English

In getting ready for Fall, we're rounding up the best apps for back-to-school. We already shared our favorite apps for math and science, so it's time to get your grammar fix! Here are our picks of the best English and grammar apps for all ages — from the young ones just learning how to read to those anxiously awaiting the SAT, as well as professionals looking to freshen up on the basics.

• Shakespeare in Bits (free): Studying Shakespeare can often feel like learning another language. This app takes a multimedia approach to learning and teaching Shakespeare plays, combining animation, audio, and text. With translations, analyses, and plot summaries, everything that you need to understand and appreciate Shakespeare is at your fingertips.
• Grammar Up (free): If you're no longer in a daily English class, but need to freshen up your grammar skills for work, a college course, or the blog you want to start, this app is for you. Created with a business focus, you'll improve your grammar, word selection, and vocabulary through a series of tests with real-time feedback.
• SAT Vocabulary Prep ($3): This SAT app was made for the busy student looking to prepare for the "big day." Tackling all those tricky vocabulary words doesn't have to seem daunting though. Review over 1,000 words and take practice quizzes similar to the actual SAT so you will go into the exam feeling prepared and ready to achieve your goal!
• Dictionary.com (free): The days of flipping through the dictionary are over! This is a must for every smartphone and tablet. Look up words even without a WiFi connection. We love the cool extras that your standard dictionary doesn't have like voice search and a shake feature that lets you discover surprise words and definitions.
• Vocabology ($1): Through a word-of-the-day feature and addictive quizzes, Vocabology helps you learn new words that you won't forget. The app also shows you how to pronounce unfamiliar words.

>> Vogue Paris will keep the promise it made on Twitter last Friday by adding an English option to its website.

Jennifer Neyt, who edits Vogue.fr, said starting Monday, April 16, the website will feature both French and British flags on its navigation bar; clicking on the Union Jack will display the website in English. For now, all the articles will be English translations of stories that were originally written in French.

Vogue Italia's website is the only other Vogue property that has an option to switch between two languages. French Vogue announced it would add the functionality last Friday when it tweeted, "France gave the US the Statue of Liberty, now we are taking Vogue.fr to the wider world... get ready for #VogueParisinEnglish."

Photo: Magdalena Frackowiak in the April 2012 issue of Vogue Paris

You know the end of the year is nigh when words of the year are announced. It seems like just about every dictionary has one, but today the Global Language Monitor, an organization that tracks trends in languages, named "spillcam" — the camera that turned into a live feed of the Gulf oil spill — the 2010 Word of the Year.

Nominees (all are in the word bubble above) range from Jersey Shore-inspired "guido" and "guidette" to Sarah Palin-coined "refudiate," but I suspect you have opinions on what word defines 2010. Submit below, and later we'll vote!

I admit, I say it. Not in a pathological, valley-girl way, but in a casual, filler way. Sometimes it's unconscious, a nervous tick, and other times it punctuates a thought and just sounds right. It's easy, it's colloquial, and it's so widespread that I thought nobody cared anymore. After all, this is a language where BFF can make it into the dictionary!

But this week actress Emma Thompson brought "like" back into the negative spotlight when she lamented that teenagers need to avoid saying it around older, authority figures. Does it even have anything to do with youth at this point? Aren't the teenagers who made it mainstream in the early '80s now in their, like, 40s?

There are several grammatically incorrect ways to use like, but that doesn't make them uncommon. It can indicate exaggeration, as I did above ("in their, like, 40s"); be used to introduce a quote ("she was like"); or signify a gesture, facial expression, or sound ("it was like"). But nowhere is it more common than as a filler (as in "um" or "ah" or "like"), and fillers are nothing new.

John Ayto, editor of the Oxford Dictionary of Modern Slang, said fillers are not lazy or sloppy, or a sign of approaching end-times for the English language. "We all use fillers because we can't keep up highly monitored, highly grammatical language all the time," he said. "We all have to pause and think." In fact, Anglo Saxons probably did the same thing.

The reason people like Thompson get so upset with the use of "like" as a filler is because, unlike "um" and "ah," it's an actual word. And if there's one thing word traditionalists don't like, it's when words find breakout success by using themselves in entirely new ways.

I say as long as it's not, like, every other word out of your mouth, you're OK.

There's been no greater way to celebrate the season's berry bounty than by dedicating each Summer month to a different berry — May for strawberries, June for cherries, July for blueberries, and now August for blackberries, which are currently at their peak.

I'm starting things off with a dessert that treasures blackberries at their freshest. I've got a weakness for whipped English desserts with funny names — and who can resist something called a fool? Don't skimp on the Calvados, as the boozy bitterness of the apple brandy adds a nice counterpoint to the otherwise sweet fruit dessert.
For the recipe — which only has four ingredients! — keep reading.

This month, some dear friends from college will be visiting me in San Francisco. Whenever I have out-of-towners, my favorite way to welcome them is with a small savory or sweet treat — always homemade, for a little personal touch. This time, I'll be making scones. After all, what puts one at ease better than a warm pile of just-baked breakfast breads?

Since one of them has a sweet tooth, and the other is a total cheesehead, I'll be making two different types. The first, a traditional scone, will be slightly saccharine and studded with raisins; the second, cheesy-chivey goodness, topped off with a sprinkling of sesame seeds. Both will be spectacularly crumbly, and insanely scrumptious with imported Irish butter. Interested in the recipes? Get them here.

I love any food or drink with a good story behind it, from Singapore Slings to Kentucky Hot Browns. That's why I've been wanting to make the Eton Mess, a strawberry dessert recipe with hundreds of years of English custom behind it, practically forever.

This no-cook berry pudding was first created sometime in the 1800s at Eton College, one of Britain's most distinguished public schools. It's served with great fanfare every year at the school's June 4 celebration picnic, which is held on the playing fields following a cricket game against the students of neighboring Winchester College.

Although historians believe it was first served with bananas, strawberries became de rigueur over the years, as did the addition of crumbled meringue cookies. Think of it as an inside-out pavlova — creamy, crispy, fruity, and sticky. For the five-ingredient recipe, read more.