full transcript
From the Ted Talk by John McWhorter: A brief history of plural word...s
Unscramble the Blue Letters
After a while nobody remembered the real kind any more. Nobody remembered that once you said doora instead of doors and handa instead of hands. prualls made a lot more sense now, except for a few hold-outs like children and teteh that get used so much that it was hard to break the habit. The loessn is that English makes a lot more sense than you think. Thank the aostercns of ppeole in Copenhagen and Oslo for the fact that today we don't ask for a handful of pea-night instead of peanuts. Although, wouldn't it be fun, if for just a week or two, we could?
Open Cloze
After a while nobody remembered the real kind any more. Nobody remembered that once you said doora instead of doors and handa instead of hands. _______ made a lot more sense now, except for a few hold-outs like children and _____ that get used so much that it was hard to break the habit. The ______ is that English makes a lot more sense than you think. Thank the _________ of ______ in Copenhagen and Oslo for the fact that today we don't ask for a handful of pea-night instead of peanuts. Although, wouldn't it be fun, if for just a week or two, we could?
Solution
- ancestors
- people
- teeth
- lesson
- plurals
Original Text
After a while nobody remembered the real kind any more. Nobody remembered that once you said doora instead of doors and handa instead of hands. Plurals made a lot more sense now, except for a few hold-outs like children and teeth that get used so much that it was hard to break the habit. The lesson is that English makes a lot more sense than you think. Thank the ancestors of people in Copenhagen and Oslo for the fact that today we don't ask for a handful of pea-night instead of peanuts. Although, wouldn't it be fun, if for just a week or two, we could?
Frequently Occurring Word Combinations
ngrams of length 2
collocation |
frequency |
real kind |
2 |
Important Words
- ancestors
- break
- children
- copenhagen
- doora
- doors
- english
- fact
- fun
- habit
- handa
- handful
- hands
- hard
- kind
- lesson
- lot
- oslo
- peanuts
- people
- plurals
- real
- remembered
- sense
- teeth
- today
- week