(to be) better off

Here's one of the most common expressions in English. You'll likely hear this in every avenue of life.

In 1980, Governor Ronald Reagan made this phrase so popular while he was campaigning for President of the United States:

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Are you better off than you were four years ago?

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Politicians have been asking this question to the public ever since then!

Here is an example from current online headlines: 

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Assignment: Economy: Are you better off?

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The idiom "better off" follows the "be" verb:  I am better off, she is better off, he was better off, we will be better off, etc.  It indicates a comparative state that would be better than another state so there is always a measure of comparision.

Here's one:

As a married couple, are we better off filing for taxes "jointly" or "separately"?

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A married person contemplating may say he or she is better off single than married. Thus, we hear many song lyrics "I'm better off alone" and so on and so forth.  There is a sad story online:

I’m Better Off Without My Dad

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So in a sentence, you would be better off this way THAN that way, and so on. You're better off knowing a lot of idioms and how to use them correctly than not knowing them and not understanding others when they speak opr write, and not being able to use them to express yourself, for sure.

It's a fun and interesting expression! Explore how it's used in English,and use it!!

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in the wake of

Talk about a colorful expression! 

JPMorgan Chase's chief investment officer, Ina Drew, retires in wake of $2 billion trading loss.

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To understand the expression "in the wake of" or "in wake of", you need to understand the meaning of the noun, wake.  Here is a photo of a wake, viewed from in front of the wake:

and another image of a wake, viewed from above the wake:

So when there is a $2 billion trading loss, the loss causes many other events to occur. 

Here are a few more from the new: What is the cataclysmic event in each case, and what are the results of that event?

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Best Buy founder Schulze to step down as chairman in wake of CEO scandal

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August 8, 1974 In the wake of Watergate, Nixon resigns the presidency

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There are always cataclysmic events occuring. Try to find a few more in the news; it shouldn't take you long!

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Shake Up

Here is an article about doing something that you don't want to do:

There's No Need to Pad Your Resume

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Padding your resume means to add qualifications and data to it that are not true, that are false.  Padding your resume is wrong, and it's a very bad idea. And padding your resume may lead to this:

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Will Yahoo Fire CEO, Shake Up Board??

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This word "shake up" has a verb form, (to) shake up, and is a noun, sometimes written as one word "a shakeup" and sometimes written as a hyphenated word, "a shake-up".

Here we see it used with some other events from the news; those of you interested in science will be interested in this one:

Senate Panel Would Shake Up Satellite Program

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What changes would be made in the satellite program, and why?

If you'd like to see and listen to some videos and are interested in politics, check out this feature:

Inside Shakeup at the White House.

Who's moving around, and why is this a big story?

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As the presidential elections roll on, you'll be seeing lots of news about political shakeups, corporate shakeups, and probably even shakeups in sports teams, such as this one:

Kevin Youkilis Injury Pushes Red Sox to Shake Up Roster

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We here in Boston are wishing Kevin Youkilis a speedy recovery!

(to) end up

Here's one of the more all-purpose verb:  (to) end up.

This is an intransitive verb, which probably is indicative of its nature.

Here's an example of the context in which I saw this word used today:

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Peruvian authorities are still trying to unravel the mystery of why hundreds of dolphins ended up dead on beaches in the country over the past 2 1/2 months.

Here, the reference "end up" was very final.

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Of course it does not necessarily have to point to the end of ends.

Quitters still end up as winners

And of course, as athletes are bought by one team, then later sold and bought by another, we ask questions such as this 2012 one:

Where Will Peyton Manning End Up?

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Perhaps you can go online and determine where Payton Manning ended up for the 2012-2013 football season.

We're going to end by quoting Natalie Goldberg, author of "Writing Down the Bones," a text I used in my writing classes:

“Writers end up writing about their obsessions. Things that haunt them; things they can’t forget; stories they carry in their bodies waiting to be released.”

Would you agree?

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(to) step down

In today's news, we had two multi-word verbs that are different only in their choice of the preposition practically side by side. We had (to) step aside and (to) step down.  

We will begin with (to) step down. Notice sometimes the preposition "from" is used and at other times the preposition "as" is used. Can you see the differences between the sentences in each case?

Steve Jobs steps down from Apple

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Summitt steps down as Tennessee's women's basketball coach

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James Murdoch to step down as BSkyB chairman

In case case, (to) step down means to resign from a high position. This could be in government, in business, etc.

Now do a search for "Nixon steps down". Everything comes up "Nixon resigns". This is because Nixon stepping down was such a dramatic an historic piece of news that only the singular word "resigns" would have the type of impact that the event conveyed. 

So what is your theory about when to use "as" and when to use "from"?

Use "from" when you are going to immediately afterward name the company or event that the person resigned from.  

Florida judge steps down from George Zimmerman trial

Use "as" when you name their position: chairman, president, etc.

Mubarak steps down as President of Egypt, hands power to military

It's fun to find multi-word verbs in the news because these add so much color to what we read!

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(to) come to expect

Here's an absolutely wild and extremely common transitive verb that I have seen very little attention paid to in vocabulary books or vocabulary lists, or grammar books.

Do a Google search on "come to expect". You'll be surprised what you find.

Our first instance of it in the headlines is here, in an important health article:

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“Many of the things that are routinely done are things that patients have come to expect and doctors have routinely ordered,” said Dr. Christine Cassel, president and CEO of the ABIM Foundation.

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SOUNDING BOARD: We've come to expect certain negative behavior

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And here's an interesting twist on the expression "(to) come to expect" in a video from Vanderbilt Hospital:

We've Come To Expect the Unexpected: Children's Hospital at Vanderbilt

What do you think it means?

Definition #13 of the Oxford Learner's Dictionary defines it as: 

13 [transitive] come to do something to reach a point where you realize, understand or believe something

Follow the link (above) and look at some other really good examples of this word in context.

And then come up with a few sentences and uses of your own.

For example, what have you come to expect from politicians?

What have you come to expect from life?
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Come Down Hard On ( ~ )

Here's a transitive multi-word idiom that you don't want people doing to you.

Let's first take a look at a few examples from the headlines and see if you can come up with any hypotheses as to what it might mean:

Supreme Court Health Care Law: Justices Come Down Hard On The Mandate 

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Law must come down hard on coal mine lawbreakers

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NFL Comes Down Hard On New Orleans Saints For 'Bounty-Gate'

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Well, based on these three headlines, would you say it means something closer to "to support" or "to admonish"? 

We see it meaning "to admonish", "to criticize harshly".  You can see that someone or something came down hard on somebody or something. It could be a teacher coming down hard on a student, a parent coming down hard on a child, or a spouse coming down hard on a spouse.  In each of these statements, it's a strong statement that may have strong repercussions, often legal.

Put this verb - (to) come down hard on (~ ) - in your browser and see the various cases in which this verb is used. In each case, look to see who did what, and who is coming down hard on him/them, and what would be the repercussions, legal or otherwise, of this.