FunVOCAB | Languages, communication and travel at their best

Internet slang and SMS texting language that you should know

26-April-2016 · by Verbalist

Love them or hate them, these are the newly created words and abbreviations on everyone’s lips, that is keyboards 🙂

Perhaps the biggest slang term of 2014 was “bae”. “Bae” came from the English words baby and babe, which are both used to express affection (love) for your boyfriend or girlfriend. “Bae” is also used as an acronym for “before anyone else”. Pharrell made use of the popular word in his song “Come Get It Bae.”

Nowadays, our communication often happens online, so the Internet has developed almost its own language. This language is even more casual and has many abbreviations (shortenings of words and phrases). The English language on the Internet changes almost every day, as sayings, images and videos “go viral”.

Much of Internet slang is made up of abbreviations and shortenings, and some of the most commonly used Internet abbreviations are:

lol — laughing out loud
brb — be right back
btw — by the way
lmk — let me know
g2g — got to go
cya — see you

If you can’t figure out what a certain abbreviation stands for, try checking Google. Just search for “what does [abbreviation] stand for?” and replace the [abbreviation] with the term you’re confused about. We have prepared the fifteen terms that are good to know to communicate better online: READ MORE

Why is there an ‘r’ in Mrs.?

18-March-2016 · by Verbalist

There are a couple of odd things about the title Mrs. First, the word it stands for, missus, looks strange written out that way in full. In fact, except in the jokey context of “the missus,” meaning the wife, you almost never see it written out. “Missus Claus” looks far more awkward than “Mister Rogers.” Second, the abbreviation has an ‘r’ in it, and the word doesn’t. Why is there an ‘r’ in Mrs.?

Originally, Mrs. was an abbreviation for mistress, the female counterpart of master. There were various spellings for both forms—it might be maistresse/maistre or maystres/mayster—and variation in pronunciation too. The word mistress had a more general meaning of a woman who is in charge of something. A governess in charge of children was a mistress, as was a woman head of a household. The abbreviated form was used most frequently as a title for a married woman.

Eventually, the title form took on a contracted, ‘r’-less pronunciation, and by the end of the 18^th century “missis” was the most acceptable way to say it. (A 1791 pronouncing dictionary said that to pronounce it „mistress“ would “appear quaint and pedantic.”) The full word mistress had by then come to stand for a paramour, someone who was explicitly not a Mrs.

The pronunciation of Mr. also underwent a change, from „master“ to „mister.“ But there was already a written word mister, meaning an occupation, trade, or skill (related to métier) so that when Mr. was written out that way it didn’t look awkward. Missus, however, was first written out as a rough approximation of lower class dialect, the way servants in Dickens talked of their mistresses, for example. Even though everyone was pronouncing Mrs. as „missus,“ they avoided writing it that way because it was just too casual. It would be like writing Ms. as Miz. Sometimes a title is not an abbreviation for a word, but a word all of its own.

Author: Arika Okrent
Source: Mental Floss

What are the weirdest languages of the real and fictional worlds?

13-February-2016 · by Verbalist

Let’s zoom on the weirdest or most extraordinary languages of the real and fictional worlds. Discover the complexity of Yupik languages, the particularities of Caucasian Archi, spoken by only a thousand people, or dip into fantasy worlds through the Sindarin used by Elves or the Aklo of Lovecraft creatures.

A great way to travel from the upper to the lower worlds, via the two hemispheres of the real world!

Click on the image to enlarge it and to see all 50 languages

See the magical vocab wheel that will help you find the perfect word to express your feelings

10-January-2016 · by Verbalist

Lots of people have a hard time putting their feelings into words and identifying what emotions they are feeling. Not any more 🙂 The Feeling Wheel we bring you today will help you narrow down exactly what word best expresses your current emotional state.

The language and vocabulary wheel for feelings, Verbalists

Find the right word for the right feeling from the inside out with this handy vocabulary wheel designed by English teacher Kaitlin Robbs

This Feeling Wheel tool assumes that humans only experience six distinct emotions (the ones in the center). When we feel frustrated, for example, the core emotion is really anger.

