The Lingoberry Blog
Language-learning tips, culture, and stories from Pip
Why English spelling is a crime scene
English spelling wasn't designed — it accumulated, like sediment. Five languages had a hand in it, and none of them cleaned up after themselves. Here's the forensic report.
Where do the weekday names come from?
Say the English weekdays and you're invoking Norse gods; say the Spanish or French ones and you're invoking Roman ones. They're the same seven days, named twice — with a planetary puzzle, a saint who deleted the pagans, and one day nobody could translate.
Finnish has no future tense — so how does anyone make plans?
Finnish has no future tense. None. So how does an entire nation plan holidays, book appointments, and promise to pay you back? The answer makes English look like the strange one.
The B1 trap: why you feel stuck at intermediate (and how to break free)
Most language learners hit a wall around B1 — and there's a mathematical reason why. Here's what Zipf's Law tells us about the intermediate plateau, and four concrete steps to break through it.
