Saturday, October 26, 2013

ISMS and ISTS

I spent a class going over some words ending in -ism or -ist, words such as 'capitalism' and 'theist'.

Afterwards, I got to wondering how many such words there are in English.

It turns out that there are plenty.

morewords.com lists 887 words ending in -ism and 1201 words ending in -ist. There are more ending in -ist because of words like 'list' or 'mist'.

Words ending in -ism: http://www.morewords.com/ends-with/ism/
In order of how common they are: http://www.morewords.com/most-common-ends-with/ism/

Words ending in -ist: http://www.morewords.com/ends-with/ist/
In order of how common they are: http://www.morewords.com/most-common-ends-with/ist/


Friday, October 25, 2013

Monday, October 14, 2013

Etymology on Google

I noticed something very interesting today when I googled the etymology of the word 'restaurant'.

If you type into Google, 'etymology' and another word, Google provides you with a little infographic and a summary of the etymology of the word - right there in the search results.

This is what I got:





Isn't that fun? It's another way that Google can be a useful tool for educators!

Business English Listening Activities

I have just uploaded a new listening section on Road to Grammar's business English page. It features 20 short conversations suitable for...