English Language Blog

Americans celebrate Veterans Day every November 11 as a way of honoring every person who has ever served in the United States Armed Forces. Note that the word Veterans has no apostrophe. Memorial Day, which is celebrated on the last Monday of May, honors those service members who died in combat while serving in the…

In my capacity as Social Media Manager for Transparent Language, I oversee our blogs and our Word of the Day service. These are offered free as a way to help language learners. They are also quite interesting, and I learn a lot from them. I also learn from our subscribers. Many of you make keen…

What’s up, dear readers? Time to put a smile on your face because there is a new post today! Body language is something that is part of our daily lives, even if we don’t realize it. We are always communicating through our bodies and transmitting nonverbal information with our movements, gestures and facial expressions. But…

When I was a kid, Halloween was always an exercise in greed. I was far less interested in my costume than in the loot I was going to acquire while wearing the costume. I planned my evening very carefully, mindful to take advantage of the time my parents had permitted me. I wouldn’t allow my…

My wife has been in the book business for…well…a very long time. We have a lot of books. We find it necessary to shelve all those books in something which resembles an orderly system so that we can find them again. We have bookcases that are carefully alphabetized by an author’s last name. If the…

I love to cook. I find it relaxing, but also creative. When I get home at night I gather my ingredients for dinner, pull out the necessary cookware and utensils, pour a glass of wine, and focus on making something that my wife and I will enjoy at the table. I rarely measure anything. I’ve…

We have a word in English which has always been trouble for grammarians. They and its related case form their and them, is a singular indefinite pronoun. We use it to refer to a group of people who might be male, female, or a combination. “They say it’s going to rain tomorrow.” It is also…