Tag: language

ted:

Well, that was easy.

You just learned 8 Chinese words in the cutest way possible.

When TED speaker ShaoLan Hsueh tried to teach her children Chinese, she realized just how hard it is for new learners to grasp. So she created a series of illustrations to make the beautiful, often complex characters easier to remember. It makes learning Chinese … wait for it … Chineasy.

Try Chineasy for yourself and watch her full talk here »

7 Words that Came About from People Getting Them Wrong

nevver:

  1. PEA
    Originally the word was “pease,” and it was singular.The sound on the end was reanalyzed as a plural ‘s’ marker.
  2. CHERRY
    The same thing happened to “cherise” or “cheris,” which came from Old French “cherise” and was reanalyzed as a plural. So the singular “cherry” was born.
  3. APRON
    Originally “napron” often enough as “an apron” that by the 1600s the “n” was dropped.
  4. UMPIRE
    Umpire lost its ‘n’ from the same sort of confusion. Orinally nompere, the n-less form won out.
  5. NEWT
    A newt was originally an “ewt” – with “an” thus it became the “newt.”
  6. NICKNAME
    The ‘n’ also traveled over from the “an” to stick to “nickname,” which was originally “ekename,” meaning “added name.”
  7. ALLIGATOR
    Alligator came to English from the Spanish explorers who first encountered “el lagarto” (lizard) in the New World.

7 Words that Came About from People Getting Them Wrong