English Language FAQ

Use coupon code CQDWKF0 to download English FAQ Teaching Pack  for only £1.99 Crossword of French words in English Merriam-Webster's French-English Translation Dictionary, Kindle Edition Larousse Student Dictionary French-English/English-French 

Because they exercise their brains more - at least according to a recent New York Times article: It forces the brain to resolve internal conflict, giving the mind a workout that strengthens its cognitive muscles. Full article Incidentally, in British English 'smarter' usually refers to personal appearance rather than intelligence. .

Michael Lewis Liar's Poker opens with the description of a famous wager made on a Wall Street trading floor in 1987. The CEO of the (soon to be bankrupt Salomon Brothers approached his star trader with an outlandish challege, 'One hand, one million dollars, no tears'. The 'hand' or game he was referring to was 'liar's poker (aka 'cheat' or 'spoof'in the UK). It involved no playing cards but a combination of statistical calculation and bluffing (convincing your opponent of a falsehood). Players hold random dollar bills with close attention to their own bill serial number. The objective of the game is to bluff the opponents into believing that your bid does not exceed the combined sum of all of the serial numbers... The game requires great mathematical skill because the probability calculations are extremely complex. But even more essentials is a 'poker face', the ability to lie convincingly. if one player bids three 4s, he

We can be pretty certain that Shashibiya never visited China. His work, however, has long been venerated by Chinese intellectuals. The first reference to him came in in a translation of Milner’s The History of England in 1857. Can you guess who I am talking about? See here

In Hamlet, according to the Hollywood anthem 'Thats Entertainment'. More on the relationship between Tinseltown and the Bard here

Winners of Hollywood's Academy Awards receive a gold-plated statuette on a black metal base.  It is 13.5 in (34 cm) tall, weighs 8.5 lb (3.85 kg) and depicts a knight rendered in Art Deco style holding a crusader's sword standing on a reel of film with five spokes. The five spokes each represent the original branches of the Academy: Actors, Writers, Directors, Producers, and Technicians. The popular name for an Academy Award is an Oscar. But there is no definitive explanation as to why. The name was first publicly used was in an article by Hollywood columnist about Katharine Hepburn's first Best Actress victory at the fifth annual ceremony in 1934. By 1939 the word was universally known - but there remains confusion regarding its origin. One theory is that the name came from an early Academy director, Margaret Herrick, in 1931. According to this legend, Herrick thought that the statue looked like her Uncle Oscar. Another is that Bette Davies named it after her hu

An escrow account is an account managed by a bank and dedicated to a special purpose - for example, the 'bail-out fund' created by the European Union to refinance member states. If Portugal did not have the funds to repay it debts, it could (temporarily) avoid credit default by drawing funds from the escrow account. That might work for the smaller economies. But for Italy? Or France? Who will finance this safety net? And if they money was needed, would this mean a severe  haircut  for those funding the escrow account?

The word Emmanuel is the Hebrew for 'God is with us'.  For Christians the birth of Jesus is the physical incarnation of this:   Mt:1:23: Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us. Luke:1:26-39: 26: This is made explicit in  Hark the Herald Angel Sing: Glory to God in the ... Jesus our Emmanuel . ...  It is also the the theme of the most beautiful carols: 

Treasury Bills are what the US government uses to borrow money. A T-Bill has always been seen as one of the safest forms of investment because it offers a guaranteed return - barring the complete collapse of the world financial system! WiseGeek   explains how it works: The smallest face value for a T -Bill is $1,000 US Dollars (USD). The T -Bill is sold at a discount, which is determined by the Bureau of Public Debt, but the Treasury pays the full face value when it is redeemed. For example, an investor might purchase a 90-day T -Bill for $900 USD, and earn a $100 USD return on the investment when the T -Bill is redeemed. Unlike many other securities, a T -Bill does not bear interest, but the return on a T -Bill is highly predictable and very stable.  T-Bonds have come to the fore recently as the US Treasury struggles to manage the financial crisis - see here

The Flynn Effect is the theory that intelligence (measured in IQ) is rapidly increasing with each new generation. Flynn posits that this increase is universal (across countries and cultures) though varying in degree. The Flynn effect is often cited as evidence of a progressive direction in human history - that despite setbacks and localised problems 'we've never had it so good'. Critics suggest that the data is misleading - see here

A rare example of a Czech word ('robota') entering English. The original meaning was compulsory or slave labour. It was only in the 1920s that the idea of a 'humanoid' machine became established. Kathleen Richardson points out in this BBC broadcast Listen! http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00xpj0w#synopsis that our notions about robots are fanciful - they are generally clumsy, ineffective machines. So robots are not going to rule the world any time soon. But are they going to challenging for the Marathon Gold Medal at the next Olympics? On this evidence, perhaps not: Japanese Androids Train for First Ever Robot Marathon

'If this, then that' is an underpinning principle of writing computer code. The idea is that a) you anticipate consequences flowing from an action  b) you reduce streamline repetitive tasks by automating them. For Internet users this may become an increasingly pressing issue, particularly when it comes to social media. Sites like Posterous already allow posts to multiple locations  and Iftt is creating a bank of 'recipes'

A fascinating discussion about new online vocabulary has been taking place on the Macmillan Dictionary Blog . It has got me thinking that the Internet has brought us many wonderful things but a beautiful vocabulary is not one of them.  Whose heart sings at the word ‘blog’? Or worse still, blogosphere? And while Shakespeare would have marvelled at the instant access information supplied by Google, could he have made the verb rhyme with anything? (Dougal? Boogle?) Are there words that stand out from the dull online crowd?  I suggested one for the Macmillan discussion - you can find it at the bottom of the comments  here .