Why do so many Americans think British accents automatically connote intelligence? This is part of a complete episode.
If you pass by a place, does that mean you go into it? Or do you go past it? An Australian caller and his American ex-girlfriend disagreed. In parts of the English-speaking world, the phrase pass by is one in a long list of synonyms for...
When it’s raining and sunny at the same time, Brazilians say there’s a marriage between a fox and a nightingale, and South Africans say it’s a monkey’s wedding. Those images are far happier than an American phrase for the...
Do you pronounce crayon like crown? This common variation tends to be a Midlands pronunciation. Americans may pronounce this word several ways, as this dialect map shows. This is part of a complete episode.
What’s the rule on using they and their in place of his and hers? Grammarians a couple of centuries ago may have misapplied some Latin rules of grammar to the unruly English language, but the issue is clear today: the word they functions...
Sometimes people say they are in studio, in hospital, or going to prom — but there’s no the in there! In plenty of dialects, it’s common to drop such articles, making anarthrous nouns, or nouns without articles. This is part of a...