tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23311728885241184772012-02-27T23:38:42.122-05:00A portal for students and teachers to come together and communicate about English... For learners of English - from New York to New Guinea!Janehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14347464518296293051noreply@blogger.comBlogger241100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2331172888524118477.post-7852795840677388542012-02-27T23:29:00.002-05:002012-02-27T23:38:42.130-05:00

Today's CNN poll was this:Quick voteAre rising gas prices making you cut back on driving? Yes No There is a noun that derives from this verb, "(a) cut back", and this word is very common in political and economic circles: Government Cutbacks Spur More Layoffs  The verb is - (to) cut back on (something).  Very similar to this is the verb (to) cut down on (something).  Here are some other

Janehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14347464518296293051noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2331172888524118477.post-80458963756159605962012-02-12T13:49:00.005-05:002012-02-12T13:56:19.658-05:00

In the world of politics, everybody has an opinion. And many people want to add their opinion to the public record. When somebody adds their opinion to the pool of opinions, we use the verb (to) weigh in (on) ~.  * Below you can see in our first headline, an entertainer-turned-politician adding his voice to the debate over the economy. * 'Dirty Harry' weighs in on deficit Here's one that

Janehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14347464518296293051noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2331172888524118477.post-9486082456395777212012-02-05T12:46:00.002-05:002012-02-05T12:51:33.744-05:00

Here's a colorful idiomatic expression for you that is featured prominently in the news as the Republican Party electoral races heat up; it seems like, as of this blog, all the remaining candidates are claiming to be IN IT FOR THE LONG HAUL: ...Ron Paul Gears Up for the Long Haul * Newt Gingrich called an unorthodox post-caucus press conference Saturday night to assure the press that not only

Janehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14347464518296293051noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2331172888524118477.post-63804561736081050082012-01-16T15:51:00.002-05:002012-01-16T15:54:58.900-05:00

Here's an intransitive two-word verb (that also is a noun) for you that is featured prominently in the news: Face-Off What caused a recent spat between Ahmadinejad and Khamenei? *Friday Night Face Off (FNFO) is a short form improv, competitive comedy show, now in it’s ninth season. In the style of Who’s Line, players use audience suggestions, we pit two teams of improvisers against each

Janehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14347464518296293051noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2331172888524118477.post-5008486264824347192012-01-06T14:05:00.013-05:002012-01-06T14:11:33.516-05:00

You want your English to be perfect, right? Sure you do. So here is a lesson that is sure to help. Here are a few headlines from the news: Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney is surging in South Carolina and now has a solid lead over his rivals for the Republican presidential nomination, according to a new CNN/Time/ORC poll released today. ...about 62 percent of Americans (male and female

Janehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14347464518296293051noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2331172888524118477.post-254620413504244822011-12-19T15:43:00.000-05:002011-12-19T15:43:13.789-05:00

Here are a few headlines from current events. Can Romney Catch up to Gingrich in the Polls? Yes I can! Yes I can! Catch up on my sleep, that is... Meatless Mondays Catch On, Even With Carnivores We learn the verb "(to) catch" fairly early when learning English. But there's more! We have several two-word verbs that use "catch".  There is "catch up". (Furthermore, this two-word verb requires a

Janehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14347464518296293051noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2331172888524118477.post-77456549898219621722011-12-15T21:56:00.001-05:002011-12-15T21:58:03.337-05:00

In the world of Twitter and text messaging, where people shorten words to use as few slots as possible, many words look quite different from what they really are. Thank you becomes Thanks which (for some reason) becomes "Thankx" even though thankx has the same number of letters as the actual word thanks.  Where people are trying to learn a new language, these modifications don't really help one

Janehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14347464518296293051noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2331172888524118477.post-36876637198556253572011-12-10T19:17:00.002-05:002011-12-10T19:25:32.625-05:00

