See this at: en.wikipedia.org| Added on 08/08/07

Schadenfreude (help·info) is a German word meaning 'pleasure taken from someone else's misfortune'. It has been borrowed by t... See more

Schadenfreude (help·info) is a German word meaning 'pleasure taken from someone else's misfortune'. It has been borrowed by the English language[1] and is sometimes also used as a loanword by other languages. The German pronunciation of the word is [ˈʃaːdənˌfʁɔʏdə] (IPA). It derives from Schaden (damage, harm) and Freude (joy); Schaden derives from the Middle High German schade, from the Old High German scado, and freude comes from the Middle High German vreude, from the Old High German frewida, from frō, (happy). In German, the word always carries a negative connotation. A distinction exists between "secret schadenfreude" (a private feeling) and "open schadenfreude" (Hohn). Usually, it is believed that Schadenfreude has no direct English equivalent. For example, Harper Collins German-English Dictionary translates schadenfreude as "malicious glee or gloating." An apparent English equivalent is epicaricacy, derived from the Greek word επιχαιρεκακία, epichaerecacia. This word does not... See less

See this at: students.luther.edu| Added on 07/22/07

I have no doubt I'm not the only one who has noticed that sometimes I and the people around me sound really, well, stupid. I'm not talking about asinine comments regarding any manner of everyday subjects (people, school, culture, politics, etc), but... See more

I have no doubt I'm not the only one who has noticed that sometimes I and the people around me sound really, well, stupid. I'm not talking about asinine comments regarding any manner of everyday subjects (people, school, culture, politics, etc), but rather the way we actually sound, the words and phrases leaving our mouths. Sometimes it seems to me that our generation--whether you'd like to call it Generation Y or Generation Digital or anything else--simply can't articulate what we mean very well, or that the sentences that form our ideas and thoughts sound a little contrived. The most obvious example that we are all guilty of (author certainly included) is the use of the word like as an introduction to a quote, story, or idea: "And I was like...," "The movie was, like...," "What I mean to say is, like..." Listen how often like comes up in any number of ways. You're going to need more than ten fingers and ten toes to count off this culture adoption of a word that, like, doesn't really... See less

See this at: tlt.its.psu.edu| Added on 07/19/07

Almost all applications support French accents. Guidelines for typing and using accents are given below. lf you need to refer to additional characters, look under the Accents tab.

Almost all applications support French accents. Guidelines for typing and using accents are given below. lf you need to refer to additional characters, look under the Accents tab. See less

See this at: neatorama.com| Added on 06/29/07

Why do you need these Latin phrases? Well, like Latin teachers always say, Latin lives on in plenty of English words and phrases. But mostly, it’s worth learning a bit of Latin because omnia dicta fortiori, si dicta Latina: everything sounds more... See more

Why do you need these Latin phrases? Well, like Latin teachers always say, Latin lives on in plenty of English words and phrases. But mostly, it’s worth learning a bit of Latin because omnia dicta fortiori, si dicta Latina: everything sounds more impressive when said in Latin. Ad hoc: Literally meaning "for this," it’s generally used to mean improvised. Ad infinitum (not to be confused with et cetera): "To infinity, without end." Caveat emptor: "Let the buyer beware." Citius altius fortius: "Faster, higher, stronger" - the motto of the modern Olympics. Columbarium: A collective tomb in ancient Rome that was also used as a house for pigeons and doves. Corpus christi: "The body of Christ." Cuius est solum eius est usque ad coelum et ad inferos: "Whoever owns the land it is theirs up to the sky and down to the depths." The state of Kansas used this law in the 1970s to argue that airlines could not serve liquor when flying over Kansas, a dry state. "Kansas," Attorney General Vern Miller... See less

See this at: youthink.com| Added on 06/13/07

1. If you say the word THOUGHT, does it rhyme with LOT? | 2. How do you usually say the words DON and DAWN? Do you say them the same or differently? | 3. How would you say HOCK and HAWK? | 4. What about COLLAR and CALLER? How do you say them? | 5.... See more

1. If you say the word THOUGHT, does it rhyme with LOT? | 2. How do you usually say the words DON and DAWN? Do you say them the same or differently? | 3. How would you say HOCK and HAWK? | 4. What about COLLAR and CALLER? How do you say them? | 5. When you say ON, does it rhyme with LAWN or with JOHN? Or both? | 6. The three words MARY, MERRY, and MARRY. How do you say them? | 7. What vowel sound do you use in the beginning of the word HORRIBLE? | 8. The words TENT and TINT. How do you typically say them when you are typically talking? | 9. Do you say the words HEEL and HILL alike or not? | 10. Do you say words like BATH, PASS, and STAFF with the same vowel as BAT, PACK, and TRAP? | 11. Do you say ABOUT and MOUTH with the same vowel sound as LOUD and DOWN? | 12. Do you say RIGHT and PRICE with the same vowel sound as RIDE and PRIZE? | 13. How do you say the first A in PASTA? | 14. If you say BAG does it rhyme with VAGUE? | 15. If you say words like TIME, RIDE, MILE, I, etc., we all... See less

