“Language, never forget, is more fashion than science, and matters of usage, spelling and pronunciation tend to wander around like hemlines.” — Bill Bryson Copy Share Image
English grammar is so complex and confusing for the one very simple reason that its rules and terminology are based on Latin,… — Bill Bryson Copy Share Image
Making English grammar conform to Latin rules is like asking people to play baseball using the rules of football. — Bill Bryson Copy Share Image
Language is more fashion than science, and matters of usage, spelling and pronunciation tend to wander around like hemlines. — Bill Bryson Copy Share Image
“If we should be worrying about anything to do with the future of English, it should not be that the various strands… — Bill Bryson Copy Share Image
People don't talk like this, theytalklikethis. Syllables, words, sentences run together like a watercolour left in the rain. To understand what anyone… — Bill Bryson Copy Share Image
English is full of booby traps for the unwary foreigner. Any language where the unassuming word fly signifies an annoying insect, a… — Bill Bryson Copy Share Image
Most of the time I am sunk in thought, but at some point on each walk there comes a moment when I… — Bill Bryson Copy Share Image
Those who sniff decay in every shift of sense or alteration of usage do the language no service. Too often for such… — Bill Bryson Copy Share Image
“85 percent of the 30,000 Anglo-Saxon words died out under the influence of the Danes and Normans. That means that only about… — Bill Bryson Copy Share Image
“It is a cherishable irony that a language that succeeded almost by stealth, treated for centuries as the inadequate and second-rate tongue… — Bill Bryson Copy Share Image
For most of us the rules of English grammar are at best a dimly remembered thing. But even for those who make… — Bill Bryson Copy Share Image
“Just a month after the completion of the Declaration of Independence, at a time when he delegates might have been expected to… — Bill Bryson Copy Share Image
English grammar is so complex and confusing for the one very simple reason that its rules and terminology are based on Latin… — Bill Bryson Copy Share Image
“Considerable thought was given in early Congresses to the possibility of renaming the country. From the start, many people recognized that United… — Bill Bryson Copy Share Image
“By the 1920s if you wanted to work behind a lunch counter you needed to know that 'Noah's boy' was a slice… — Bill Bryson Copy Share Image
“And there was never a better time to delve for pleasure in language than the sixteenth century, when novelty blew through English… — Bill Bryson Copy Share Image
“From that original colony sprang seven names that still feature on the landscape: Roanoke (which has the distinction of being the first… — Bill Bryson Copy Share Image
“Because of social strictures against even the mildest swearing, America developed a particularly rich crop of euphemistic expletives - darn, durn, goldurn,… — Bill Bryson Copy Share Image
“More recently, during a debate in the House of Lords in 1978 one of the members said: "If there is a more… — Bill Bryson Copy Share Image
“These Cro-Magnon people were identical to us: they had the same physique, the same brain, the same looks. And, unlike all previous… — Bill Bryson Copy Share Image
“One of the undoubted virtues of English is that it is a fluid and democratic language in which meanings shift and change… — Bill Bryson Copy Share Image
Most big companies don't like you very much, except hotels, airlines and Microsoft, which don't like you at all. — Bill Bryson Copy Share
“But Welsh spellings are as nothing compared with Irish Gaelic, a language in which spelling and pronunciation give the impression of having been devised… — Bill Bryson Copy Share
“Pantaloons were often worn tight as paint and were not a great deal less revealing, particularly as they were worn without underwear. . .… — Bill Bryson Copy Share
If you go out on the Appalachian Trail, you have to bring so much more equipment - a tent, sleeping bag - but if… — Bill Bryson Copy Share
“The dining table was a plain board called by that name. It was hung on the wall when not in use, and was perched… — Bill Bryson Copy Share
“From almost nothing, France in four years built up an aircraft industry that employed nearly 200,000 people and produced some 70,000 planes. Britain built… — Bill Bryson Copy Share
“Every twenty minutes on the Appalachian Trail, Katz and I walked farther than the average American walks in a week. For 93 percent of… — Bill Bryson Copy Share
“A diarist named George Templeton Strong recorded in the winter of 1866 that even with two furnaces alight and all the fireplaces blazing, he… — Bill Bryson Copy Share
Tune your television to any channel it doesn't receive and about 1 percent of the dancing static you see is accounted for by this… — Bill Bryson Copy Share
As a rule of thumb, I would submit that if you need to call your floss provider, for any reason, you are probably not… — Bill Bryson Copy Share
Nobody gets excited about the future at all, ever. The future is something we find depressing and worrisome. — Bill Bryson Copy Share
“What made this particularly interesting is that John Howard is by far the dullest man in Australia. Imagine a very committed funeral home director… — Bill Bryson Copy Share
I would make a genuinely terrible guide. I can't remember things. I would get half way through telling a story or explaining something and… — Bill Bryson Copy Share
“In the mystifying world that was Victorian parenthood, obedience took precedence over all considerations of affection and happiness, and that odd, painful conviction remained… — Bill Bryson Copy Share
If this book has a lesson, it is that we are awfully lucky to be here-and by 'we' I mean every living thing. To… — Bill Bryson Copy Share
