Latest articles by James Harbeck
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15 English words we stole from Arabicfeature Magazine, coffee, sugar...
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Why it's difficult to tell a Canadian accent from a Californian onefeature Not so easy, eh?
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11 words whose meanings have completely changed over timefeature Remember when cloud meant "mass of rock?"
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How do you pronounce 'in excelsis'?The Explainer The complicated answer to one of Christmas caroling's most vexing questions
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How the Thanksgiving turkey was named after the country Turkeyfeature Don't feel bad, English speakers: Almost every language has a perplexing name for the delicious fowl
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What does normalize even mean?The Explainer Donald Trump's critics fear the "normalization" of a president-elect they see as anything but "normal"
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4 annoying sounds you need to stop makingfeature You need to stop making these noises, even if you don't realize it
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Singular or plural? It's complicated.feature Welcome to the weird world of quantity words!
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Was there ever an actual train that carried gravy?The Explainer On the history and meaning of 'gravy train'
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'I know, right?': The anatomy of a wonderfully nonsensical phrasefeature And why we insist on saying things that make no literal sense
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How Donald Trump hypnotized Americafeature It's easy, actually: Be funny. Be confident. Be a bully. Repeat, repeat, repeat. Close with the emotion. Win.
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However: Everything you need to know about a commonly abused wordThe Explainer Sometimes you should just use "but"
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This is how old languages add new wordsfeature How do you say 'laptop' in Lakota?
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How to identify Asian, African, and Middle Eastern alphabets at a glancefeature You can't be expected to memorize all these beautiful alphabets, but you can get wise to their signature looks
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How Donald Trump hypnotized America
The Explainer It's easy, actually: Be funny. Be confident. Be a bully. Repeat, repeat, repeat. Close with the emotion. Win.
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How to identify any language at a glancefeature A handy guide for amateur linguists
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10 commonly abused psychology words — and what they really meanfeature Many of the psychology terms we use in causal conversation don't mean what we think they do
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Almost every language has a word for 'Christmas.' Few reference Christ.The Explainer A linguistic tour of holiday sayings, from Feliz Navidad to Mele Kalikimaka...
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How the Thanksgiving turkey was named after the country Turkey
feature But don't feel bad, English speakers: Almost every language has a perplexing name for the delicious fowl
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The wacky world of apostrophes, explainedThe Explainer Why is there apostrophe in O'Hara? Is it tai chi or t'ai chi? And what's up with Hallowe'en?
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Hillary Clinton, and the surprising history of elder statesmen writing like tweensfeature What year do you think this was written? "I wish you wd tell me how u.r. when u. write."
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The curious linguistic histories of ump, imp, amp, omp, and emptfeature One of those words is not like the others...
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The subtle sounds that English speakers have trouble catchingfeature The "p" in pit, is not the same as the one in spit
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Stop calling possessives 'possessive'feature For accuracy's sake, perhaps we should call them 'connectives' instead
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