Grammar

The Difference Between Fui and Era (And Why It Matters)

They both can mean 'I was', but 'fui' and 'era' paint completely different pictures of the past in Spanish. This…

2 weeks ago

Swahili’s 18 Noun Classes

Forget the simple "he" or "she" of European languages. Swahili categorizes its nouns into at least 18 different classes, a…

2 weeks ago

The Double Negatives of Afrikaans

Ever heard an Afrikaans speaker say "Ek praat nie Afrikaans nie" and wondered about that extra "nie"? This seemingly redundant…

2 weeks ago

The Two Pasts of Bulgarian: Witnessed vs. Unwitnessed

In most languages, the past is simply the past. But in Bulgarian, your grammar forces you to specify your source:…

2 weeks ago

The ‘About-To-Be’ Tense of Lithuanian

Lithuanian, one of Europe's oldest languages, possesses a fascinating grammatical tool that English lacks: a specific way to talk about…

2 weeks ago

The Dual Pronouns of Ancient Sanskrit

In our modern world, we count 'one' and 'many.' But Ancient Sanskrit had a third, forgotten category: the dual, a…

2 weeks ago

Counting People in Japanese: The ‘Nin’ Counter

Learning to count in Japanese means mastering counters, and the one for people holds a fascinating secret. While most numbers…

2 weeks ago

The Two ‘To Be’s of Irish Gaelic

Like Spanish, Irish Gaelic has two verbs for 'to be', but the logic is entirely different. Instead of temporary vs.…

2 weeks ago

The Fluid Verb: Tense and Aspect in Swahili

Swahili verbs are masterpieces of modular design, built by "gluing" prefixes for tense, person, and more onto a single root.…

2 weeks ago

The Case of the Missing ‘Is’ in Russian

In Russian, "My brother is a doctor" becomes "Мой брат – врач" (My brother – doctor). This isn't a mistake…

2 weeks ago

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