language

https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/an-irish-diary/2025/04/25/frightfully-unfashionable-frank-mcnally-on-the-century-long-decline-of-adverbs/

I've noticed I sometimes use "to" when a reader corrects it to "at". But sometimes the correction doesn't sound right to me and I can't figure out why. Examples: While describing looking at paintings, I used both "at" and "to": "She stared out at us, holding a glass ball in front of her...

The video explains the concept of stress-timed and syllable-timed languages. Something I had never heard of. What he calls "content words" are stressed, while "grammar words" are not. It seems one of the tricks to space out the stressed words in order to get the proper rhythm is by using the...

I just came across a phrase that I love and I thought I'd start a thread where we can share our favourite examples of language at its finest, whether because it's beautiful, humorous, quirky, figurative...whatever! The phrase was: peppering with questions I also love: mad as a box of frogs...

If the English language made any sense, lackadaisical would have something to do with a shortage of flowers. Doug Larson

I write when I feel called to language. When I haven’t felt called for a while, I show up anyway to see what happens. I used to write every day. Not anymore. I try to touch words, mine or others, every day. That’s often books and poems and interviews. Sometimes it’s writing, sometimes reading...

I could tell you which writer's rhythms I am imitating. It's not exactly plagiarism, it's falling in love with good language and trying to imitate it. Charles Kuralt

New blog post by Claire G – discussions in this thread, please --- I’m Fine Whenever I meet someone new, I try to learn their language. I don’t mean French or German; I mean things like what they convey without actually saying the words, or the way they might say something but mean something...

New blog post by Vagabond Heart – discussions in this thread, please --- Marcel Duchamp said this: it’s art if I say so. He’s the guy who stuck a urinal on the wall and called it ‘Fountain’. And ever since he did that, the art world swivelled on its axis and became a place where apparently...

"Language is a virus from outer space." William S. Burroughs

My W.I.P is set in 16th Century Tudor England and I find myself not only seeking out appropriate language for my characters but also writing with words that have existed since the 1500s. It feels right to do so, but I wonder if I am making more work for myself, or perhaps even dating the tale...