With the popularity of 23andMe, there is a renewed interest in our individual ancestry and heritage. Also, government census bureaus are interested in gathering information about the various ethnic groups lying within their jurisdiction. For example, does Irish qualify as an ethnicity? Yes, Irish is an ethnicity, with the Irish people sharing common history, traditions, …
People enjoy and appreciate being thanked in their native tongue, especially if it comes from a foreign speaker. In Spanish, when you want to express your gratitude, you can use the word gracias. This word follows the conventional rules of Spanish spelling and pronunciation. Gracias does not have an accent mark in Spanish. The word …
When learning a new language, the first phrases we usually learn are greetings. We learn how to say, “Good morning, good evening, and good night,” and of course, just simply “hello.” There are several greetings in the Spanish language, just as with English, but the informal greeting most often used is the word “hola.” “Hola” …
Both “a” and “an” are extremely common words in English that we use to modify nouns, functioning in a similar way to an adjective. The basic rule for using the articles “a” or “an” is that we use “a” before words beginning with a consonant and use “an” before words beginning with a vowel, so …
English is a language full of idiomatic phrases, many of which have origins in ages past when the world was far different. To a 21st century ear, these phrases can often sound old-fashioned, unnecessarily wordy, and irrelevant. The phrase “general consensus” can be seen as one such old-fashioned idiom. The phrase “general consensus” is often …
Familiarizing yourself with common English phrases helps your English sound more fluid, portraying your emotions or ideas more accurately. The phrase “as of now” is an example of one such common phrase. There are many other phrases and ways to express “as of now,” but what does it mean? “As of now” means from the …