3 Jul
Open any dictionary today – whether online or print, and look up a word. Even if you look at a word that’s funny, for instance a name you can call a person, the definition will be simple and precise. It’s easy to forget that these definitions have been written by real people with opinions and […]
26 Jun
Speaking and using more than one language is a great gift for our brain. But, it comes with its own (conquerable) set of challenges! For one, learning the grammar and vocabulary of a second language often seems easier than acquiring its syntax and idioms. Secondly, progressing from a listener to a reader/ writer and a […]
19 Jun
American physicist Richard Feynman was a genius. Not only did he know a thing or two about science (he won the Nobel Prize in 1965), but as an adult he learned how to speak Japanese, play a Brazilian musical instrument, and how to paint (he even sold some art). One thing he did not know […]
13 Jun
Rishabh Mundhra, 21, is an Indian undergraduate student of mechanical engineering at the University of Toronto, Canada, and president of the Indian Students’ Society there. He will graduate next year. Here he talks about academics and extracurricular activities at the university. In the video below, he discusses how students learn to think like engineers, and […]
12 Jun
Why was Shakespeare one of the best writers in English? He had the best stories, characters and words. How? Stories he improvised, characters he invented, and words he borrowed. Now, before belligerent bardolaters barge in, we’d like to say that yes, the Bard’s genius was just that – genius. And far be it from us […]
29 May
We’ve talked about how the secret to writing a respectable piece of prose is a good sentence. Today, we take another building block of quality prose – the humble paragraph. As with all great writing, paragraphs are shaped by a writer’s instinct. That said, paying attention to the paragraph, and how it works, can improve […]
26 May
Let me describe to you a normal day in my life. I wake up fresh as a daisy at about 8am, pack lunch, and gear up for my day. I live in Raffles House, which is university accommodation located 10 minutes away from the Harrow campus where I study. Raffles House is situated right next […]
22 May
Mondays – that manmade scourge – are the favorite day of no sane person. People who love Mondays usually fall somewhere between ‘annoyingly enthusiastic’ and ‘mentally disturbed’. The only reasonable response to Mondays is an ill-tempered grunt. So, without further ado, here are a few ways to describe most people on Mondays (unfortunately, some people […]
15 May
You know when to call someone a tattletale or a copycat. You also know when to brand someone a turncoat or a nerd, a babbler or a blueblood. But these are basics. In today’s Word Nerd, we bring you 9 words which are great for describing people in ways you never thought of before. Enjoy. […]
1 May
A good sentence is key to writing a respectable piece of prose – whether it’s a letter, an essay, or a novel. We can entertain ambitions about writing epic novels, or A-grade essays, but, without a good hold on this building block, our ambitions are likely to remain pipe dreams. In this Word Nerd, we […]