FAQs (not)

Ten questions you're never likely to hear in the language classroom…

1. What's the name of the sound you get if you roll a 6-sided pencil across the surface of a bilingual dictionary?
2. What's the name of the triangle which is formed inside the top half of the capital letter A?
3. How would you pronounce Harrods if it had three Rs in the middle instead of two?
4. Is the dot on top of the letter i exactly the same shape and size as the dot under the question mark?
5. What do you call the little fragments of rubber you get after rubbing out a pencil mark in your notebook?
6. What do you call a piece of chewing gum that no longer has any flavour in it?
7. Why is the English word for 5 'five' and not 'six', for example?
8. Does a mosquito have an alveolar ridge?
9. Is it possible to 'blurt something out' without opening your mouth?
10. Is it possible to use the present continuous tense after dark?