You're Saying It Wrong

Insults: The Blah-Blahs Are at the Gate

We look at the etymologies of various insults throughout history, including the origins of barbarian, brat, dunce, and fool.

Sh-sh-sh-shibboleths

Be careful how you say these words! It could be a matter of life and death.

Toponymy!

Hydronyms, dromonyms… toponyms! (Place names. We’re talking about place names.)

Yep, still different

We gaze again into the ocean of difference between American English and British English.

Red Flags

Sometimes you read something that makes you throw the book against the wall, never to pick it up again.

Canadian English [ENCORE]

We've tackled the differences between American and British English, but let's not forget Canadians also have a language of their own.

Back to School!

Kathy and Ross throw Fletcher a devil of a grammar quiz as we all get set for back-to-school season.

Mailbag Day!

We answer some of your most burning questions as we take a dip into the ol' mailbag.

An (ahem) Odyssey Through Ancient Greek

For no reason whatsoever, we look at some words that come from Homer's famous tale and Ancient Greek more generally.

It's Summertime, and the Etymology is... Questionable [ENCORE]

We'll look at the surprising origins of some common summer-related words, phrases, and idioms.

Heading Down South

We take a road trip to the U.S. South to look at some place names that have some pretty surprising pronunciations. Bless our hearts (in a good way)!

Technically Speaking

We take another shot at figuring out what's good and bad about the technical uses of common words.

Getting Your House in Order

We look at the confusing, but surprisingly intuitive, world of adjective and adverb order and how we can know what we're doing without knowing what we're doing.

Technical Difficulties

This week, we look at the (sometimes huge) differences between the technical, specialized definitions of words, and what they mean to everybody else.

Congrats, Grads!

School's out, so we're celebrating all the new graduates by looking at the backgrounds of some graduation-related words.

More Unknown Knowns

We return to one of our favorite (and sometimes most confusing) topics: rules of English that we know instinctively, but that we have no idea we know.

Meh, Duh, D'oh, and Other Communicative Grunts

Today we make a lot of noise by exploring nonverbal vocalizations: all those sounds that aren't words, exactly, but that still carry a lot of meaning.

Common Grammar Controversies

To split infinitives or to not split them? (Ir)regardless, we'll dive into some everyday language arguments that get people all worked up.

How Tiny Differences Can Make a Huge... Difference

Oh, so you think those two words mean exactly the same thing? Not. Even. Close.

A Lowdown Dirty Spelling Quiz (Part 2)

Kathy and Ross did their darndest to stump Fletcher in last week's spelling quiz, to moderate success. How will things go this week? The thrilling conclusion...