I've been away from this forum for a while, and meantime I've enrolled for a five-year (gulp!) degree in English (which includes grammar, literature, linguistics, and so on) at a distance university. Right now I'm starting to delve

Cai Jingshu, 14, loves English. She reads English newspapers every week and often tries to talk with foreigners from other countries. “Many of us want to study abroad and find out more about English language culture,” said the girl. However,

I'm trying to teach someone(of Chinese origin) how to pronounce "L" but they can only say "R" instead. Any tips/help/ideas on how to help them pronounce the letter correctly? Thanks in advance...

hi Ben, Polish phonology is rather adventurous, that's right. But it does not make English any simplier. It is just that with some languages you have to be able to produce special sounds and train your hearing to understand them (e.g. Polish,

Yes, yes. But you do have to put forward some ... you have to provide evidence that that might have happened. One should not insist that the etymology of an idiom be proven more precisely or accurately than the etymology of words and phrases that

One should not insist that the etymology of an idiom be proven more precisely or accurately than the etymology of words and phrases that are not idioms. For most of the lexicon, the when and how cannot be precisely known. Dictionary etymologies,

Raf, your question is kind of strange, given the fact that many educated Britons do not even pronounce the "r" in "world." However, I've heard a lot of people ask the same question. The biggest problem is that the /r/ sound

REZA MODIRROUSTA wrote on 25 Apr 2005: Wherever human exists, language exists and there are no "primitive" languages, because ALL LANGUAGES ARE EQUALLY COMPLEX AND EQUALLY CAPABLE ... No language is better! Is an English speaker better

I am taking my final class to earn my Master's in Bilingual Ed./Teaching English as a Second Language. In this linguistics class, I have to find someone who speaks a language other than English or Spanish natively and have them read a short

Enrico C wrote on 21 Nov 2004: I would like better ears. Funnily enough, I reckon most ... Italian, for instance, have troubles saying Italian Rs and Es. And the GL soft sound as well, as in "gli", "gliene", etc. I've