Language learning

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Difference between ‘compute’ and ‘calculate’
Explanation of the difference between “compute” and “calculate” and “computation” and “calculation”. (...)
March 12, 2016 – Jakub MarianEnglish
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Is it ‘tax haven’ or ‘tax heaven’ in English?
A tax haven is a place where companies and/or individuals pay very low taxes (or no taxes at all). In most languages, such a place is (...)
February 11, 2016 – Jakub MarianEnglish
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Are ‘lens’ and ‘lentil’ related?
Have you ever noticed that a lens looks like an oversized lentil? The fact that “lentil” and “lens” both begin with “len” is not a (...)
January 19, 2016 – Jakub MarianEnglish
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Difference between ‘cemetery’ and ‘graveyard’ in English
Some people think graveyard and cemetery mean the same, but, if we want to be a little nitpicky, we should say that graveyard is a type of (...)
January 9, 2016 – Jakub MarianEnglish
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“Christmas is” / “Christmas are” – singular or plural?
In some languages, “Christmas” is a plural noun, and since the English word for Christmas ends with an “s”, it sometimes makes English (...)
December 26, 2015 – Jakub MarianEnglish

By the way, have you already seen my brand new web app for non-native speakers of English? It's based on reading texts and learning by having all meanings, pronunciations, grammar forms etc. easily accessible. It looks like this:

j europeans use English
How often do Europeans speak English?
A detailed map showing how often citizens of the member countries of the European Union use English. (...)
December 13, 2015 – Jakub MarianEnglish, Maps
Origin of the words Christmas and Xmas
Read in detail about the origin (etymology) of the words ‘Christmas’ and ‘Xmas’. (...)
December 8, 2015 – Jakub MarianEnglish
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By and large – meaning and origin of the idiom
Let’s be honest, the expression “by and large” sounds weird. It mixes two (seemingly) different parts of speech (one would not normally (...)
November 27, 2015 – Jakub MarianEnglish
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‘Practise’ vs. ‘practice’ in English
Why does practice (but not practise) make perfect? The answer depends on the English dialect you intend to write the word in. If you write (...)
November 23, 2015 – Jakub MarianEnglish
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‘Intensive’ vs. ‘intense’: the difference explained
The difference between “intensive” and “intense” is subtle but important. Let’s take a look at the dictionary definitions of their most (...)
November 20, 2015 – Jakub MarianEnglish