What do you do when you are tired of using the same word over and over, or when you just can't find the right word?

I just found a fabulous free tool that gives you more than a traditional dictionary or thesaurus.  Visuwords™ shows you how words are connected in a diagram that looks like a neural net (great for visual learners).  The information is delivered in a series of nodes; if you hover over the node you'll see synonyms for that word and its definition.

Some of the results may surprise you.  When I typed in "translation", "pony" and "crib" came up as associated words.  At first, that made no sense to me, but when I followed the path back to my original query, I saw the connection.   Have fun!

Have you ever wondered how to pronounce a word or a phrase in a language that you don't speak?  It happened to me recently when I went on Facebook to wish a friend a happy birthday. I saw that he had responded to earlier messages with "go raibth maith agat". I guessed that it meant thank you in Irish, but I knew I could never figure out how to pronounce it on my own. Trying to pronounce Irish, for those who have no familiarity with it, is like trying to guess how a word in Basque sounds.

Forvo is a pronunciation guide with words in 236 languages spoken by native speakers.  The coolest feature of all is that if the word you are looking for is not on the site, you can request that someone add the pronunciation.  You can also help other language learners by recording pronunciations in your native language.

Listen to "go raibth maith agat" here.

Image by runran under Creative Commons license.

There is no official body that governs how we use English, unlike some other languages.  There are "rules" that we learn in school, but how we speak and spell is based on arbitrary reasons which evolved over time. 

Before 1604 when the first English dictionary appeared, the spelling of even simple words wasn't standardized, and there were regional variations.  Today, Google's spelling correction provides suggestions based on what other users have entered; it doesn't match words to an actual dictionary. 

So what is the role of dictionaries 400 years later: do they exist to confirm how we use English, or to teach us proper usage? 

Recently I've noticed that people are saying "utilize" in cases where "use" would do just fine.  It drives me crazy, but I must be in the minority: a Google search of "how to utilize" returned more than 59 million results.  I'm trying to figure out why this started while I practice selective deafness.  My guess is that the people who use "utilize"  think they sound more intelligent, but it has the opposite effect on me.

Is there is a particular word or phrase that bothers you? Check out "'Equation', 'Gingerly' and Other Linguistic Pet Peeves" on NPR and please share your peeves in the comments section below.

English speakers usually refer to it as the "at sign", but other languages are much more creative.  Many languages use the shape of the symbol as their inspiration: Czechs and Slovakians use zavináč (rollmop), Italians say chiocciola (snail), in Dutch it is an apenstaartje (monkey tail),  and it's a shtrudel in Hebrew.

Animal references are also popular. Polish speakers call it a malpa (monkey), the Greeks say παπάκ (duckling),  and the Taiwanese refer to it as a  hsiao lao shu (little mouse).  All are certainly more entertaining the official English typographic name which is "commercial at".

Image by Horia Varlan under Creative Commons license.