Here is a post for those among you who completed (or will complete) a thesis as part of their university degree. In the course of the Bologna Process, many European universities adopted the Anglo-Saxon system of awarding Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees. To obtain such a degree, you usually have to complete a corresponding Bachelor’s or
The words hostel and hotel are quite similar at first sight. Both refer to types of accommodation, although many people would probably agree that a hostel is nothing like a hotel. A common mistake among non-native speakers is to pronounce the letter o in hostel in the same way as in hotel. However, the correct
The word metre (the American spelling is meter), the name of the unit of length, only has five letters. Because we use and hear this word so often, we are well aware of the correct pronunciation: [ˈmiːtə] (BE) or [ˈmiːtər] (AE); you can listen to it here. Things become more complicated when we consider words
Iron appears to be mispronounced by almost all non-native speakers of English. I don’t remember learning the correct pronunciation in school and most people presumably never notice that there is a right and a wrong pronunciation. I have heard numerous, highly-trained scientists with otherwise excellent English skills who spend their day working with iron consistently
In my professional environment (university), I often hear and even read two literal and rather awkward translations from German to English. First, people like to use the expression to hold a lecture because the corresponding German expression is eine Vorlesung halten. However, the correct English expression is (see here) to give a lecture. Similarly, the
During a recent chat over lunch, I heard two non-native speakers discuss the power of car engines, and one of them used the expression How many PS does the car have? This is a false friend originating from the German Pferdestärke, which is often abbreviated as PS. The proper English expression would be How much
Irregular verbs were a big thing back in school, and many people got into trouble for not remembering them. In fact, they are among the first things you learn when getting started with the English language. Remarkably, despite many years of training, many advanced speakers use incorrect forms such as putted (which is only OK
A remarkable number of German native speakers, including university professors and even Nobel Prize winners, make the mistake of translating Studium into study. For example, they would write 1997-2001 Study of physics in their CV. However, the English noun study translates into the German Studie, but not into Studium. A proper translation to English would
English words that are frequently used in the German language can easily become false friends when used with the same meaning in English. A classic example is Handy, the widely used term for mobile phone (or cell phone), which will certainly confuse native speakers a lot. While very few advanced speakers make the mistake of
This is one of my favourites. An invited speaker at a conference provided the audience with a go home message rather than a take home message. Be careful what you wish for!