Tricky Words in this week‘s OVI

Series (say: /si-ríz/). This is an example of an English noun which has the same form (spelling and pronunciation) in the singular and the plural. You always say the final -s, so you say: "Dexter is a classic TV series", but also "Most HBO series are excellent". Another very similar word is "species" /spi-šíz/ (druh flóry, fauny). A more common example is "means". You always say the final -s, so "Which means of transport did you use?" could mean "Ktorý dopravný prostriedok..?" or "Ktoré dopravné prostriedky..?" Another apparently plural word which functions as singular is "news", so you always say: "I have some interesting news", even if it's just one piece/bit/item of news. Other singular words ending in -s are all the -ics (e.g. athletics, economics, aerobics) and some games such as darts or billiards: "Darts is my favorite pub game".

Andy’s Wordshop

This part of summer, roughly from early July to mid-August, is called the "dog days", meaning a period of heat and humidity (in the northern hemisphere) which make people feel enervated, demotivated, languid and lazy. The ancient Egyptians, Greeks and Romans noticed that during this period the bright star called Sirius rises in the east before the Sun. Sirius is otherwise known as the Dog Star, because it represents the Great Hunter Orion's dog. It's the biggest star in the Canis Major constellation (the "Bigger Dog" – and we all know what the bigger dog does), and this gives another name to this part of summer: the "canicule". In Slovak this is the "uhorková sezóna", also known in English as the "silly season" (po­chabá sezóna), when there's no proper news, and enervated journalists fill the media with stupid stories (but not OV, obviously).