The Christian Science Monitor

2 min de citit

English has so many creative ways to proclaim that something is ‘nonsense.’ Part 2 of a series on the nuts and bolts of humorous words.

The Guardian

1 min de citit

Do you know how to say apropos? What about awry? We want to know which words you’ve mispronounced – and how you found out your mistake

Games World of Puzzles

2 min de citit

Below are seven messages—pithy sayings, fascinating facts, and a cartoon gag—that have been translated into simple cipher alphabets. Letter substitutions remain constant throughout any one cipher, but change from one cipher to the next; the level of

Games World of Puzzles

2 min de citit

From the beginning of the game until the end, the primary goal on each turn is to score points. And while there are many ways to do this, none is so frequently lucrative as the “bingo,” the play that uses all seven of your tiles, meriting a 50-point

NPR

1 min de citit

NPR's Lulu Garcia-Navarro and Weekend Edition puzzlemaster Will Shortz play a word game with WCBE listener Todd LaPlace of Dublin, Ohio.

NPR

3 min de citit

Some linguists are arguing that the advent of softer food, thousands of years ago, led to changes in biting patterns and eventually, to more frequent use of sounds like "f" and "v" in human language.

NPR

1 min de citit

Bruce McEldowney plays the puzzle with puzzlemaster Will Shortz and NPR's Lulu Garcia-Navarro.

The Guardian

3 min de citit

We shouldn’t worry when a word falls into obscurity. There’s usually a good reason, and a new one will always fill its place

The Christian Science Monitor

3 min de citit

It’s impressive how educational hand-drying the dishes can be. Almost without knowing it, one may absorb a range of more or less useful information as the cutlery gets drier and the dishcloth damper. I am thinking in particular of two literary dish t

The Christian Science Monitor

2 min de citit

Many Scandinavians frown on tipping, and they’re not too keen on please or thanks (as English-speakers think of them) either.

NPR

1 min de citit

Listener Gabrielle Sweets plays the puzzle with puzzlemaster Will Shortz and NPR's Lulu Garcia-Navarro.

The Christian Science Monitor

2 min de citit

The more research I did into the history of fulsome, the more confused I became. This slippery word has distinct, sometimes contradictory meanings.

The Atlantic

1 min de citit

As soon as Donald Trump announced his presidential candidacy, people noted a few of his linguistic quirks, such as the extended, supervowel pronunciation of huge and the references to himself in the third person. But beyond those, the version of Engl

Nautilus

2 min de citit

Many of us have been taught that pronouncing vowels indistinctly and dropping consonants are symptoms of slovenly speech, if not outright disregard for the English language. The Irish playwright St. John Ervine viewed such habits as evidence that som

NPR

1 min de citit

On-air Challenge: I'm going to read you some sentences. Each sentence contains two words that have homophones that are opposites. Ex. Does Liv Ullmann dye her hair? --> LIVE & DIE (homophones of "Liv" and "dye") 1. In London, bar patrons who misuse

You South Africa

1 min de citit

One of my fondest childhood memories is of sitting on my dad’s lap, a Richard Scarry word book open on his knee. He’d point at the cute pictures that crowded the page and my job was to identify each object. How clever I felt! And it was such fun. Per

NPR

1 min de citit

NPR's Lulu Garcia-Navarro plays the puzzle with New York Times crossword editor Will Shortz and KUT listener Cory Sureck of Austin, Texas.

Literary Hub

5 min de citit

Me and my sister had our own language as children. I was an inventor of language—of elaborate code in my childhood diaries, rune-like and incomprehensible, and of big words, as many as you could fit into a sentence. But this language, it was between

Games World of Puzzles

1 min de citit

In this puzzle, all of the answers are the first (or last) halves of a word or phrase made up of two identical syllables or words. For example, “Sweet treat” would be BONBON, so you would enter BON in the grid. Proper nouns are allowed. Once you dete

NPR

1 min de citit

Detroit, Havana and Mexico City come together in the group's bilingual double album, Telephone/Teléfono. The twin songs "Hummingbird" and "Colibrí" illustrate the power of lyrics in translation.

New Internationalist

7 min de citit

‘Nana-Ama!’ my mother called out. ‘Come meet one of your cousins.’ We were in Accra, at a family gathering – a wedding or funeral or naming ceremony, I can’t say which; they all blur into what, essentially, seems like the same memory of delicious pla

Shooting Gazette

1 min de citit

Dear Uncle Giles, My shoot will welcome several overseas teams this season, and among those teams there will be some Guns who don’t speak English. How can I make sure the days are welcoming but also run smoothly? M.D. deT by email Uncle Giles wri

Games World of Puzzles

2 min de citit

Below are seven messages—pithy sayings, fascinating facts, and a cartoon gag—that have been translated into simple cipher alphabets. Letter substitutions remain constant throughout any one cipher, but change from one cipher to the next; the level of

NPR

1 min de citit

On-air Challenge: Today's puzzle is all about "me." Specifically, every answer is a word or name in which the accented syllable "me," in any spelling, appears somewhere inside it. Example: Serving to fix or correct things --> REMEDIAL 1. Person who t

PaperCraft Inspirations

1 min de citit

We love a fun new card technique and these clever cascading alphabet dies are most certainly fun – and so versatile, too! If you want to add a bit of oomph to the greetings on your cards, these die sets are perfect! Whatever you want to say on your d

Indianapolis Monthly

1 min de citit

Parla Italiano? You will after these classes taught by Indy Italian. Cristiana Thielmann leads private lessons with an emphasis on pronunciation. Cost: $200 for six 90-minute virtual classes Dates: Year-round Where: 317-581-1340, facebook.com/indyita

NPR

1 min de citit

Listener Brendan Shera of Queens, N.Y., plays the puzzle with puzzlemaster Will Shortz and NPR's Lulu Garcia-Navarro.

Futurity

2 min de citit

Using the generic “you” can help make ideas resonate, research on what readers highlight indicates. Writers often use the word “you” generically to make an idea seem more universal, even though it might not be. A paper on the linguistic device appear

New Zealand Woman’s Weekly

1 min de citit

Join classes and nurture curiosity with one or two new hobbies each year – dance, take up a foreign language or learn how to invest. Before you feel let down, explain your expectations. Don’t be afraid to delegate.

Cruise International

2 min de citit

Are you familiar with the term OBC? Do you know your port side from your leeward? And what on earth should you do if you’re experiencing a little resfeber, or even worse a bout of eleutheromania? I have always been intrigued by language, and, like ev