12 Awesome Language Resources for the Word Nerd I’m an unabashed word nerd. I majored in English and have been a high school English teacher for almost 30 years. I run an online program helping homeschoolers develop writing skills, and I manage this wordy blog and a wordy Facebook page. I have become, over the years, something of an expert on grammar and usage, but it’s not due to any particular cleverness on my part. I have simply learned how to ask good questions and find reliable answers. Here are a dozen of my favorite resources. I own three fat dictionaries, and on just about every word question, I consult all three. The first Webster’s Dictionary was published in 1928. The last unabridged dictionary published by Merriam-Webster is their rather controversial Third New International Dictionary of the English Language that was published in 1961. In the meantime, they keep revising their abridged but useful Collegiate Dictionary–now in it’s 11th iteration. I particularly like the many usage notes included in this Dictionary.
French-English dictionary - translation - bab.la Type in the word you would like to translate from French to English in the search field above. You can also look up a French translation for an English word as both sides of the French-English dictionary are searched. If a search returns an extensive list of results you can narrow your parameters with the use of helpful filters. Search the French dictionary by letter If your search was unsuccessful or perhaps you don't know the exact French spelling, you can find it here. Verify French translation Below are the latest suggested translations which have been added to the French-English dictionary. jool [art] [Brit.] Suggest new French to English translation Are we missing a word in the French-English dictionary? Latest word suggestions by users: spork, jool, raise the eyebrows, résumé, supernal (more) Why participate? By joining bab.la you can help us make the French-English dictionary even better and reach our goal of being the largest online dictionary in the world.
Online Etymology Dictionary British Slang If you’re planning on visiting London in the future, you might just want to familiarise yourself with some British Slang expressions that are very commonly used by the British. They will be very useful particularly if you’re likely to be socialising with Londoners. 1. “Mind The Gap” This famous expression is always used on trains and the London Underground (Tube). 2. “Mate” is British Slang used to refer to men. 3. If something is “naff”, it is very uncool. 4. This British Slang word is not to be confused with the film of the same title where the main characters removed all their clothes for a striptease act. 5. The literal meaning is larva, but it is also another word for food. 6. “I love Pringle Crisps. 7. When the English don’t like something, but don’t want to be rude they will say: ” I’m afraid that going to nightclubs is not my cup of tea”. 8. This is another British slang word for the UK currency, the pound. 9. 10. This basically means ‘thank you’. Ciao for now. Shanthi
Omnilexica - Search in all dictionaries at once! British Accents and Dialects Wikimedia The United Kingdom is perhaps the most dialect-obsessed country in the world. With near-countless regional Englishes shaped by millennia of history, few nations boast as many varieties of language in such a compact geography. (NOTE: This page uses the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). The below lists several important types of British English. Received Pronunciation Received Pronunciation (a term by 19th Century linguist A.J. Features: Non-rhoticity, meaning the r at the ends of words isn’t prounounced (mother sounds like “muhthuh”).Trap-bath split, meaning that certain a words, like bath, can’t, and dance are pronounced with the broad-a in father. Speech Samples: Cockney Cockney is probably the second most famous British accent. Estuary English (Southeast British) Estuary is an accent derived from London English which has achieved a status slightly similar to “General American” in the US. West Country (Southwest British) Midlands English Speech samples: Northern England English
Full text of "longman words" LONGMAN COMMUNICATION 3000 Longman Communication 3000 The Longman Communication 3000 is a list of the 3000 most frequent words in both spoken and written English, based on statistical analysis of the 390 million words contained in the Longman Corpus Network - a group of corpuses or databases of authentic English language. The Longman Communication 3000 represents the core of the English language and shows students of English which words are the most important for them to learn and study in order to communicate effectively in both speech and writing. Analysis of the Longman Corpus Network shows that these 3000 most frequent words in spoken and written English account for 86% of the language. This means that by knowing this list of words, a learner of English is in a position to understand 86% or more of what he or she reads. Of course, "knowing" a word involves more than simply being able to recognise it and know a main meaning of it.
theconversation If you struggle to understand the teenagers and young people around you when they call their schoolfriend a durkboi and try to cadge some peas, you are not alone. The idea that they are communicating in a different language from their parents has been the subject of excited chatter on parenting websites and among some researchers. A defining characteristic of youth slang is thought to be its faddishness – the fact that terms have a rapid turnover, quickly coming in and out of fashion and then disappearing before parents and teachers have time to decode them. The new language used by the young is not one unified dialect but an intersection of styles, with vocabulary drawn from a number of sources. Many other words belong to MLE – multi-ethnic or multicultural London English – sometimes derided as jafaican, the speech variety strongly influenced by Caribbean usages and non-European accents and parodied by Ali G and TV comedy Phoneshop. A wealth of words for the same thing
Essentiel Plus - Translation Services Placeholder names in English and other languages | OxfordWords blog If you follow politics, you will have noticed that politicians often invoke the cliché of the ‘man in the street’. You may have heard them referring to the average Joe, Joe Bloggs, John Public, Joe Sixpack, etc. when talking to an audience, addressing everyone and no one, rather than someone in particular. The English language has several of those placeholder names and, more often than not, they denote a male person – implying that the average person is a man, the everyman. If you want to talk about ordinary people in general, you may also call them Tom, Dick, and Harry in English, although the Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase & Fable notes that this Victorian term is particularly attributed to people unworthy of notice. Of course, placeholder names also exist in other languages. Italian In Italian, Tom, Dick, and Harry translates to ‘Tizio, Caio, e Sempronio’, which is the shortened form of ‘Tizio, Caio, Sempronio, Mevio, Filano, e Calpurnio’ used in current speech. Swedish German