holder-of-stars:

queenrinacat:

brainstatic:

Everyone’s like “those Germans have a word for everything” but English has a word for tricking someone into watching the music video for Rick Astley’s Never Gonna Give You Up.

English has a lot more words created for very specific phenomena! It’s not just rick-rolling. Language is always evolving and it’s super interesting! Here’s a list of hyper-specific/untranslatable words in English.

My expectations weren’t met, they were exceeded.

mrs-transmuter:

operativesurprise:

rubes-dragon:

whimmy-bam:

diva-gonzo:

dumbass-oikawa:

conservative-libertarian:

221books:

fuckyourwritinghabits:

cornflakepizza:

winchesterbr0s:

hesmybrother-hesadopted:

czarnoksieznik:

beesmygod:

“chuffed doesnt mean what you think it means”

it means exactly what i think it means its just some stupid word that literally has two definitions that mean the opposite thing

what the hell

This makes me really chuffed

This post is quite egregious

Well I’m nonplussed by this whole post.

goddamnit.

all of you go to hell

And you wonder why i am boggled at times

These are called contronyms! A word that is its own opposite.

Why the fuck do these exist

One theory is that the sarcastic use of the word became exceedingly prevalent and because another dictionary definition.

Are you telling me that we were such sarcastic shits it literally changed our language.

droidmom:

aquaplanage:

basedgodniall:

when you spell restaurant right on the first try

imagine être anglophone et se féliciter d’accomplissements médiocres

Did I just get burned in French

arkthepieking:

exomoon:

isashi-nigami:

ice-light-red:

windycityteacher:

burntcopper:

things english speakers know, but don’t know we know.

WOAH WHAT?

That is profound. I noticed this by accident when asked about adjectives by a Japanese student. She translated something from Japanese like “Brown big cat” and I corrected her. When she asked me why, I bluescreened.

What the fuck, English isn’t even my first language and yet I picked up on that. How the fuck. What the fuck.

Reasoning: It Just Sounds Right

Oooh, don’t like that. Nope, I do not even like that a little bit. That’s parting the veil and looking at some forbidden fucking knowledge there.

Probably something to do with one of English’s many root languages.

derinthemadscientist:

delirieuse:

@copperbadge

The fact that this joke can be made shows that English is doing fine

deadcatwithaflamethrower:

rheridia:

rednines:

mineralfinder:

trashgender-neurotica:

rednines:

trashgender-neurotica:

rednines:

2018 is þe year of using þe þorn again instead of þe letters “T” and “H” in succession

I get that this is supposed to be a “th” sound but my brain keeps making a weird “pbp” sound like a microphone being tapped against someone’s hand.

þat’s what makes þis so much fun

You: “þis is þe

þorn.”

Me, crying: “How are you doing that with your mouth?”

þorn is only for ðe unvoiced, if it’s voiced it’s spelled wiþ an eð do you not know basic ancient English spelling

Before you make a comment check to see if you aren’t ðe þirtieþ person to make it

@deadcatwithaflamethrower

Moar language porn.

do you ever think about how “gn” and “kn” sound exactly the same so theoretically you could swap them in writing and you wouldn’t hear the difference if it was read aloud example: “the knight knows the gnome” becomes the “gnight gnows the knome” i just realized this and i am unsettled

deadcatwithaflamethrower:

Welcome to the realization that the entire English language is a complete clusterfuck, Anon. ❤

wordfully:

xingqiwuhoo:

Really hoping someone at my doctor’s office is going to speak either Old or Middle English with me.

@polysprachig

Your doctor, prescribing you a dead mouse, a pot of bile, some holy water, and five sticks: se betsta læcedom

prokopetz:

In the modern idiom:

“So Bob said […]” indicates that I am directly quoting Bob.

“Then Bob was like […]” indicates that I am paraphrasing Bob.

“And Bob was all […]” indicates that I am paraphrasing Bob, and additionally I am being a dick about it.

I don’t know about you, but I think it’s fantastic that we have a specific grammatical convention for that.

deadcatwithaflamethrower:

einarshadow:

redrowan:

systlin:

beautifultoastdream:

denchgang:

bluecaptions:

How English has changed in the past 1000 years.

the big mans a lad i have fuck all, he lets me have a kip in a field he showed me a pond

I think my favorite part is how the first three are totally comprehensible to a modern reader, and then the fourth one is just “Wait, what?” You can practically see where William the Conqueror came crashing into linguistic history like the Kool-Aid Man, hollering about French grammar and the letter Q.

^ I FUCKIN SPIT MY DRINK UP

Reblogging for William the Kool-Aid Man.

you wrote some posts about old english so i thought you will like this… @deadcatwithaflamethrower

That’s 1500s Middle English. That’s cheating. For true incomprehensibility, you need to grab passages from the 1100s, when everyone is trying to figure out how to communicate between franceis and West Saxon (Old English).