Vocabulary is a matter of word-building as well as word-using.

A feature of English that makes it different compared with all other languages is its global spread.

English has been this vacuum cleaner of a language, because of its history meeting up with the Romans and then the Danes, the Vikings and then the French and then the Renaissance with all the Latin and Greek and Hebrew in the background.

Grammar is what gives sense to language .... sentences make words yield up their meaning. Sentences actively create sense in language. And the business of the study of sentences is grammar.

Spellings are made by people. Dictionaries - eventually - reflect popular choices.

Although many texters enjoy breaking linguistic rules, they also know they need to be understood.

Research shows that those kids who text frequently are more likely to be the most literate and the best spellers, because you have to know how to manipulate language.