Archive for 'English Vocabulary'
Olympic Volleyball Posted by Gabriele on Jul 28, 2012
There are two different types of volleyball played in the Olympics: ‘beach volleyball’ and ‘indoor volleyball’. Many in the United States are watching the women’s beach volleyball team very closely these Olympic Games because of the women who are playing. The USA women’s beach volleyball team of Misty May and Kerri Walsh (often just…
Turn, turn, turn Posted by Gabriele on Jul 26, 2012
There is a song in English by the band The Byrds that begins like this… “To everything – turn, turn, turn There is a season – turn, turn, turn” While listening to this song recently I started thinking about how many different ways the word ‘turn’ is used in English. When I looked up this…
What is a booby trap? Posted by Gabriele on Jul 23, 2012
The phrase ‘booby trap’ has been in the news in the United States a lot lately (click here to view a news report where the phrase booby trap is used in context) so I would like to explain what this phrase means and the origin of these words. First of all this noun phrase is…
What’s the weather? Posted by Gabriele on Jul 22, 2012
What’s the weather like where you are today? Here, where I am in Washington, DC the weather forecast is: 93 degree Fahrenheit Partly Cloudy Humidity 48% In plain English one would say today’s weather is: hot and muggy. Below I have presented some important weather related vocabulary so you can more accurately talk about…
In the news: Drought in the United States Posted by Gabriele on Jul 19, 2012
It is summertime in the United States and so hot dry weather is expected and normal, but according to new data the hot dry weather that many Americans are currently experiencing is not normal. In fact, this dry weather is part of the biggest drought in the USA since the 1950’s. So, what is…
Practice with Some Synonyms (Part II) Posted by Gabriele on Jul 17, 2012
Yesterday I presented to you a passage that could be partially rewritten using a number of synonyms for various words that I highlighted. Below you will see two versions of this passage: yesterday’s (with words with potential synonyms in bold) and today’s (with the replacement words in italics). Take a look at these two versions…
Practice with Some Synonyms Posted by Gabriele on Jul 16, 2012
One great way to increase your English vocabulary is to learn synonyms for common words and vary the different words that you use to say the same or almost the same things. Using a more varied vocabulary makes what you say more interesting for other people to listen to. We all want to be more…