There are problems with being a bilingual country. Canada's language commissioner said that federal institutions have their work cut out to create a truly bilingual environment where staff can choose to use French or English. Around 22 million Canadians, two thirds of the population, speak only English or French. Only five million, or 17.5 percent […]

1. A plane is traveling from America to Canada, unfortunately just as it reaches the border it crashes. Where should they bury the survivors, in America, or in Canada? 2. It's mid-winter and there is a strong wind blowing from the north. In which direction are the leaves being blown? 3. You're the driver of […]

Quite a few new words and phrases have entered the Chambers Dictionary this year. Here are some of the more interesting ones:- Blue-on-blue - fire from one's own side or allied forces, as opposed to fire coming from enemy forces, sometimes called friendly fire. Blu-ray - a blue laser used to read and write discs. […]

According to an article in the Times Higher Education Supplement, common spelling mistakes should be accepted into everyday use, not corrected. Ken Smith a lecturer at Bucks New University says the most common mistakes should be accepted as "variant spellings". He lists the 10 most commonly misspelt words, which include "arguement" for "argument" and "twelth" […]

Why not try something like this yourself? But watch out for making mistakes! (See if you can spot them and then look below). @1.40 - disgust (not disguist) @1.36 - existence (not existance) @ 1.51 - It (not it) @ 2.01 reminds (not remind) @ 2.02 - every day (not everyday) @ 2.32 - than […]

Australia's main dictionary the Macquarie has asked readers to vote for their favourite new word. Most of the words are not specifically Australian, but reflect global trends in fields such as technology, health and what the dictionary calls the social scene. According to them, cyberathlete might not suffer boomeritis as he or she is probably […]