Spanish Word of the Day: 'Botellón'

It could be translated as 'pre-drinking' but in some cases, people, often students, will just go to a park or plaza to drink with no intention of going anywhere else afterwards. The word literally means 'big bottle' (and still does in Latin America, where botellón isn't a part of their culture).

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Maori Language, Once Shunned, Is Having a Renaissance in New Zealand

WELLINGTON, New Zealand — A teenage thrash metal band screams out Maori lyrics in its latest videos. A popular radio host is learning New Zealand’s indigenous language and sharing new vocabulary with his audience.

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America’s No. 1 song isn’t in English. That doesn’t happen often.

For the second week in a row, the song that’s sitting atop the Billboard Hot 100 list is “Despacito,” a Spanish-language track by Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee, with an assist from Canadian boy Justin Bieber. (It’s Bieber’s third week in a row singing on a No. 1 track since he was on D.J.

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10 Words With Roots in Lesser-Known Languages

English has borrowed words from all over the world to make up its lexicon. Our friends at Vocabulary.

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11 idioms only Brits understand

You don’t get much more British than this. To pop one’s clogs is a euphemism for dying or death. If something goes down a treat, then it was thoroughly enjoyed.

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Wait … is that a rule? Ten everyday grammar mistakes you might be making

Should you use italics for movie titles? Do you put full stops inside or outside quotation marks? Is the Oxford comma for all lists … or just some lists? Should that ellipsis have had a space on either side of it? The correct answer to each of these questions is “it depends”.

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Row erupts over Spain’s first fully English-language Eurovision entry

For the first time ever a song written entirely in English is to represent Spain at the Eurovision song contest after viewers of state broadcaster RTVE and a celebrity jury earlier this week picked 33-year-old Madrileña Barei’s Say Yay! as this year’s Spanish entry.

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11 Slang Terms You Think Are New But Are In Fact Ancient

But the first recorded use of the word was in 1941. Hipsters have been trying too hard to look cool for more than seven decades. And they really haven’t changed that much: Norman Mailer was writing about “the self-protective irony of the hipster” in 1958.



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Google Translate gets smarter with language detection, Word Lens

Star Trek's universal translator is here, and it's on your phone.



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40 Incorrectly Used Words That Can Make You Look Dumb

LinkedIn Influencer, Jeff Haden, published this post originally on LinkedIn. While I like to think I know a little about business writing, I still fall into a few word traps. (Not to mention a few cliché traps.)



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10 Words With Roots in Lesser-Known Languages

English has borrowed words from all over the world to make up its lexicon. Our friends at Vocabulary.



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5 French Phrases That Will Save You Money When Traveling in France

Save by learning these important phrases. Photo: Smilla4 So you're feeling like you've mastered the "bonjours" and "mercis"? Maybe it's time to kick it up a notch. Sometimes in Paris, hand signals don't always work when you are shopping or dining in a café.



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The Two-Way

The growing popularity of electronic cigarettes has now sparked the notice of the estimable Oxford Dictionaries, which has chosen "vape" as the word of the year for 2014. The word can be a noun or a verb; it beat out contenders such as "bae" and "normcore."



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Revealed: The word of the year is 'vape'

After much discussion, Oxford Dictionaries have revealed their word of the year: 'vape'. Eminent lexicographer Jonathon Green is unimpressed It’s that time of the year.



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33 European languages in danger of extinction

LONDON — 33 languages across Europe are close to dying out, according to a new list of at-risk dialects. Four languages spoken in British territories are among the endangered lingos featured in a report from language expert, which uses data from the UNESCO Languages in Danger project.



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11 idioms only Brits understand

You don’t get much more British than this. To pop one’s clogs is a euphemism for dying or death. If something goes down a treat, then it was thoroughly enjoyed.



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Please. Don’t ‘Decry’ the ‘Divorcée.’ Or Give Us Your ‘CV.’ The Times Guide to Modern Usage

We investigate subjects here. We do not “probe” them. And no, none of the bodies here are buried in “caskets”; The New York Times Manual of Style prefers the term “coffin.”



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10 idioms only the French understand

1. Est-ce que je te demande si ta grand-mère fait du vélo? | Mind your own damn business Translates literally as, “Do I ask you if your grandma bikes?” This is a rather funny (though not for the person receiving the insult) and sarcastic way to tell someone to get lost. Example: 2.



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20 Common Grammar Mistakes That (Almost) Everyone Makes

I’ve edited a monthly magazine for more than six years, and it’s a job that’s come with more frustration than reward.



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