Hey gorgeous, can I spend you a beer?

Should be "can I buy you a beer". "Spending" a beer makes no sense unless you're bartering (and even then it's a stretch). By now I should probably know why Germans make this mistake, but sadly do not. Assuming one of this blog's thousands of readers will inform me. If someone does, I promise to stop lying about the popularity of this blog (although it has moved near the top of Google search results on "Germlish").

Are there any news from the blogosphere?

I recently received a memo asking "Are there any news?", referring to a previous e-mail. This mistake is understandable as "news" is plural. However, in this case, the subject is "any", which is a pronoun that takes the singular form of the verb. "Is there any news?" is proper and the way all native speakers would express this thought.

My agenda says I should archive my calendar in the right category.

This post is just about correcting some mispronunciations I hear regularly:

• agenda: the g sounds like the “j” in “jet”, NOT hard like in “get”
• archive: the ch sounds like the “k” in “kit”, NOT like the beginning of “chair”
• calendar: the emphasis is on the first syllable (CAL-en-dar), NOT the second
• category: emphasis falls on first syllable (CAT-e-gor-y), NOT the second.

See my other post on the word “architect”.