In Japanese, it's " ベビーブーマー" - pronounced "baby boomer".  In Italian, it's "babyboomer". In Hebrew, it's "בייבי בומר" (pronounced baby boomer".  In Spanish it's "baby boomer". In Russian it's "бэби-бумеров".  But all of these are merely transliterations of the English word, "baby boomer". And none of these languages can get a sense of what the word really is saying! The key here is the word "BOOM

Janehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14347464518296293051noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2331172888524118477.post-39132902327870370792011-12-01T13:45:00.002-05:002011-12-01T13:46:30.193-05:00

There are Occupy Wall Street movements in cities all over the United States. What does this movement represent? And what about the word, "occupy"? At its simplist, it means to take up space.  You see signs on bathrooms in airplanes, "Occupied". That means, basically, that somebody is in the bathroom and you have to wait your turn. Also we see it used to refer to filling up time, such as "This job

Janehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14347464518296293051noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2331172888524118477.post-89259393112588296342011-11-16T23:37:00.002-05:002011-11-16T23:38:51.282-05:00

Email Etiquette - Does it even exist?  Is this an oxymoron? Etiquette refers to rules of socially acceptable behavior. Some people begin their emails without addressing the addressee.  These people begin the body of the email without writing an introduction such as,  "Dear Cavey" or "Dear Mr. Crockett", etc. Many people end their emails without signing off. That is, they end their email

Janehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14347464518296293051noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2331172888524118477.post-31799511907347458752011-06-21T19:41:00.000-04:002011-06-21T19:41:05.030-04:00

Has it ever occurred to you that there is a relationship between yoga and learning English? Most people are very self-conscious when they learn a new language. When they are speaking, they are self-conscious about how they sound, about whether they are making grammatical mistakes, and whether the other(s) can understand them, and more. Some worry about sounding stupid.  Worrying about how you

Janehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14347464518296293051noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2331172888524118477.post-40784318420391183082011-06-19T16:54:00.002-04:002011-06-19T21:06:33.073-04:00

It appeared in the word "alcoholic" - the suffix "-ic", which meant "of or pertaining to" tagged onto the noun "alcohol" to mean somebody who drinks alcoholic in excess, somebody who has an addiction to alcohol. Then from the word "alcoholic", the last letters "-oholic" or "-aholic" started tagging along with other nouns when the reference was to an addiction to that thing or activity, an

Janehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14347464518296293051noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2331172888524118477.post-9169656366015460002011-05-25T23:33:00.000-04:002011-05-25T23:33:12.591-04:00

Maybe I'm just dating myself with this blog, but I remember conversations like this: One friend says:  "Would you like something to drink?" The other friend says, "No, thank you.  I'm not thirsty." Today, the conversation would go something like this: "Would you like something to drink?""No, I'm good." Or I remember this: Two friends are out at a restaurant: "Would you like a few of my

Janehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14347464518296293051noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2331172888524118477.post-54253961445783838672011-05-17T16:03:00.004-04:002011-05-25T23:18:15.995-04:00

One of the first sentences you learn to ask and answer, when you're learning English, is "Where are you from?"  Suppose the answer is "I'm from the United States." Ah, one thinks... You're an American. What if the answer is "I'm from New York?"  You're a New Yorker. If you're from Texas, you're not a Texaser, but a Texan. From California? He's a Californian. On the opposite side of the

Janehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14347464518296293051noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2331172888524118477.post-75860814428589430832011-05-01T15:16:00.003-04:002011-05-25T23:35:59.082-04:00

Today I telephoned a bicycle shop and asked, "Can you fix my bike tire? It has a hole in it."  "You bet", answered the voice on the other end. "You'll do it while I wait?" "You bet" said the voice, a second time. Hmmmm.   I thought about the non-native speaker of English who knows the phrase "Yes" but doesn't know how many other ways we have of saying the same thing! And on the telephone,

Janehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14347464518296293051noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2331172888524118477.post-15597426585820681232011-04-24T16:34:00.000-04:002011-04-24T16:34:04.144-04:00

Somebody might ask you, "What other languages do you speak?"  Or you might be asked, "What languages are you fluent in?" What is this word "fluent" anyway? You know the verb "to flow"? Well, the root of the verb "to flow" is at the root of the adjective "fluent". When you speak a language fluently, like a river, it flows naturally when you are speaking.  You ability to understand others flows

Janehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14347464518296293051noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2331172888524118477.post-42942918238202206592011-04-13T07:33:00.001-04:002011-04-13T07:34:43.991-04:00

I hate the way English teachers describe the difference between a transitive and an intransitive verb. They - me included - say that "a transitive verb is a verb that takes an object." Now excuse me, but unless you're an English teacher, you probably don't know what that means. It takes an object? Where does it take the object to? It takes an object to the movies? So here is a little example, to

Janehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14347464518296293051noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2331172888524118477.post-42711410405767981182011-01-25T20:00:00.001-05:002011-05-01T16:45:49.840-04:00

Do you know the difference between "fun" and "funny"?  Did you have a lot of fun or Did you have a lot of funny?  Did you think "The movie was very funny" or "The movie was very fun"? Take the following quiz:  Write either "fun" or "funny" in each blank, as appropriate: Yesterday we went sledding. It was a lot of _________. That movie was really _______.  I couldn't stop laughing. We had a

Janehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14347464518296293051noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2331172888524118477.post-5817536812986163232010-12-06T14:53:00.000-05:002010-12-06T14:53:39.549-05:00

Have you heard the news?   That's not news!  Where do Americans get their news?  Read the latest news headlines right here! What is this word "news" anyway? When I was growing up, my teachers told me that the word "news" was an acronym that represented the four points of the compass: north, east, west, south. I now know that's not true, but the word "news" is still a puzzle and interesting for

Janehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14347464518296293051noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2331172888524118477.post-84249232051059751702010-11-24T09:01:00.000-05:002010-11-24T09:01:08.896-05:00

In the end, both a salary and a wage are money that you have earned! And both are money that you've worked hard for!  And whether you earn a salary or wages, you have to report your earnings to the IRS!   But these are two different words that do not refer to the same thing. So what's the difference between a salary and a wage? SALARY:  Some jobs pay an amount per year.This is the meaning of

Janehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14347464518296293051noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2331172888524118477.post-16957866072364567982010-10-21T13:50:00.009-04:002010-10-23T19:05:55.327-04:00

When you're learning a new language and you are living or visiting in a new culture, there are few things that can cause you to feel so embarrassed and "stupid" as dialogues that occur in public that deal with money when you're trying to purchase something. Today let's continue to talk about talking about money and after you read this post, you can go out and practice what you've learned. This is

Janehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14347464518296293051noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2331172888524118477.post-51807093075075566452010-10-20T17:03:00.010-04:002010-10-21T12:50:24.926-04:00

You have a one dollar bill and you have a car and you need to put money into the parking meter. The meter takes quarters, dimes, and nickles. You see somebody nearby and show this person your one-dollar bill and, pointing to the parking meter, you say, "Do you have.....    " and the words to complete your request aren't there.  You feel embarrassed!  You can ask this in your native language so

Janehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14347464518296293051noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2331172888524118477.post-81373415042278866302010-10-19T14:27:00.000-04:002010-10-19T14:27:28.049-04:00

Every CNN page title includes these words: "Breaking News". What exactly is that? "This story just broke minutes ago...." The media uses (to) break as a verb (and breaking here as an adjective). What does that mean? Is "a news break" anything like "a coffee break"? Yes and no. Yes, in that a news break means that the program is "breaking", that is, temporarily taking a break from, its current

Janehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14347464518296293051noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2331172888524118477.post-57700935216953545402010-10-18T15:37:00.009-04:002010-10-21T09:11:17.161-04:00

Welcome to our English blog. The focus of this blog is English vocabulary, English idioms, and any expressions in English that we need to live our lives day to day. And see that dog in the picture to the right? That's our Chocolate Labrador Retriever, Joey.  He doesn't speak English, but he can occasionally understand it. Please bookmark our blog! Jane Vocabulary in today's lesson: a bookmark (

Janehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14347464518296293051noreply@blogger.com0