Posts by gmcgath
In classical Latin, the letter C is pronounced like K. Hardly any words use the latter K; even imports from Greek turned kappa into C. A handful of words, such as "kalendae," held onto their K. In...
It depends on the context, but generally "in doing so" refers to something that happens along with or as part of the action, and "by doing so" refers to a result of the action. In many cases either...
English tends to use accusative pronouns whenever they aren't clearly the subject of a sentence or clause, even when classical grammatical rules call for the nominative. Another example: "Who's the...
Languages & Linguistics has been getting some questions about relatively basic issues in the English language. There's nothing wrong with these questions as such, but they don't really fit the ...
Some words are examples of the concept they name. Examples: "Word" is a word. "Noun" is a noun. "Eggcorn" is an eggcorn (a mistaken word that sounds like and has some connection to another wor...
The German word "Weihnachten" (Christmas) is an odd one. It's a neuter noun (das Weihnachten) even though it's based on a feminine one (die Nacht, night). The traditional Christmas greetings, "Froh...
German has three sets of pronouns for the second person: the familiar singular (du), the familiar plural (ihr), and the polite singular or plural (Sie). The polite form is identical with the third ...
The verb "do" is generally used for asking a question. Eliminating the extra words, the statement "It makes sense" turns into the question "Does it make sense?" "Is it make sense?" is grammatically...
Most reliable sources say that the Arabic-derived "djinni" is a singular word and its plural is "djinn." (Or "jinni" and "jinn," if you prefer.) The dropping of a final letter or syllable to plural...
After getting various inputs, I can offer a partial answer to my own question. I'm not a native speaker, so feel free to offer a better one. The explanation Duden offers covers most of the bases. ...
A guild is normally a craft or trade organization. "Lodge" has many meanings, but the relevant one is a local branch or meeting place of a fraternal organization. The situation with Freemasonry ma...
Etymology Online suggests: The phrase to wit, almost the only surviving use of the verb, is first recorded 1570s, from earlier that is to wit (mid-14c.), probably a loan-translation of Anglo-Fre...
There's a discussion of how "in terms of" came to mean "regarding" on the Grammarphobia Blog. The article suggests: "Perhaps it strikes people as more scholarly or scientific than the alternatives....
