Know your English
What is a baby elephant called?
It's called a `calf'. In fact the babies of quite a few large animals are called calves — whales, giraffes, hippos, rhinos, etc.
Source:
The Hindu daily, Tuesday, October 30, 2001
Very useful to all the students from primary to post-graduate level,home-makers,enthusiasts to learn and improve their skills in English grammar and usage
A large number of Modern English words spell the /ɪ/ or /aɪ/ sound with the letter Y, such as try, cry, fly, fry, sky, why, gym, hymn, lynx, myth, myrrh, pygmy, flyby, rhythm, and syzygy. The longest such word in common use is rhythms, and the longest such word in Modern English is the obsolete 17th-century word symphysy. (If archaic words and spellings are considered, there are many more, the longest perhaps being twyndyllyngs, the plural of twyndyllyng.)
Similarly, the letter w stands for a vowel sound (/u/) in Welsh words, and two of these have entered Modern English:
The internet term pwn arose as a misspelling of the word "own", due to the "o" and "p" keys being next to each other on the keyboard, and is now a commonly used word around the internet.
There is also the mathematical expression nth (pronounced /ˈɛnθ/), as in delighted to the nth degree, which has entered common usage. Besides this there are proper names, such as Kym Ng and the band Lynyrd Skynyrd.
The poem "And Sometimes" by Christian Bök contains no vowel letters.
Courtesy:galvanize discuss | |
Definition: | (verb) To stimulate to action. |
Synonyms: | startle |
Usage: | The appeal has galvanized them into taking positive action. |
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