During a recent talk I heard someone (a nonnative speaker) pronounce the noun expertise in a way I had not heard before, namely as [ˌekspɜːˈtaiz], similar perhaps to exercise (listen here). While at first I thought this was simply a pronunciation mistake, it turns out that the verb to expertise (yes, there is a verb,
The English language makes it relatively easy to write in a gender-neutral way because nouns in general do not have a gender; a gender is only specified when referring to people or animals. Hence, there is only one indefinite article (the) and two definite articles (a or an, see here). Compare this to German, where
Today I want to address a mistake that is very common among non-native speakers, namely the confusion of how and what … like in forming questions. While I always had a reasonably good intuition when to use which, I learned that there is actually some logic behind it. According to my trusted book Practical English
Inspired by a recent stay in a hotel (see picture), let me point out a subtle but important difference in meaning between the verbs treat and invite. The situation is made even trickier by the fact that other languages (in particular German) do not have this distinction. Consider the following two sentences: (1) I would
As a regular commuter, Deutsche Bahn has caused me quite some headaches in the past. However, they also provide valuable input for this blog. Today, I want to share some of my recent observations regarding their special version of the English language. While it is quite common for passengers to make fun of the staff,
Coffee is not just an important part of my life, but plays a key role for our society. You can find a very readable history of coffee here. In this post, I want to discuss some coffee-related vocabulary and pronunciation. This will help you get ready for your next visit to the coffee shop, or
Fine dining has become a hobby for many people, so it makes sense to acquire the necessary vocabulary. Because the English-speaking countries were for a long time not exactly known for their exquisite food, many of the expressions are in fact of French origin. An amuse-bouche or amuse-gueule (listen here) (known as Gruß aus der
John is not only a very common English name, but actually an English word and part of English expressions. Let me tell you about some of the very interesting meanings of John. First, we have the noun john, which is used (although not in formal English) both for the clients of a prostitute (the British
Today I’m writing about two interesting expressions derived from the verb to speak that you may not have encountered before. First, the adjective spoken for means already claimed or being kept for somebody according to the OLD. In particular, spoken for is an old-fashioned synonym for married. Fortunately, the times when married women were literally
A python is not just a rather dangerous looking animal. It also gave the name to a very powerful and popular programming language — Python. Having heard different people pronounce Python in different ways, I decided to look up its pronunciation. This is what I found. In British English, Python is pronounced as [ˈpaɪθən], whereas