“Yinz” is essentially Pittsburgh’s version of “y’all.” It’s used as a second-person plural pronoun, so someone living in Pittsburgh might ask, “Yinz want to get something to eat?” Yinz — sometimes ...

Google Translate has been the most accessible and widespread translation tool for years. However, its inability to accurately ...

Being a linguist—and someone who has tried to learn several languages (including English) in addition to my mother tongue ...

What ideas are reframed most intriguingly, in different cultures? Take a tour with Adam Jacot de Boinod, in this week’s Capital Letters. It’s strange how we have some of the same ideas, all around the ...

No one likes it when someone else rains on their parade. Nor do they enjoy the wind being taken out of their sails, the rug being pulled out from under them or the wool being pulled over their eyes. A ...

Jon covers artificial intelligence. He previously led CNET's home energy and utilities category, with a focus on energy-saving advice, thermostats, and heating and cooling. Jon has more than a decade ...

If you’ve ever heard someone say the “sword of Damocles” was hanging over their head, they were likely referring to feeling a sense of impending doom, as if catastrophe could strike at any moment.

You’ve probably heard some strange expressions and wondered what they really mean. Idioms are quirky phrases that don’t always make sense if you take them literally. But they add color to our ...

Idioms—phrases that come to mean more than each word's "literal meaning" on their own—have been a part of spoken language for a long time. They may change as the years go by and often vary from ...