english
You can learn English online
Brian DanielTags: teaching lessons english american
Children learn to speak Male or Female the way they learn to speak English or French.
Jeffrey EugenidesTags: learning children french english female male
Mocho was a Spanish word that meant maimed or referred to something that had been lopped off like a stump. To call Homer el mocho was, essentially, to call him "Stumpy" or "the maimed one."
It doesn't sound particularly flattering, but among Spanish speakers the giving of nicknames is tantamount to a declaration of love. Things that would sound insulting outright in English were tokens of deep affection when said in Spanish.
Tags: cats language spanish english nicknames
I'm English. We're about as tactful as a hot poker up the bum, most of the time.
Ian LoomeTags: humor funny english giggles
Funny,’ Will said, as they picked their way through. ‘Things are absolutely awful and yet people look much happier than usual. Look at them all. Bubbling.’
‘They are English,’ Merriman said.
‘Quite right,’ said Will’s father. ‘Splendid in adversity, tedious when safe. Never content, in fact. We’re an odd lot….
Tags: humour english truism the-dark-is-rising
We are men without ambition, and all we want is to be left alone, in peace so that we can try and be happy. So few people will understand this simplicity.
Upamanyu ChatterjeeTags: english august-an-indian-story
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