Grammar

Valency: The Chemistry of Verbs

Think of verbs like atoms in a chemistry lab: just as atoms bond with a specific number of electrons, verbs…

5 days ago

Cataphora: When the Pronoun Comes First

Usually, we introduce a person by name before using a pronoun, but cataphora flips the script ("Before he left, John…

5 days ago

Hypercorrection: The Tragedy of “Whom Shall Go”

Hypercorrection is the linguistic tragedy of trying so hard to be right that you end up wrong. From the awkwardness…

5 days ago

Tag Questions: The Grammar of Uncertainty

Explore the hidden complexity of tag questions, those little end-of-sentence checks like "isn't it?" or "don't you?" This article dives…

5 days ago

The Ablative Absolute: Latin’s Efficiency Hack

The Ablative Absolute is Latin's ultimate "zip file", allowing complex context into just two grammatically disconnected words. While this construction…

5 days ago

Broken Plurals: Why Arabic Rejects Suffixes

Unlike English, which relies on suffixes to denote plurality, Arabic utilizes "Broken Plurals"—a system where words are shattered and rearranged…

5 days ago

A Measure for Everything: How Mandarin Categorizes the World

In Mandarin Chinese, you cannot simply say "three books"—grammatical rules force speakers to categorize the world through specific classifiers based…

5 days ago

The Debitive Mood: Why Latvian Has a Special Way to Say “Must”

Unlike most European languages which rely on modal verbs like "must" or "have to", Latvian utilizes a unique grammatical feature…

6 days ago

Beyond Outlander: The Real Language of the Highlands

While fans of *Outlander* fell in love with possible Gaelic phrases, the true history of the language involves a dramatic…

6 days ago

The ‘Dummy Do’: English’s Weirdest Grammar Quirk

While most European languages form questions by simply swapping the subject and verb (like the German "Trinken Sie?"), English requires…

6 days ago

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