Is there a difference between “complete” and “finished”?

12-October-2015 · by Verbalist

Some people say there is no difference between “COMPLETE” and “FINISHED”, but we say – there is!

Word of the Year 2014 – heart-shaped emoji

21-January-2015 · by Verbalist

The Heart ♥ Emoji (for love) is top word, Pope Francis topped by Ebola as top name, “Hands Up, No Shoot” is top phrase

For the first time ever the most used word of the year is actually not a word – it’s a graphic symbol. The heart-shaped emoji topped an annual survey by the Global Language Monitor, having appeared billions of times a day around the world.

Hashtag and Blood Moon – an effect caused by lunar eclipse – were among other most frequently used words in 2014 blogs, Twitter and Facebook, as well as in 250,000 global print and online media sources, according to the Global Language Monitor analysis.

Ebola is on top of this year’s Names list, followed by Pope Francis, MH370, Ice Bucket Challenge and Crimea. “Hands Up, Don’t Shoot,” used by demonstrators protesting against the killing of an unarmed teenager in Ferguson, topped the Phrases rating.

The Top Words of 2014 follow:

Rank / Word / Comments

The Heart ♥ Emoji (for love) — The Heart ♥ Emoji (for love) is the Top Word of 2014. Each emoji represents an emotion, expression, or state of mind, or a person, place or thing.
Hashtag — The re-invented pound-sign becomes evermore powerful.
Vape — Smoking an electronic or e-cigarette, shorthand for vaporize, or vaping. Vapers are banned from indoor vaping in New York and other locales.
Blood Moon — Four total eclipses of the moon in eighteen-month span. Some Christians see it as the presaging a “lunar apocalypse”.
Nano — From Greek for dwarf, small; now 1 billionth of a meter, and any number of words surrounding nano technology.
Photo Bomb — Breaking into a ‘pre-arranged” photograph without authorization resulting in often humorous outcomes.
Caliphate — Literally, a land ruled by an Islamic Caliph typically governed under Sharia Law.
(White) privilege — The alleged advantages of having lighter colored skin in a diverse society.
Bae — Term of endearment for one’s object of desire.
“Bash” Tag — Using a hashtag to undermine your frenemies.
Transparency — That state of government openness that is apparently unachievable in the Western World.
Sustainable — The Jimmy Carter of words; keeps getting stronger since it was WOTY in 2006.
Clickbait — A link you just have to click on, though its more of a paid-for bait-and-switch.
Quindecennial — Fifteen year anniversary; 2014 is the quindecinnal of the 21st century.
Comet — Comet 67p has a visitor from the Rosetta Spacecraft.

OK is most understood word in the world, again.

Previous years’ wordy finalists included “Fail,” “Apocalypse/Armageddon,” “Occupy” and “Fracking.”

The contentious sexually-charged video turned into an English lesson

16-January-2015 · by Verbalist

“Weird Al” Yankovic parody of Robin Thicke’s raunchy Blurred Lines teaches proper English.

The satirist’s latest release ‘Word Crimes’ is a spoof on Al’s pet peeve – poor grammar. Yankovic says he chose a theme which was deliberately contrary to the contentious sexually-charged video which accompanies Robin Thicke’s 2013 single ‘Blurred Lines’.

What could be more surprising than an English lesson?

Yankovic is a self-confessed ‘grammar nerd’ and here are his English language learning tips:

“Weird Al” Yankovic – Word Crimes

‘Weird Al’ has recorded 150 songs which are often parodies of chart-topping singles. Notable skits include ‘Eat It’ (taken from Michael Jackson’s ‘Beat It’), ‘Smells like Nirvana’ (from the band’s ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’) and the controversial ‘Armish Paradise’ attracting over 22m hits (a satire of Coolio’s ‘Gangsta’s Paradise’).

Yankovic is of mixed ethnicity and usually cited as Yugoslav through his father’s lineage but other sources confirm his father’s parents Matt and Mary as Serbian.