weekly posts on literature, languages, and learning
Ovaj tekst je, uz manje izmene, dostupan i u engleskoj verziji. Present Simple i Present Continuous dva su sadašnja vremena u engleskom prilikom čije upotrebe učenici često prave gramatičke greške. Nije ni čudo, jer u južnoslovenskim jezicima njihove funkcije obavlja jedno te isto vreme – prezent. U ovom tekstu preći ćemo kroz osnovne razlike u …
Continue reading "Engleska gramatika: upotreba Present Simple i Present Continuous vremena"
William Carlos Williams (1883–1963) was one of the most important American poets of the 20th century: a modernist of the imagist kind, he was known for using simple and colloquial language to express his ideas—a feature many critics now consider typical of modern American poetry. This can be contrasted with the modernists such as T. …
Continue reading "‘Spring Storm’ by William Carlos Williams"
In this post we’ll look into the basic differences between two English tenses that students often confuse: Present Simple and Present Continuous (also known as Present Progressive). If you are in a dilemma about which tense to use, ask yourself the following: I. Are you talking about something PERMANENT or TEMPORARY? For something permanent or …
Continue reading "English grammar: Present Simple vs Present Continuous"
Whitman’s poem featured in this post is a very short one, originally published in the Herald newspaper on 12th March 1888. It just so happened that immediately after its publication, a major blizzard hit the state of New York, which made the poet’s timing rather unfortunate, and the subject of many jokes. It reminded me …
Before there was cable, satellite and terrestrial television, radio reigned supreme as the main source of entertainment. Families would gather round their radio receivers to tune into broadcasts, typically in the evening hours, which largely replaced fireside readings and other forms of home entertainment popular before the advent of the electronic media. The golden age …
Robert Seymour Bridges was a British poet and the Poet Laureate of the UK from 1913 to 1930. Originally a doctor, he had to abandon his medical practice due to poor health. He spent most of his life in rural Berkshire near Oxford, dedicated to writing and literary studies. Robert S. Bridges (1844–1930) The poem …
Continue reading "‘So sweet love seemed that April morn’ by Robert Bridges"
A portmanteau (click here for pronunciation) is an old-fashioned type of luggage—a large travelling bag typically made of leather, opening into two equal parts. Thanks to the writer Lewis Caroll, the term has come to refer to a curious feature of language, where elements of two or more words are combined to create a new …
The Weekend Listener is a monthly list of noteworthy podcasts and radio recordings, old and new, curated for your listening pleasure. For more listening tips please search the website for previous instalments. LANGUAGE How language affects thought Photo by David Cassolato on Pexels.com Do people who speak different languages think differently? Is there evidence for …
Originally published in 1846, Life is a three-stanza poem by the eldest of the famous Brontë sisters, Charlotte. It appeared in their first, self-published, collection of works which—unpromisingly—sold only two copies. However, only a year later Charlotte managed to get her novel Jane Eyre published, and the rest is history, as they say. Charlotte Brontë …
One of the writing tasks I like to give to my students—new ones in particular—is to write about their favourite films or TV series. It’s a nice way to get to know them better, find out what sort of things they are interested in, and perhaps find some commonalities. It’s a very versatile and vocabulary-rich …
grammaticus 