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Mark Forsyth: An 'Unruly' Look at the English Language

Lost Lectures

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Mark Forsyth is author of The Times Bestseller, The Etymologicon, and writer of The Inky Fool blog. Mark is genuinely obsessed with the origin and meanings of words: his new book is a circular stroll through the hidden connections of the English language. Among many other notable achievements, Mark has dated the word 'crap' to 50 years earlier than anyone has found a citation for it and explained more unusual English phrases than perhaps anyone else.

In this hugely entertaining talk he takes on what is considered 'correct' English: dispelling myths, highlighting inconsistencies and generally poking fun at what all our teachers taught us to be true. From prepositions to plurals he goes to the far reaches of the archives to tease out the most ridiculous rules that apparently govern our language, silencing even the most punctilious of linguistic pedants!

13 Comments

@leCanard0 8 years ago

I was raised in a french speaking household, by french speaking parents, in a bilingual Canadian town. I sleep with my copy of "the Etymologicon". I read it over and over. It's a reference for me. It follows me everywhere. It tames my anxiety. My goal in life is to discuss lexicon, semantics and linguistics with this man. I left a career of 15 years as a restaurant Chef to go back to university and pursue a dream; the dream of being an academician, in etymology that is....probably comprehensive translation. My professors are advising me to write a book about my passion: Nothing more can be written because Mark Forsyth wrote it all.

@garyrector7394 8 years ago

I'm grateful to my English teachers, who never taught us that stupid rule about not ending sentences with a preposition.

@ekblad2s 7 years ago

I learned it as "i before e except after c, or when sounding like a as in neighbor and weigh."

@elizabetherwin3228 9 years ago

Brilliant!

@samsonwilkinson8090 5 years ago

Forgive me.
I speak more than 10 to 14 languages depending on their forms or argots.
Fuck prepositions,
Conjugations.
We can connect.

@Irenekistner 7 years ago

I before E except after C
Or in sounding like AY as in neighbor or weigh.

@rebeccadale1748 6 years ago

I agree that plurals are based on thought, but I do think of data as a plural. Like on a graph, you have several little dots, usually with a line of best fit going through, and those are the data.

@bogotta 7 months ago

11:04

@HeywardHawkins 10 years ago

Mark Forsyth's statement about the rule, "i" before "e," except after "c," leaves out the premise, "when pronounced as "eee." Eight and weigh do not have an "eee" sound.

@JerjerB 10 years ago

the lighting makes it seem like he's pointing to his left...

@Csikieditke 4 years ago

... when it is a long e sound. Then there are very few [weird] exceptions.

@lohikarhu734 10 years ago

This comment about the "I before E..." rule is pretty dumb, given that, more than 50 years ago, we were taught the additional part that covers those other 944: "or when it says 'A' as in neighbour or weigh."

@socrates2001 9 years ago

Saying 'of the datorum' is the equivelent of saying 'of the of the data'. Latin has no definite article, and it has no preposition in this case. I agree wholeheartedly with the basic idea behind this speech, but it would have been better if a little more research had gone into it.