English Language FAQ

In US politics to 'move the needle' is to significantly change the opinion polls in the direction of your candidate.  An alternative - more recent - origin to the one above comes from seismology. The movement of the Richter Scale indicates the strength of an earthquake. The expression “moving the needle” first appeared in England during the industrial revolution in relation to gauges on steam engines.  During World War II, it referred to aviation gauges.  In business today it can be used generically to describe making progress.  

The American political system has three centres of power. These are the President and the two chambers in the American Congress the -  Senate  and the  House of Representatives .  'The House' - also sometimes known simply as Congress - is the bigger body. This is because multiple congressmen are elected at a local level while the Senate is restricted to a hundred members. Two senators are elected from each of the fifty US states.  Though individual states vary substantially in population size, each has equal representation. The intention of the founders was to ensure that the larger states did not dominate the legislature. Who makes the law? All laws must originate in Congress. They the must pass up through the Senate and then be approved by the President. This is to ensure that legislation comes directly from local representatives, though the increasing use of presidential 'executive orders'  has been controversial in this regard. The legality of any legislation is ul

FLOTUS is an acronym for ‘First Lady of the United States’.

The electoral college system ensures that even though US presidential elections are national, the vote is decided by counting the number of delegates from each state.

What is the electoral college? US presidential elections are not decided by  the  popular vote  (counting the number of votes obtained nationally for each candidate).  Each voter  votes for a state representative to allocate a vote for the president and vice president in what is called an  electoral college . Delegates States send delegates to the electoral college according to the state vote - with 48 out of 50 using a 'winner takes all system'. Only in Maine and Nebraska are the delegates allocated proportionally. The number of delegates sent to the electoral college is allocated according to the population of the state. Thus the largest delegations come from the most populous states: New York, California and Texas. What is a swing state?

The conventions of using upper and lower case letters evolved over centuries. The terms themselves relate to printing and typesetting.

58 countries have English as an official language. Surprisingly, the list does not include either  the UK  or the USA. In the United States this was a conscious decision of the Founding Fathers . They believed that an official language would be divisive and undemocratic in a multilingual country.  Around 30% of the 18th century population of the USA was German or Dutch speaking. There were also many other linguistic minorities: 18 languages were spoken on Manhattan Island [New York City] as early as 1646. The Dutch, Flemish, Walloons, French, Danes, Norwegians, Swedes, English, Scots, Irish, Germans, Poles, Bohemians, Portuguese, and Italians were among the settlement’s early inhabitants .  Vincent N. Parrillo, Diversity in America , 2008 US states where English is an official language.  Light blue is where there are two official languages (Louisiana - French & English, New Mexico - Spanish & English, Hawaii - Hawaiian & English) Extended version of this post  here  (2 minu

There are two main candidates for the shortest sentence in the English language. 

The Union Jack is technically a maritime flag, used to distinguish British ships. It is also popularly used to describe the the flag of the United Kingdom. The flag is composed of symbols of the constituent parts of the UK. The red cross at the centre is the cross of St George representing England. The blue Saltire flag is for Scotland, the red dragon Wales and the crown over the red cross is for Northern Ireland UK? So why Team GB? The Olympics brings to the surface the confusion created by the terms Great Britain and the United Kingdom. Great Britain should only really refer to the core island of Britain, not the outlying islands or Northern Ireland. It would, therefore, be more logical to have a team UK. Uncertainty is also evident in the use of flags, anthems and other national emblems. Football supporters, for example, associate God Save the Queen with the England team, despite it being the national anthem for the entire kingdom. The confusion comes from the UK unusually