dawn.vogel | September 13, 2024
Do you know the difference between a malapropism and an eggcorn? Sometimes, they overlap, but this article explains the difference between the two things. If you’re a word nerd, you might just enjoy reading the article. But if you want to use this as a writing prompt, I think you could have some fun with either […]
dawn.vogel | October 5, 2018
English is weird, difficult for non-native speakers to master, and confusing even to native speakers. Case in point, check out the diagrammed sentence to the right. I can’t exactly explain what it means, but it’s apparently grammatically correct. So are these other sentences. While they may be grammatically correct, that doesn’t necessarily mean that you want […]
dawn.vogel | August 17, 2018
Not too long ago, I mentioned pangrams, which are sentences that use every letter in the English language. But what about NOT using a specific letter in a story, or even a novel? It’s called a lipogram, it’s most commonly done with the letter “E,” which seems really difficult! My last sentence had 8 instances of […]
dawn.vogel | October 20, 2017
English words come from all sorts of interesting places, but here’s a list of words with “spooky” etymologies. While some of these words may have spookier origins than others, it’s interesting to see the way words have shifted from their original roots to their modern meanings. I was particularly interested in the origins of “cobalt,” […]
dawn.vogel | September 29, 2017
As someone who ALMOST double-majored in English, with a focus on linguistics, the English language is a fascinating subject for me. But as most people who know even a little bit of English can tell you, it’s also a WEIRD language. This article does a good job of summarizing some of the reasons why English […]
