Archive for January, 2019
Offering, accepting and refusing in English Posted by carol on Jan 31, 2019
Hello, dear readers! How are you feeling today? Would you guys like to learn key phrases in English today? So I am going to make you an offer you can’t refuse! Communicating something at a basic level in a foreign language is a great achievement, but the ability to do that in a colloquial manner or…
English Malapropisms & Mixed Metaphors Posted by Gary Locke on Jan 24, 2019
Mistakes happen. Like the blue-footed booby bird, goofy things turn up once in a while. It can’t be helped. When you are learning a language, and especially if you think you know common idioms and expressions, you just might say something that isn’t quite right. Hey, even if you’re a native speaker it can happen!…
Dr. King and the English Language Posted by Gary Locke on Jan 17, 2019
The United States celebrates the birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. on the third Monday of January. We honor him as a powerful civil rights leader, for his commitment to nonviolence, and for his eloquence as an orator. There are few Americans in history who can compare with Dr. King as a speaker and…
Speaking of Walls Posted by Gary Locke on Jan 9, 2019
We’re hearing a lot about walls these days. The President of the US wants one built along the southern border with Mexico, Congress doesn’t. Some days they substitute the word fence, but the meaning doesn’t change very much. It may be the single most controversial topic in the English-speaking world right now. Walls have also…
English Superlatives Posted by Gary Locke on Jan 3, 2019
Pictured: The Grand Canyon. But, really, it’s the grandest canyon, don’t you think? In English, if you want to describe something, you use an adjective. There essentially are three types of adjectives – simple, comparative, and superlative. The most basic examples would be big, bigger, biggest. I ate a big sandwich, my sister ate a…