Articles
Faux amis, where the streets are paved in salmon
Faux amis are those literal translations that turn out to be wide of the mark. The genre has already been discussed in this column, but within the family of these false friends is a special place reserved for restaurateurs and their well-meaning efforts to present menus in different languages.
Muslims in France split over burqa ban bid
MP who initiated call for a ban says increasing use of the head-to-toe garment is influenced by a small, radical section of the community.
Sarkozy: burqas are not welcome
France moves closer to a ban on women wearing full veils in public after the president says the head-to-toe burqa was 'not welcome' in the country.
The man who 'learned' America how to spell incorrectly
I think I could have been quite good friends with Noah Webster, the architect of American English. That is, until he dropped the "u" from "humour".
Snollygoster gets my vote, on Facebook at least
Facebook is saluted for prompting an enjoyable etymological odyssey that commenced with a simple request for words of the day.
The politics of hate
The far Right made significant gains in the European elections, Colin Randall asks why tolerance is out of favour.
Court may steal Miss France's crown
Miss France could be stripped of her crown as a court decision over claims of cheating is due on Friday.
A full day's work - and a little bit of change
If you never left Abu Dhabi, the thought of organised begging would be entirely foreign; so would the idea of begging for a living.
Battle for the banlieues
When a gang opened fire on police in a Paris suburb, the controversy on France's housing estates was reignited.
So, exclamation marks are really not that awful!
For decades, I resisted the exclamation mark, convinced it was an ugly, generally unnecessary piece of punctuation with no place in a self-respecting writer's repertoire.
'No hope' for lost airliner passengers
An international search began yesterday for a French passenger jet feared to have crashed into the Atlantic.
Football should be shown a red card for foul play on words
Now the football season has finished, the English language is given a break from the battering it receives from August to May.
Urban transportation? Send that editor to the colonies
No sooner is Colin's back turned than a rogue journalist uses a superfluous four-syllable word that leaves him, if not "gobsmacked", at least "taking it on the chin".
The art of putting your mouth where the money is
There is money in words. I am talking not about journalism, since few of its practitioners earn very much and most are, in any case, hopeless at keeping it.
