Category Archives: fun with English
Spelling Bee season in full swing!
Every year around this time the Spelling Bee hopefuls are buzzing around the LearnThatWord hive… and for good reason:We are the most comprehensive Spelling Bee program around, with a spelling bee module that offers over 25,000 typical Spelling Bee words, sorted by frequency … Continue reading
Irrational and of a magical nature
One of our members, Steve Mitchell, shared this delightful quote with us: It is often forgotten that [dictionaries] are artificial repositories, put together well after the languages they define. The roots of language are irrational and of a magical nature.” … Continue reading
Date a girl who reads…
Someone sent this to me. Enjoy: Date a girl who reads. Date a girl who spends her money on books instead of clothes, who has problems with closet space because she has too many books. Date a girl who has a … Continue reading
The History of the Spelling Bee
With this year’s finals around the corner (Thursday, 5/30, 8 pm EST), here some history of the spelling bee. The good ol’ spelling bee, it seems, is an American tradition older than even American independence.According to this article by Merriam-Webster, … Continue reading
New Spelling Bee Rule Requires Contestants Know Meaning of Words
It will make the Scripps National Spelling Bee harder, but also much more meaningful. The thousands of Spelling Bee hopefuls who use LearnThatWord will have an easy time with this, since we already teach meaning and usage along with spelling. … Continue reading
Verbal Easter Egg Hunt – How Schools Can Teach Vocabulary
We have a lot of members who prepare for the National Spelling Bee, so this article about a Vocabulary Bowl held by I.B. Tigrett Middle School in Jackson, Tennessee, was brought to our attention: http://www.wbbjtv.com/news/local/Vocabulary-Bowl-Tests-Students-Knowledge-199199441.html What stood out was the … Continue reading
International English: Going beyond UK and US English
International English: Interesting blog post by Richard Flynn of UsingEnglish.com fame “The status of English as an international language is long established and, for the foreseeable future, unlikely to be greatly challenged. However, I believe that to make it genuinely international, … Continue reading