Dilnoza Yusufova

Linguist

Everything in the series is written to be checked. Where an article gives a number, it comes from the sentences in our own corpus; where it gives a claim about usage, it comes with the source it rests on.

Articles

Why a cow is Saxon but beef is Norman The animal has an English name and the meat a French one. The split is nearly a thousand years old, and it still decides which word sounds plain and which sounds grand. B2–C1 5 min read Say, tell, speak, talk: which one goes where Four verbs where many languages have one. The difference is less about meaning than about what comes next. A2–B2 5 min read PREsent or preSENT: when stress changes the word Record, present, object and many words like them are two words under one spelling. The stressed syllable tells you which word it is, and so does the vowel that loses the stress. Once you hear that vowel, you can say both words correctly. B1–B2 7 min read Present perfect or past simple? Both of them look back. Only one of them also says: and it matters now. A2–B1 5 min read Why it’s always chit-chat and never chat-chit Nobody is taught this rule. Every English speaker keeps it anyway — and you can hear the moment it breaks. B2–C1 6 min read Reported speech: when the tense really shifts back Backshift is not a reflex. It depends on when the words were said — and on whether they are still true. B1–B2 3 min read