Mind Your Language...

Viki, my flatmate from Hungary, speaks excellent English, but every so often she comes up with something that really makes me laugh (eg. "if someone says "can you get me flour?" how do you know if they mean for baking or a daffodil?").

However, a few days ago, she asked a question that I kind of begrudgingly admit was a good point...

It all stemmed from the fact that the Hungarian language doesn't have a "th" sound like we do, so it doesn't come naturally to her (I still like to get her to say "thistle" so I can giggle when she says "sissle" (sorry, Viki)), and one of the words she finds hardest is "booths".

Well, she came up with a new way to pluralise booth, following another rule. Her logic?

One tOOth, two tEEth
One gOOse, two gEEse
One fOOt, two fEEt

So... it's now...

One bOOth, two bEEth!

And I kinda had to admit she had a point!

Strange Things Occur To You...

...in the wee small hours when you waken up from a bad dream and can't get back to sleep again...

Like the fact that I've only just noticed that "Mediterranean" (as in the Sea) means "in the middle of earth". Obvious when you think about it - but I don't have a clue as to why I was thinking about it at 4o'clock in the morning... especially since the bad dream I had woken from had nothing to do with drowning, swimming, or the sea!

I've never even really thought - or cared - before about why the Mediterranean is called what it is...

Nearly Snood?

Caught a snatch of conversation on the radio yesterday, and suddenly something occurred to me...

If a "snood" is a garment that's a combination of a "scarf" and a "hood", then why isn't it called a "Scood"?

Where does the N come from?

Anybody got any ideas? Julie? Bri? :D

Under The Spell

Have you ever noticed how some words just don’t look right when you see them in print? Even when you know that they’re spelt correctly?

For example, every morning when the alarm on my phone goes off, and I press the “Snooze” button, I am convinced that Samsung have spelt “Snooze” wrong… but it’s obviously right, because the spellchecker here hasn’t picked it up as wrong.

And the other one that comes to mind is “Glory”. “Glory” just doesn’t look right as a word.

Is it just me?