I Want You To Speak English

Unicorns, trolls, fairies . . . Mythical beasts capture the imagination of both children and adults. And no wonder, for they possess magical powers and uncanny abilities. However, these creatures don’t really exist. Some grammar rules also have become the stuff of legends. They are figments of the imagination, just as fire-breathing dragons are. Today, let’s separate myth from reality. Here are five widespread, but totally incorrect, grammar rules. Myth: Nouns can’t modify other nouns. Dog  is a noun.  Police  is a noun. A  police dog is a dog used by the police. Using a noun modifier usually indicates that one noun is part of something else. The dog described earlier is part of the police force.  Myth: The only way to make a plural is to add “s.” One adds -es to nouns ending in -ch, -sh, -x, -z, or -s sounds to make them plural. The plural forms of other nouns, sometimes called mutated plurals, have different spellings than the singular form. For instance, “chi...

These are usually words associated with money. Borrow When someone  borrows  money, or indeed  borrows  anything, it means they are taking it with the promise of giving it or paying it back at a later date. A: Can I  borrow  50 pounds? B: Hm, that’s a lot of money. When can you pay me back? A: Next week, it’s just until I get paid! B: Okay, as long as you pay me back! You can  borrow  money from a friend or from a company, either way you will be expected to pay them back eventually! Be careful when you  borrow  money.   Lend When you  lend  something to someone, you let them  borrow  it. A: I can  lend  you 20 pounds for now and give you 30 later. B: Okay that’s fine. Thank you! You can also lend things other than money: A:  Could you  lend  me that pen for a second? I just have to write something down. B:  Yeah, here you go. Loan When you  loan  something to someone, you a...

(RSVP is indeed French and it stands for répondez s’il vous plaît)

Awesome infographic connects the dots of Steve Jobs’ life. Jobs' life gets graphical.  Photo: Visualistan Steve Jobs’ life has been immortalized in the form of numerous biographies, three movies, multiple documentaries, several operas, and a handful of graphic novels — but now it’s been turned into an infographic, too. Created by the folks at Visualistan, this neat creation takes you through Steve’s most significant moments in one easy-to-read pictogram, based on the same Walter Isaacson biography that forms the basis for the forthcoming  Steve Jobs  movie. Check it out: All in all, I think it’s pretty darn swanky — even if I would have liked to have seen a bit more focus on Steve’s product launches during his life. Given that Tim Cook has been running Apple for more than four years now, it would also be great to see a few celebrations of Cook’s life — something that we, as Apple fans, know altogether less about. What do you think infographic makers? Up to the c...

Clocks and old watches are miracles. If you’ve ever taken one apart and had a look at the intricate gears with their jutting teeth reaching out with  just the right math  to tick in rhythm with the pulse of the universe, you’ll see that whatever mind conjured the thing and all its parts is mad. Imagine the dogged pursuit of a proper clock-maker, day after day bound up in design and measurement and function and orderly thinking, forcing exactitude on little bits of metal that never asked for it. And then finally getting it right–so many decisions and matters of design suddenly set the clock off ticking forever. Get inside the mind of a clock-maker—one who still experiments with matters of design, improving their craft with minor revisions of planning and execution—and suddenly you’re seeing from ground zero how things  come to be,  first in a humble glow, then a blinding white starlight that bleaches everything. There’s a lesson here. But first, some background on bad...

Weatherman Perfectly Pronounces 58-Letter Village Name, Takes Internet By Storm Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch is a village in Wales. https://youtu.be/CEgtBezjXMw There's probably no word too hard for this guy to pronounce. Liam Dutton, a weatherman for British TV station Channel 4 News casually nailed Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogery chwyrndrobwllllantysiliogo gogoch -- the name of a Welsh village, during a recent report . (No, that's not a typo. This place actually exists.) His spot-on pronunciation of the village name, which actually translates to " Saint Mary's Church in the hollow of the white hazel near a rapid whirlpool and the Church of St. Tysilio of the red cave," was shared in a video which was posted to Facebook  on Tuesday. The clip quickly went viral with more than 1.7 million views and 18,200 shares. But is anyone surprised in its popularity?  The man's basically achieved the impossible. ...