English language

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Thousands of Truckers Are Off the Road After English Tests

Duffy calls proficiency a safety issue, pulling funding from California

(Newser) - Thousands of truck drivers across the US are no longer behind the wheel after failing English proficiency tests started by the Trump administration. A Washington Post analysis of federal data around 6,000 truckers have been barred from driving so far for not passing the roadside tests, which were...

Merriam-Webster Just Made a Rare Move, With 5K New Words

'Dad bod,' 'rizz' just some of the newbies added in first Collegiate Dictionary revise in 22 years

(Newser) - Word nerd alert: Merriam-Webster announced Thursday that it has taken the rare step of fully revising and reimagining one of its most popular dictionaries with a fresh edition that adds more than 5,000 new words, including "petrichor," "teraflop," "dumbphone," and "ghost kitchen....

Dictionary's New Word Can Mean Cool, Bad—or Nothing

Cambridge Dictionary adds 'skibidi,' along with 'tradwife' and 'delulu'

(Newser) - What the skibidi is happening to the English language? " Skibidi " is one of the slang terms popularized by social media that are among more than 6,000 additions this year to the Cambridge Dictionary, per the AP . "Internet culture is changing the English language and the effect...

IRS Mulls Dropping Multilingual Tax Help

Plan could end translations, phone interpreters, non-English tax forms

(Newser) - The IRS is weighing a plan to phase out tax services offered in languages other than English, according to documents reviewed by the Washington Post and sources familiar with the discussions. This move follows an executive order from President Trump that declares English the official language of the US,...

Trump to Leader of English-Speaking Country: Great English

President's praise of his Liberian counterpart has sparked backlash

(Newser) - President Trump drew criticism after praising Liberian President Joseph Boakai's command of English during a White House meeting with African leaders Wednesday, CNN reports. Trump asked Boakai how he learned to speak "so beautifully," seemingly unaware that English is Liberia's official language and that Boakai...

Trump's Order Returns to English Rule for Truck Drivers

Law has been in effect, but president says it isn't being enforced

(Newser) - President Trump's latest executive order calls for enforcing a measure already on the books—a federal law requiring proficiency in English for commercial truck drivers. In signing the measure on Monday evening, per the AP , Trump said the "requirement has not been enforced in years, and America's...

English Will Be the Official US Language

Government agencies will no longer be required to provide services in other tongues

(Newser) - For the first time in its history, the US will get an official language under President Trump. The president is expected to sign an executive order to establish English as the official language at the federal level in a move meant to promote unity and efficiency, officials tell the Wall ...

'Brat' Has Had Quite a Year. It Just Got Better

It's Collins Dictionary's word of the year

(Newser) - "Characterized by a confident, independent, and hedonistic attitude." That's one of the definitions of "brat" in the Collins Dictionary—a word that serves as both the title of UK singer Charli XCX's sixth studio album and, now, as Collins' word of the year, reports the...

Germans Not Happy With New Rules on 'Idiot's Apostrophe'

Or would that be 'idiots apostrophe' in German?

(Newser) - Worldly punctuation pros know that Germans typically don't use an apostrophe to indicate the possessive—meaning it's correct to write "Newsers readers," not "Newser's readers." According to the Council for German Orthography, however, which dictates grammar for schools and other public institutions in...

Scrabble Dictionary Gets a Radical Update

First update since 2018 contains abbreviations and—gasp!—some proper nouns

(Newser) - Hey "bae," want to turn this "convo" into a Scrabble game over "margs"? If so, you'll want to seek "inspo" from the seventh edition of the official Scrabble dictionary, which includes 500 new playable words, some of which break with the typical Scrabble...

Feel Like Shouting 'Speak English'? Not Smart in NYC

City issues ban on discriminatory rhetoric like 'illegal alien,' threatening to call ICE to harass

(Newser) - New York City is cracking down on xenophobia, with new guidelines that ban calling people "illegal aliens" in an attempt to "demean, humiliate, or harass" them; threatening to call Immigration and Customs Enforcement in an attempt to discriminate; or telling anyone to "speak English" or "go...

Author Tweets About Marie Kondo, Twitter Erupts

Barbara Ehrenreich's post about Kondo not speaking English called racist, xenophobic

(Newser) - Japanese organizing doyenne Marie Kondo has been at the front of everyone's mind since her Netflix series Tidying Up With Marie Kondo debuted, placing the question "Does it spark joy?" into the American conversation and teaching everyone how to fold their clothes like origami. Author Barbara Ehrenreich, however—...

She Woke Up From Bike Crash And Couldn't Speak English
She Woke Up
From Bike Crash
and Couldn't
Speak English
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
Oct 21, 2018 3:00 PM CDT

She Woke Up From Bike Crash and Couldn't Speak English

British woman reverts to the German she grew up with

(Newser) - Britain's Hannah Jenkins got knocked unconscious when she collided with another bicyclist, and when she woke up in the hospital, she couldn't figure out why the doctors and nurses weren't speaking English. Except, as the BBC explains, they were. Jenkins, however, couldn't understand a thing: The...

Word Invented by Simpsons Now in Dictionary

D'oh, it's 'embiggen'

(Newser) - Merriam-Webster's dictionary just got heavier, with 850 new words added to its pages for 2018. "Self-care," "life hack," "dark chocolate," and "tzatziki" finally got the nod, in addition to "glamping" (glamorous camping with plumbing), "mansplain," "hmm," "...

Judge Orders Lawyer to Have English Teacher Review Work

Legal complaint filed in Florida was incomprehensible

(Newser) - Judges reject legal filings for all kinds of reasons, but one spotted by the Above the Law blog is downright embarrassing. Judge Cecilia M. Altonaga of the Southern District of Florida agreed with opposing attorneys that a complaint filed on behalf of a housekeeping employee suing a hospital was just...

Oxford Dictionary Boasts a New Final Word

'Zyzzyva' has been added, as have 'post-truth,' 'unclick,' and a word describing sperm

(Newser) - And you thought "covfefe" was hard to pronounce. The Oxford English Dictionary has added more than 1,200 new "words, phrases, and senses" to its tome, per a blog post , and among them is an entry that nabs the spot as the last word in the book. "...

Canadian PM Rapped for Speaking French

He should've responded to questions in English, critics say

(Newser) - How do you say "he stepped in it" in French? Though he leads an officially bilingual country, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was rapped for slipping into the language of Moliere instead of sticking to Shakespeare. No fewer than three official complaints were lodged with Canada's Commissioner of...

Oxford English Dictionary Quietly Adds Tamil Slang 'Aiyo'

'The OED has admitted a rare word of power into its pages'

(Newser) - In the latest quarterly update of the Oxford English Dictionary, there was great rejoicing when, in honor of the 100th anniversary of Roald Dahl's birth, words such as "splendiferous" and "human bean" joined the great heap of our language's modern lexicon. More quietly, the Tamil slang...

Enjoy Your 'Th' Sounds Now, They'll Be Gone by 2066

According to a new report from British linguistic experts

(Newser) - The Queen's English as spoken in the UK is under attack by immigrants, computers, American television, and youths. Or should we say yoofs? In a report published Thursday, linguistic experts at the University of York predict major changes in Brits' pronunciation of the English language by 2066, the Sun...

Here Are the Latest Additions to Oxford English Dictionary

'Yolo' made the cut

(Newser) - The latest slang to be added to the Oxford English Dictionary: "yolo," which, as all the youngsters know, stands for "you only live once." The new crop of more than 1,000 words and terms added to the OED also includes "gender-fluid," "yogalates"...

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