Author: Karen Lunde
This question came in from a listener: Why do we need the word “it” at the beginning of sentences, as in “It rains quite often”? Well, the English language has plenty of quirks, and this is one of them. Who or what is the mysterious “it” that keeps doing all this stuff? We find the word “it” in sentences like: “It’s raining.” (But what exactly is doing the raining?) “It’s getting dark.” (Who or what is making it dark?) “It’s freezing in here!” (But who or what ordered the Arctic temperatures?) “It takes time to learn a language.” (What exactly…
Ever wonder why we call a little extra spending money “mad money” like one of our listeners named Amy wondered? Or maybe you found yourself curious about the term “pin money” while binge-watching “Bridgerton.” These money-related phrases aren’t just old-fashioned expressions. They actually tell fascinating stories about the evolution of women and money in society. Did women really need money for pins? Today, you probably won’t hear the term “pin money” very often unless you’re watching a historical drama or reading historical fiction, but we do still use it. These days, “pin money” refers to a trivial amount of money…
Have you ever looked at the word “naïveté” and wondered why we have little dots and accents hanging out above some of the letters? Well if so, you’re not alone! Julia Ganis asked this exact question on Bluesky. Those little extras above (or sometimes below) letters are called diacritical marks, or diacritics for short. You can think of them as the accessories of the alphabet world — they’re not part of the basic letter, but they add a little something extra to tell us how to pronounce or understand a word. In English, we usually prefer our letters plain and…
Today we’re answering an intriguing question from a listener named Michael, who asks, “Why do we drop the L in words like ‘almond’ and ‘chalk’?” This is one of those language mysteries that reveals how words evolve over time. You might not have noticed, but those of us who speak English treat the letter L in some interesting ways. Sometimes we say it, sometimes we don’t, and sometimes it depends entirely on where you grew up. So let’s start with a quick experiment. Listen to me say these words: “walk,” “talk,” and “half.” Did you notice that even though all…
This question comes from a listener. Linda said: I’d like to see tips that address correct pronoun usage in social media captions. For example, if I caption a photo on a social media platform, I might type in: Taylor Swift and me. Many people, however, would type in: Taylor Swift and I. I use “me” under the assumption that the unwritten words preceding the caption would be: [This is a photo of] Taylor Swift and me. Well, you’re right, Linda! Choosing between “me” and “I” in photo captions is trickier than it seems. As you noticed, a lot of people…