temporaneità

This informal grammar book was not written for Non-native English Speakers: the usual readers are Americans who want to enhance both their spoken and written English and their vocabulary with everyday words and specialist terminology.

I had never noticed that a large number of English words have Latin roots: this is probably due to the reason that I don’t have to learn them but for an English Speaker their meanings are not so obvious. For me, using words with Latin roots defines a different problem: to recognise when their use is not common. For example, writing to a British friend (who is kind enough to correct my sentences) I described a story as “didactic”: he told me that “enlightening” is closer to the everyday vocabulary of the average citizen so it is an adjective to prefer… unless “you want to be a columnist of The Times”.

All in all, although I have started reading this book picking pages at random, it still seems to be able to suggest hints for an effective communication.

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!