English 4 Geeks

The Horologicon – a book of beautiful English words

sylvaf — Wed, 05 Dec 2012 11:40:32 +0000

This week the BBC is presenting The Horologicon, “a book of the strangest and most beautiful words in the English language arranged by the hour of the day when you will really need them. Words for breakfast, for commuting, for working, for dining, for drinking and for getting lost on the way home”.
The book was written by Mark Forsyth, a writer, journalist, proof-reader, ghostwriter and author of the great Inky Fool blog on English grammar and vocabulary.

The BBC programme has five parts: Episode 1, Episode 2, Episode 3, Episode 4 and Episode 5 (and all the episodes shoudl be available only until 12 or 13 December).

You can read an excerpt of the book here

or get it at Amazon or (my favourite) BookDepository.
I haven’t read The Horologicon yet but I think it’ll be at least as interesting as The Etymologicon by the same author.

In the meantime, enjoy his TED Talk on “political speak”:

Filed under: idioms & phrases, links, listening Tagged: BBC, book, listening, TED, vocabulary

10 Tips to Improve Your Grammar

sylvaf — Mon, 12 Nov 2012 09:01:33 +0000

ᔥ visual.ly

Filed under: grammar, links Tagged: grammar, improve

What can an onion teach us about spelling?

sylvaf — Fri, 28 Sep 2012 19:24:22 +0000

Do you find the English spelling weird or absurd? Then watch the following video – it might give you a hint what’s it all about. Crosswords lovers might like it, too

The short lesson by Gina Cooke was created for the online learning platform,
TED-ed, launched by TED, the non-profit organization famous for “Ideas Worth Spreading” in April. The educational videos can be accessed by subject
or theme and you can also subscribe to them on YouTube.

Filed under: links, listening Tagged: spelling, video

The English Lesson

sylvaf — Sun, 16 Sep 2012 06:43:50 +0000

Note: The (fragment of the) poem on plural forms (also called The English Lesson) is sometimes attributed to Richard Krogh.

Filed under: fun, grammar Tagged: fun, grammar, plural, poem

the lifespan of words

sylvaf — Fri, 14 Sep 2012 14:42:50 +0000

From the Institute of Neologisms to the Cemetery of Forgotten Words

Via myjetpack.tumblr.com

Filed under: fun, links

goodbye, G+

sylvaf — Tue, 04 Sep 2012 19:12:42 +0000

Dear geeks and geekettes,
I am sorry to inform you I have deleted the English 4 Geeks page from G+.
I can already hear some of you saying it’s a pity since Google Plus is the place where all the geeks go to network, right?
Well, perhaps the following picture explains why I have lost my patience:

From now on, you can follow English 4 Geeks only on Twitter, Facebook
or Scoop.it!
Hope to read your comments on the blog and to post more stuff soon(ish).

Filed under: links Tagged: news

Shakespearan Insulter

sylvaf — Wed, 29 Aug 2012 14:06:40 +0000

9 out of 10 English teachers recommend this generator of insults: enjoy!

You can find another great collection of Shakespearan insults at No Sweat Shakespeare.

Filed under: fun, links Tagged: insults, Shakespeare, vocabulary

tweetathon listening exercise

sylvaf — Thu, 21 Jun 2012 16:45:54 +0000

Inspired by the British literary tweethathon organized by the Society of Authors last year, the Czech writer Jaroslav Rudiš, the editor Zdeněk Král and me have tried a similar experiment: to write a collective short story in tweets. The results exceeded our expectations but I don’t want to write about that.

Instead, I want to present the 5 original short stories written with the help of 5 British writers read by 3 British actors (Bill Nigh, Brenda Blethyn, and Hugh Bonneville) to help you practise your listening skills.
All the original texts can be found in the links below. Enjoy!

Story No. 1: Thriller (the opening Twitter line written by Ian Rankin):

(text)

Story No. 2: Ghost-story (the opening Twitter line written by Sarah Waters):

(text)

Story No. 3: Comedy/Crime (the opening Twitter line written by Simon Brett):

(text)

Story No. 4: An open theme (the opening Twitter line written by Joanne Harris):

(text)

Story No. 5: Fantasy (the opening Twitter line written by Neil Gaiman):

(text)

Did you understand well?
Did you like the stories?

Filed under: links, listening Tagged: literature, twitter

homophones – a comic for literacy geeks

sylvaf — Thu, 07 Jun 2012 16:40:18 +0000

An awesome comic for all literacy geeks!
Practise your pronunciation and let yourself be impressed by this great illustration by Pablo Stanley:

Filed under: fun Tagged: pronunciation