Category: language

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language

Commonly Spoken But Rarely Ever Written English Contractions

A friend of mine (whose first language isn’t English) recently asked me how to contract “they are”, to which I replied “they’re”. The same person then asked how to contract “there are”, to which I replied “there’re” (I was speaking not writing at the time). I was then asked by said person to show them how to write these contractions, to which I pointed out that we hardly ever use these in written English and, if you ever do, the majority of people will probably tell you they’re (sorry — I mean: “they are”) wrong. I then wondered how many other commonly-spoken-but-rarely-ever-written contractions there’re (sorry, ahem, “there are”) in this crazy language we call English…

Here’s a little (and by no-means complete) list:

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language

Thirty Five of the Very Best Quotes on Translation

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The title says it all really: “Thirty Five of the Very Best Quotes on Translation” – we actually set out to put together a list of just fifteen, but there was just so many that seemed to either make us smile and/or capture the essence of what it all-so-often feels like to portray one language in another, we ended up with another twenty!

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language

Fifteen [Hideous] Grammar Goofs That Make You Look [Very] Silly – Infographic

I sincerely doubt there’s a single professional translator out there who needs reminding of any of the following (unfortunately quite common) grammar mistakes – however, I’ll bet there’s also not a single professional translator out there who hasn’t, at some point in the past, made (or perhaps failed to pick up on) at least one or two of them… all be it probably when they’ve pushed themselves too hard and/or gone without a proper night’s sleep for too many days in a row…

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language

What are the easiest/hardest languages to learn? – infographic

It’s no surprise that translators love languages, they/we usually prick our ears up upon merely hearing the word ‘language’ – be it on the news, the radio, a party* or wherever… but combine the word ‘language’ with another word we’re usually hyper-tuned into, like ‘fluent, ‘learn’ or, say, ‘hard’ (as in ‘difficult’) and we’re usually pretty much hooked! So here goes then, let’s ask a question that’s practically guaranteed to interest translation/language lovers: What are the hardest languages [for native English speakers] to learn?

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books language resources

Six must-read books for translators

Translators like to read: if they didn’t, they probably wouldn’t be translators. Reading for fun is all well and good, but sometimes it’s nice to read for professional development. But what to read? We’ve put together a list (in no particular order) of six must-read books to start you off.

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