English Language FAQ

The their early press interviews The Beatles were repeatedly asked about their name - particularly its unorthodox spelling. They gave many different and often contradictory explanations. This one, given by John Lennon, is particularly implausible.

Hanukkah is a Jewish religious festival that begins in late November or early December.

‘Bah!’ said Scrooge. ‘Humbug! What’s Christmas time to you but a time for paying bills without money?  For finding yourself a year older, but not an hour richer?' Photo by  Annie Spratt  on  Unsplash For Scrooge (and Scrooge McDuck!)  Christmas is 'humbug'. In the modern sense of the term, 'humbug' is roughly synonymous with the more recent 'virtue signalling'. In other words, insincere or hypocritical speech aimed at gaining social acceptance. Was Scrooge an early opponent of virtue signalling? Not exactly. Scrooge's complaint is more against the idea of charity itself. He sees this as a fraudulent commercial trick aimed at 'picking a man's pocket'.  The poor, he argues, are the responsibility of the prisons and workhouses. This view contrasts with that of Scrooge's nephew, Fred: 'Christmas is a good time - a kind, forgiving, charitable time' But what is a humbug?   In British English, a striped candy/sweet.  It's boil

According to Henry Hitchings  Language Wars  (2011) these nations do not currently have an  official  primary language: UK see here USA though 20 states now have an official language —  see here Australia Over 80% speak English but there is no official national language. Pakistan Urdu became official language in 2015 but   only spoken by 8% of population . Ethiopia Amharic is official language but most spoken is Oromo Somalia Eritrea  Costa Rica Why these countries?   Read extended transcript on Medium  About the English Language - Teaching Pack  

Polish linguist and pacifist, L.L. Zamenhof invented Esperanto ('hope) which he believed could be an international lingua franca or second language. Because it had no irregular verbs and phonetic spelling esperanto was a 'perfect' language . It also had no associations with a particular nationality or country. George Orwell's aunt was an early proponent of Esperanto - see comments below . When he went to stay with her in Paris, she insisted on speaking this new language when he was hoping to practise his French.  The political element of Esperanto particularly disturbed Orwell. The attempt to control and direct language was in his view a central feature of totalitarianism. Newspeak - the language Orwell created for his dystopian novel, 1984, is clearly a variant on Esperanto. More on Esperanto here English Language 100 FAQ   -  only £1.99