Archive for 'English Vocabulary'
It’s or Its? Posted by heather on Feb 18, 2012
If you spend a decent amount of time on Facebook, then you may have seen some of the posts about grammar that tend to make the rounds. Often these posts are sentences that highlight a regularly misused or misunderstood word, punctuation mark or grammar rule. For example, “Let’s eat Grandpa! vs Let’s eat, Grandpa! (Commas, they save…
Foodie Time Posted by Gabriele on Feb 16, 2012
I have a confession* to make: I am a “foodie.” This is one reason you will see me post information about food, generally “American” food, and recipes periodically on this blog. I love food and all things food related! In fact that is the definition of a foodie. A foodie is a person who wants…
Compound Words Posted by heather on Feb 8, 2012
If you have been learning English for quite some time, then you have probably come across the idea of compound words before. If you aren’t familiar with compound words, here is what you need to know. A compound word is formed by joining two words together to make a single new word. Some examples are…
Texting in English Posted by Gabriele on Feb 6, 2012
If you have a cell phone (and who doesn’t these days?) chances are that you text. Texting (also called “text messaging”) refers to the exchange of short written messages between two cellular phones. Texting is not the same as calling, because texting uses the written word, while calling or talking over the phone uses the…
Knowledge is Light Idioms Posted by Gabriele on Feb 2, 2012
Idioms are expressions or phrases that have figurative* meaning that is different from the literal** meaning of the words that make up the expression or phrase. Generally idioms require some foundational information or experience within a culture to understand their meaning. Most of the time idioms are so culturally dependent that the same idioms do…
Young Ones Posted by heather on Feb 1, 2012
With all this cold and snowy weather that many places are having, it might seem like a strange time to be thinking about babies. Usually spring is the season for that. But just this weekend one of my friends had a new baby, so I thought it might be the perfect time to review the…
Having Some Fun With Puns Posted by heather on Jan 18, 2012
Recently we have had a look at homophones and homographs. Now that we have done all the hard work, we can have a little bit of fun by using what we have learned and practised to make puns. Puns are jokes that rely on homophones and homographs for their humor. For example: My pony is…