English Language FAQ

According to George Orwell there are six rules that all writers should observe. The first five can be linked back to Fowler's  Dictionary of Modern English Usage  first published in 1926: Never use a metaphor , simile or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print. Never use a long word where a short one will do. If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out. Never use the passive where you can use the active . Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word or a jargon word if you can think of an everyday English equivalent. The sixth rule is a little more controversial: 6. Break any of these rules sooner than say anything outright barbarous. Orwell's definition of 'barbarous' is brilliantly displayed in 1984 and is centred on the idea that political thought and language control was a sinister tool and  by-product of totalitarianism. Why I Write (Penguin Great Ideas)

Yes, there is! Who'd have thunk it? There's an enhanced e-book called 50 Fun FAQ About the English Language  and it only costs $1.75 - more details here

  What makes a word beautiful? The marriage of form, function and sound? The meaning? The etymology?   Anyway, here is my list. OK - Alan Metcalf makes a strong case for what he calls 'America's greatest word'. He argues that OK encapsulates the American spirit of tolerance, enterprise and practicality. Love - the word that features in the title of 12 The Beatles songs ( All You Need Is- /Can’t Buy Me -/And I - You ). And 113 US Number One singles ... Yes - Joyce describes this as the female word and has Molly Bloom end Ulysses with a resounding tribute to it: 'yes and his heart was going like mad and yes I said yes I will Yes. "  Bewitched - beautiful sound, beautiful Rodgers & Hart song, magical idea. Would also enter ‘bothered’ and ‘bewildered but with only five  Twilight - vampire fans are banned from voting. Iridescent ( ir-i-DES-ent) - ‘brilliant, lustrous, colourful’ - what more could you ask from a word? Any of those make your list? O

Robert McCrum, the writer of the influential  How the English Language Became the World's Language   has suggested that 'English .. has a grammar of great simplicity"  The argument for this is broadly as follows: English grammar is based on simplified form of German Verb conjugation is simple for regular verbs: four  endings for regular English verbs ( paint/paints/painted/painting ).  French, German & other key languages have  50+. There are fewer irregular verbs - and most are irregular in the same way. Written & spoken forms are comparatively similar English.  Noun and adjectival forms do not divide by gender Adjectives do not change form for plural nouns ( blue car/blue cars ) A version of this post is included in  50 FAQ about English    ($1.75)

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