There is no rule that q must be followed by u in all circumstances. This is merely true in the vast majority of circumstances, and it goes back to Latin. The early Latins had three different letters for the [k] sound: C K Q. However, they only had one letter to represent the [u] and [w] (or [v])...

This is actually a very good question, and it has deep roots. Like many things, it goes back to Latin, which had very regular rules for naming its letters. English inherited the Latin system, extended it in various ways, and applied its own sound changes, resulting in the system we have today. V...

That is so wrong it makes my eyeballs bleed. Let's consider some syntactic tests, shall we? Adjectives can be compared with -er and -est (or more and most): A bigger house The biggest house ! More the house ! Most the house Adjectives can be placed in a predicate: The house is bi...

Given that English is derived mostly from German, when Anglo-Saxons (German tribes) migrated to Britain, how do you explain that although German has a strict correspondence between written language and spoken language (the sounds largely follow 1-1 what is written)... English has sooo intricate...

I have looked in a number of places, with contradicting results. The Urban Dictionary provides a whopping 73 "explanations", of which I will quote just a few. (Original spelling and punctuation preserved.) ZOMG is a varient of the all-too-popular acronym "OMG", meaning "Oh My God". ZOMG...

Should I always use 'despite' instead of 'despite of'?