Inspired by films like Despicable Me and The Lego Movie and games like Minecraft and Flappy Birds, youngsters are discovering words that they would never normally use – such as “minion”, “ocelot”, “nether”, and “spawn”.
The trend emerged after experts at Oxford University Press analysed entries to BBC Radio 2’s annual 500 WORDS short story competition for children aged 13 and under.
Youngsters were asked to write an original work of fiction using no more than 500 words. The competition attracted more than 118,000 entries and the six winners (three aged 10 to 13 and three aged nine and under) were announced on Chris Evans’s Radio 2 breakfast show last Friday (May 30).
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