Who else is watching Deutschland 83 at the moment? It’s Channel 4’s German language TV series about the Cold War. Set in 1983 (obvs) it has a great soundtrack that includes New Order’s Blue Monday, Sweet Dreams by the Eurythmics and Modern Love by David Bowle (RIP). So far, I’ve learnt about four words of German. But it got me wondering...
Historically, these great British Isles, where I live, have a habit of being invaded. (Although, thankfully, not for some time.) The upside to this, of course, along with nice straight roads built by the Romans, is that the English language is a rich and colourful blend of Latin words, Anglo Saxon words and French words. But that’s not all. The Brits, of...
I was writing some copy the other day when I realised the exact phrase I was looking for was je ne sais quoi. This got me thinking about how many words and phrases we use that come from across the Channel. Did you know that about 30% of the English language is derived from French? Mais non? Words like niche, blonde,...
