English, Jack

Via Geoff Pullum A few days ago, we were discussing numerous as a determinative . Peter Reed has found a example from 1766. Mortificati...

The Chronicle of Higher Education is hosting a new blog called "Lingua Franca" on language and writing in academe. The contribut...

The ER Foundation has published a guide for teachers interested in extensive reading.

Back in June, I gave a talk at the TEDxHumber event. I've been waiting for an edited video, but in the meantime, I recently found that t...

The Extensive Reading Foundation has set up its own YouTube Channel of ER/EL videos. These are links to existing videos on YouTube. The ...

A few days ago, I wrote , "Here I am back trying to place a word in the right box, or boxes as it may be. I'm not really sure why ...

Dictionary.com has just released their updated vocabulary learning site Word Dynamo . It looks to be geared mostly to native speakers of Eng...

According to Michael Rundell and Adam Kilgarriff , there are only 23 verbs in English that are passive more than half the time. Figure 4: ...

In his post on numerous , yesterday, Geoff Pullum noted that philosopher James Dreier had sent him some examples of multiple as a determin...

“It is fortunate if the first foreign language learned is not English. The initial, very quick and spectacular successes of English learning...

Rodney Huddleston sends an interesting example from yesterday's Australian : Many countries treat illegal immigrants and asylum-seekers...

Here I am back trying to place a word in the right box, or boxes as it may be. I'm not really sure why I find this kind of work so engag...

Further to my previous post , it turns out that the 1932 printing of Advanced English Syntax  by C.T. Onions has the same passage, but the l...

For some time, I've been on the trail of the origin of the FANBOYS mnemonic for what traditional grammar calls "coordinating conj...

PRESS RELEASE: LANGUAGES CANADA, JULY 21, 2011 Languages Canada Members Grant 150 Scholarships to Japanese Youth Affected by Earthquake  La...

These may sound like naive questions, but they are genuine: Is it important to teach in such a way that the content of what you teach is int...

Ever noticed that when a head is reared, it's almost certain to be ugly? Ever wonder what other kinds of heads rear up? The COCA turns u...

I've had reason to draw some Reed-Kellogg diagrams lately. If you've never heard of these, you can learn straight from the original ...

Cambridge Journals are free for the next six weeks, no registration necessary. If you don't have access through an institution or subscr...

Consider clear  in the following sentences. Is it most like an adjective, an adverb, or a preposition? Soon we were clear of the town. *S...