English Language FAQ

A Dictionary of Modern English Usage (1926), by Henry W. Fowler (1858–1933), is a style guide to British English usage, pronunciation, and writing. Ranging from plurals and literary technique to the distinctions among like words (homonyms, synonyms, etc.), to foreign-term use, it became the standard for most style guides that followed and remains in print.   source Fowler's legacy is claimed by both the descriptivist and prescriptivist  schools of linguistics. David Crystal (perhaps the leading descriptivist) has written the introduction to the new edition . A version of this post is included in  50 FAQ about English    ($1.75) A Dictionary of Modern English Usage: Classic First Edition  Begat: The King James Bible and the English Language

Standard answer: 4G is the fourth generation of broadband mobile phone licences. Download/upload speeds are much faster. Alternative answer: The Parable of the Mobile Phone Bandwidth In the beginning there was a thing called the telephone. You used it to call someone from somewhere - your house, if you were rich enough. Then Mr Cooper invented a portable phone. Martin Cooper inventor of first mobile phone People thought ‘what if I could carry a phone with me? Then I could talk to my friends inside my house and outside, too. Cool! How to do this? First of all you needed a new telephone network with new numbers. And so was born the first generation of mobile telephony. The first mobiles were gigantic but they soon got smaller and smaller (see Moore's Law ). You could write messages on them, too! Even cooler! 2G Then the pointy heads (step forward Mr Jobs) had another idea. Why not use your phone to look up maps or that funny cat on YouTube? Well at first that it

According to research done by foreign language department of US State Dept Cantonese - the form of Chinese spoken in Hong Kong and Guangdong Province (150 million+ speakers) - presents a particular challenge for English speakers.  There are 6 different tones in Cantonese. You must rise, maintain or lower the relative pitch of your voice to "sing" each word. For example, in English we naturally use a falling tone at the end of a statement ( You came. ) and a rising tone at the end of a question ( You came? ). To be understood in Cantonese, it is essential that you master the six tones. If you use the wrong tone, you are probably saying a completely different word.     In the written form all Chinese languages (Mandarin, Cantonese etc) share one system. But the spoken forms are as distinct as Spanish and Portuguese. A version of this post is included in  50 FAQ about English    ($1.75)

According to research done by foreign language department of US State Dept Interesting that German is not in this group as English is essentially a Germanic language. Though it shares substantial vocabulary with the five Romance languages, they are completely distinct in terms of grammar & structure - see here . Norwegian, Swedish & Dutch speakers of English routinely astonish natives with their facility for local idioms. Does the reverse apply when English speakers learn Nordic languages? I suspect not but would like to be corrected ... A version of this post is included in  50 FAQ about English    ($1.75)

To boldly split the infinitive is fine - listen below: Listen! This is what Fowler says in his classic Dictionary of Modern Usage (1926). The English-speaking world may be divided into (1) those who neither know nor care what a split infinitive is; (2) those who do not know, but care very much; (3) those who know and condemn; (4) those who know and approve; and (5) those who know and distinguish. Those who neither know nor care are the vast majority, and are happy folk, to be envied. A Dictionary of Modern English Usage: The Classic First Edition  Grammar For Dummies Pocket Fowler's Modern English Usage (Oxford Paperback Reference) The Language Wars: A History of Proper English. by Henry Hitchings

Punctuation, as any dictionary will tell you, consists of the marks that dance around the letters of a text to mark clauses, sentences and inflection. [1]  What, though, is  minimal punctuation? Is it in the range of marks that a writer uses? Ernest Hemingway wrote famously minimalist prose, for instance, where marks such as the semicolon (;), the ellipsis (…) and the dash (–) are notable mostly for their absence.  The Old Man and the Sea contains but one colon and one exclamation mark, and is none the worse for it. [2] From the Shady Characters blog, Full post here

Used to mean indisputable evidence 'smoking gun' was first used in the  Sherlock Holmes  story,  The Gloria Scott  (1893).  We rushed into the captain's cabin . . . there he lay with his brains smeared over the chart of the Atlantic . . . while the chaplain stood with a smoking pistol in his hand. William Safire the identifies the first contemporary use as during the Watergate scandal in 1974. The phrase was then heavily used in the controversy regarding nuclear weapons in Iraq. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes  (Kindle Edition $0.89) The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes English Language 100 FAQ Teaching Pack     -  only £1.99 using discount code  CQDWKF0

Hedge funds are companies which pool capital from wealthy clients with a view to maximising return. They invest in all asset classes - bonds, equities etc - and  because of the scale of their investments can profit from small price movements. The largest hedge funds are also 'market makers' - their investment decisions influence others. The verb "to hedge" means to "insure oneself against loss but some successful hedge fund managers have been very aggressive in their investment strategies. The  credit-default swaps  market (famously described by Warren Buffett as 'weapons of mass financial destruction') is an example of this. In general English 'hedging your bets' is to approach an uncertain situation by taking action to cover a variety of outcomes. When a bookmaker receives a large bet on a particular result, he will generally 'lay off' the bet with another bookmaker. This mean by betting a smaller amount on the opposite outcome.

The gold standard is when the value of a currency is directly linked to the amount of physical gold held by a country. Britain had the gold standard until 1931 and the USA only abandoned it in 1971. They did this in the belief that the gold/currency link was too inflexible. Some have argued that the gold/currency link was a key element in the Great Depression, forcing economic austerity in contracting economies. So the gold standard is a recipe for trouble? Life without the gold standard is also not without major problems. The US dollar, for example, has declined in value and many libertarians (most notably former Presidential candidate, Ron Paul) have argued that restoration is essential to restore economic prosperity. Some also argue that the gold standard is the only guarantor against long-term financial catastrophe.  Freed from restraint, governments can choose 'quick fixes' like quantative easing in difficult economic circumstances - only to create hyper-inflati

There are no formal rules for writing SMS/texts. There are, however, some conventions.  Texts (SMS) often use short sentences break grammar & spelling rules contain neologisms use short forms including acroynms & abbreviations Are ‘text words’ easy to understand? SMS short-forms are usually easy to recognise. Most take the first letter of a word or each word in a phrase e.g OMG Some are already in general English (e.g. ASAP for ‘as soon as possible’.). Others follow the same rule AAMOF for "as a matter of fact" IMHO for "in my humble opinion," or PLMK for please let me know. Which short-forms are most confusing? Neologisms from common words or phrases. These are usually based on the sound e.g. B4 (before), NE (any). Some are invented e.g  W? (why). Some confusing short-forms AIGHT: Alright * GB: Goodbye * GL: Good luck * HV: Have * K or KK: Okay * M8: Mate * O\VA: Over * PEEPS/PPL: People * PLS: Please * PZ: Peace