See this at: economist.com| Added on 04/19/07

Some common solecisms Acronym: this is a word, like radar or NATO, not a set of initials, like the BBC or the IMF. Aetiology is the science of causation, or an inquiry into something's origins. Etiolate is to make or become pale for lack of light.... See more

Some common solecisms Acronym: this is a word, like radar or NATO, not a set of initials, like the BBC or the IMF. Aetiology is the science of causation, or an inquiry into something's origins. Etiolate is to make or become pale for lack of light. Aggression is an unattractive quality, so do not call a keen salesman an aggressive one (unless his foot is in the door or beyond). Agony column: when Sherlock Holmes perused this, it was a personal column, not letters to an agony aunt. Agree: things are agreed on, to or about, not just agreed. Aggravate means make worse, not irritate or annoy. Alibi: an alibi is the proven fact of being elsewhere, not a false explanation. Alternate, as an adjective, means every other. Alternative: strictly, this is one of two, not one of three, four, five or more (which may be options). Among and between. Some sticklers insist that, where division is involved, among should be used where three or more are concerned, between where only two are concerned. (So... See less

See this at: en.wikipedia.org| Added on 03/27/07

Historically, singular they arose when the number of the referent was indefinite (as in "Everyone looked under their seats").[1] However, perhaps because English's syntactically singular third-person personal pronouns are all either gender-specific... See more

Historically, singular they arose when the number of the referent was indefinite (as in "Everyone looked under their seats").[1] However, perhaps because English's syntactically singular third-person personal pronouns are all either gender-specific (he and she and their inflected forms) or inappropriate for reference to people (it and its inflected forms), singular they has also come to be used in cases of a non-specific referent of unknown sex (as in "A child becomes an adult when they turn 18"), as well as sometimes in cases of a non-specific referent of known sex (as in "Each player on the boy's basketball team has had their physical"), or of a specific referent of unknown sex (as in "Someone called for you, but they didn't leave a message"). Many speakers object to some or all of these uses. While singular they is often semantically singular, it always takes the same verb forms as plural they; for example, "The person you mentioned, are they coming?", not *"[…] is they coming?".... See less

See this at: slate.com| Added on 02/20/07

By Ben Yagoda Posted Friday, Feb. 16, 2007, at 12:38 PM ET One night last week, I explained to a youthful hotel desk clerk that my family and I were interested in playing cards up in our room, then asked her if the hotel had a deck. She made this... See more

By Ben Yagoda Posted Friday, Feb. 16, 2007, at 12:38 PM ET One night last week, I explained to a youthful hotel desk clerk that my family and I were interested in playing cards up in our room, then asked her if the hotel had a deck. She made this sound:. Then she said no. The sound she made was familiar to me. It is a fairly recent variation on the venerable American interjection aw, which achieved prominence in the expression "aw, shucks" and is defined by the Oxford English Dictionary as "an exclamation usually expressing mild remonstrance, entreaty, commiseration, disgust, or disapproval." I should say a variation on a variation. For quite a while, aw, or more precisely awww —with a more drawn-out pronunciation and usually a descending pitch—has been a common way that studio audiences and regular people react to something touching or sad. About two years ago, I started noticing female students of mine using the new, ascending-pitch, abbreviated version—in linguists' tonetic stress... See less

See this at: desilassi.com| Added on 12/25/06

i.e. Aishwarya, A.R. Rahman, Border etc...

i.e. Aishwarya, A.R. Rahman, Border etc... See less

See this at: language-learning-ad...| Added on 08/09/06

To learn Sanskrit is to learn one of the great literary and religious languages of the world. It is the mother tongue of modern Hindi, Urdu and other South Asian languages. Part of the Indo-European language family, Sanskrit is more closely related... See more

To learn Sanskrit is to learn one of the great literary and religious languages of the world. It is the mother tongue of modern Hindi, Urdu and other South Asian languages. Part of the Indo-European language family, Sanskrit is more closely related to Greek, Latin and other European languages than its descendant languages. As such, it has many characteristics of European languages which may be familiar to native English speakers, or those who have studied a European language. Its system of verb conjugation is similar as well as some of its core vocabulary. There seem to be more and better resources to learn Sanskrit than there are for other, modern languages of South Asia. See less

Highlights: Book/Audio Combo/Inexpensive Teach Yourself Sanskrit ($25) The longstanding Teach Yourself series has always had a wide variety of languages.

See this at: syvum.com| Added on 05/08/06

After clicking "Score and Show Answer(s)", click the "Try another set" button at the bottom to get a new set of questions.

After clicking "Score and Show Answer(s)", click the "Try another set" button at the bottom to get a new set of questions. See less