Why is this a question? with Paul Anthony Jon...

1195. This week, we talk to Dr. Maria Loconsole from the University of Padua about her research into the bouba-kiki effect, the near-universal tendency to associate round shapes with "bouba" sounds and spiky shapes with "kiki" sounds. We look at what her experiments with newly ha ...  Show more

1194. This week, we look at weather forecast terminology, including why "mostly sunny" and "partly cloudy" aren't the same thing, what "oktas" are, and how terms like "breezy," "scattered," and "likely" are officially standardized by the National Weather Service — even if your fa ...  Show more

Have you ever wondered what’s up with double negation, the history of gender neutral pronouns, or why swearing is taboo? Then get ready for this week’s guest, linguist Anne Curzan! Anne and Jonathan talk about how the English language has evolved since the 1300s and how our words ...  Show more

I recently started learning French, and the process has made one thing clear to me: There’s a lot I don’t understand about how languages work. So, I turned to John McWhorter, a linguist who has dedicated his career to demystifying the roughly 7,000 languages spoken around the wor ...  Show more

📝 Get FREE Episode Worksheet 🧐 Take English Level Test 👄 Improve Your Pronunciation Learn British English & about British culture in this episode where Charlie, your host, gets Martin from Rock N' Roll English back on the show to explore the cultural significance football has ...  Show more

📝 Get FREE Episode Worksheet 🧐 Take English Level Test 👄 Improve Your Pronunciation Charlie invites a non-native English teacher from Spain on the show to talk about her language learning journey, especially regarding her accent acquisition. This teacher is called Maria and go ...  Show more