french

Why is ‘You Guys’ a Pronoun Now?

Ever wonder how 'you guys' became the go-to way to address a group, even a group of women? This phrase…

3 weeks ago

When Did English Lose Its Grammatical Gender?

Old English once had a complex system of masculine, feminine, and neuter nouns, much like modern German. This all changed…

3 weeks ago

Textbook vs Talk: A Learning Showdown

Should you master verb conjugations before you dare to speak, or should you dive headfirst into conversation and hope for…

3 weeks ago

The Secret Marriage of Letters

Have you ever noticed how the letters 'f' and 'i' sometimes merge into a single, elegant character? This is a…

3 weeks ago

The Birth Certificate of French

The Oaths of Strasbourg, a 9th-century military pact, are often called the "birth certificate" of the French language. Sworn in…

3 weeks ago

The Chinook Jargon: Language of the Pacific Fur Trade

For over a century, a unique pidgin language connected Indigenous peoples, Europeans, and Asians along the Pacific Northwest coast. Known…

3 weeks ago

The Translator’s Trap: Can AI Outsmart False Friends?

False friends are words that look the same in different languages but mean wildly different things—a classic trap for language…

3 weeks ago

The Million-Dollar Mistake: When False Friends Cause Chaos

We've all heard humorous tales of language mix-ups, but so-called "false friends" can have consequences far beyond embarrassment. From derailing…

3 weeks ago

Waking a Sleeping Language: The Myaamia Story

What happens when a language’s last fluent speaker passes away? For the Myaamia people, this was not an ending but…

3 weeks ago

My Hand, My Self: Inalienable Grammar

In English, you can talk about "a hand" as a detached object. But in many languages, the rules of grammar…

3 weeks ago

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