Lesson 351--talking about rain

I am sorry that this post is a little late  For many reasons, I just didn't get it done in time.  I had planned to do a lesson on  interesting science words, but then I looked out my window and realized how hard it was raining.

So probably some rain expressions would be useful.
Everyone know the old classic
"It's raining cats and dogs."

However, we really don't use that one any more.  Here are some more useful expressions that you are likely to hear.

1. It's really coming down out there.
2. It's raining heavily.
3. I've never seen so much rain.
4. It's just like the days of Noah's Ark.
5. I might need to take a boat to work.
6. It's really raining.
7. It's pouring.
8. You'll get soaked to the bone.

Lesson 350--A great expression for crazy.

Out to Lunch

 

 

I have already taught you some expressions for crazy, but I think you need another one.  One of my favourites is the phrase "out to lunch".  This is great because the in a different context, this would mean exactly what it says.

example

A:  Where's Mr. Johnson?

B:  Oh!  He's out to lunch.

A: Please let him know I stopped by.

B:  Absolutely.

Mr.  Johnson is out to lunch and after he has eaten he will return.  However, if we use the phrase in a slightly different context, a person or a plan is described as being crazy or sheer lunacy.

examples

I can't believe we are following that person.  She is completely out to lunch.

There is no way that plan will work.  His idea is so far out to lunch I don't know what to say.

Everyone though Gregory was out to lunch when he spent all that money on a car.

Lesson 349--talking about schedules

 

English has lots of ways to say that we are late.  My two favourite are behind schedule and playing catch-up.  Both of these expressions can be used when we are not on schedule.

examples

I was late for work this morning and have been playing catch-up all day.

Greg was two weeks behind schedule and his boss was very unhappy.

The product launch was way behind schedule and there was a lot of tension in the office.

Because Marion was always playing catch-up with her projects, she was fired.

Lesson 348--an expression with lead

 

Monday's lesson (347) was an interesting one.  It got me thinking about related expressions that I should teach you.

one thing led to another

This expression is used when we want to explain that a bunch of things happened to lead to some conclusion, but that we are not going to explain all of them.  We are going to edit the chain of events and just tell you what happened in the end.

*remember lead is an irregular verb
lead-led-led

examples

Johnny met Irene at a party and one thing led to another and now he and Mary have broken up.

We started talking and one thing led to another and now we are seeing each other.

I wasn't planning on going out last night but I met a friend for coffee and one thing led to another....and now I have a massive hangover.

Lesson 347--Chain of Events

The goal of English Chunks is to teach you chunks of English that you can go out and use immediately.  Hopefully, you find these phrases useful.  Today's phrase is no exception.  Today's phrase is:

Chain of events

The meaning of this phrase is that a bunch of events are linked together.  One event causes the next one, and that event causes the next one after that.

examples

I told one lie and that chain of events got me fired from my job.

His actions started a chain of events that led to the start of a war.

If we examine the chain of events, we will find who is responsible.

 

Question

 

What is the chain of events in the following crash?  Feel free to write your answer in the comment section.

Lesson 346--Important Expressions

 

There are times when you aren't paying attention.  Usually, like my students, you are paying attention to your phone or your computer.  Other times you aren't really paying attention to anything in particular.  We have some great expressions in English to explain that.  They include:

staring into space

daydreaming

zoning out

Examples using the phrases

Daren's parents yelled to get his attention when he started daydreaming.

"I'm sorry.  I zoned out for a moment.  What did you say?"

Mellissa thought her boyfriend was listening to her but actually he was just staring into space.

"Stop daydreaming and focus!" the teacher yelled.

Lesson 345--Canadian Vocabulary

 

 

Being a patriotic, I sometimes feel it is important to teach you words or phrases that are uniquely Canadian.  I don't know if this word is only used in Canada, but I am sure it fits in with our culture of hockey.

rink rat = a person who spends a lot of time at the hockey arena.  They could be watching games, playing games, even working there.  If you are looking for them, the first place you would look is the arena.

examples

Jimmy is such a rink rat.  He's always at the arena even when he isn't playing.

Those rink rats never go home.

Lesson 344--When talking about movies

 

When talking about movies, we have lots of words that you will find useful.

premiere/debut (verb and noun) :  This indicates when the movie will start being shown to the public.

Avengers 2 premieres on Thursday. (verb)

Ant-man debuts on Friday. (verb)

The Avengers 2 premiere is on Thursday. (noun)

The Antman debut is on Friday. (noun)

We also use some more casual language for this.

come out

The movie comes out on Friday.

Lesson 343--working out the kinks

 

work out the kinks (after running into some kinks)***

 

Another great English phrase is "work out the kinks."

This can mean, straighten something like a chain, or your spine.

examples

The chain was tangled and took Andrew almost an hour to work out all the kinks.

Debbie went to a massage specialist to work out all the kinks in her neck.

This can also mean to fix the problems in a plan or process.

examples

 

While planning their vacation Mary and Scott ran into a few kinks.  Fortunately, they were able to work them out before the departure date.

Everything was set for Jim and Dorothy's second honeymoon when they ran into a few kinks.  Their flight was cancelled unexpectedly and the hotel they had booked went bankrupt.  They couldn't work out the kinks and had to postpone the whole thing.

***I have heard people say iron out the kinks.

Lesson 342--Words With More Than One Meaning

One meaning, but not the only one.

English is great because one word or group of words can have more than one meaning.  I think this is great, but I know some of my students don't.  It would be much easier if English words or phrases had only one meaning.  Easier isn't always better.

Today's phrase is "recharge my batteries."

This could me put more energy into my rechargeable batteries.  However, it could mean to rest, recover and generally feel better.

examples

Paul worked overtime for six months until he decided to take an island getaway vacation to recharge his batteries.

Needing to recharge her batteries, Veronica went to an all-inclusive resort in Mexico for a week.

Work and life were boring for Maurice.  His friends suggested taking a few weeks off work to recharge his batteries.

Lesson 341--Fussy



a fussy eater

 

One of my favourite English words is fussy.

It means to be particular or demanding about something.  Often these demands are very detail oriented.  People who are fussy are hard to please.

While it is negative, it isn't extremely negative.

Examples

He is very fussy about his kitchen.  He cleans it three times a day.

Mary is very fussy about her salads.  If she finds even the wrong lettuce, she gets angry.

Daniel is a fussy eater.  He doesn't eat any red or yellow vegetables.

I am very fussy about my beer.  It has to come from glass bottles and it must be cold!  Don't even try and serve me beer from a can!

Lesson 340--Modern English Vocabulary

Every year English adds new words to its vocabulary.  For most of you, the ones related to computers and cell phones are easily learned--you probably know more than you think.  However there are some new words that are not related to electronic devices that you should know.  These include

staycation:  taking a vacation from work, but not traveling to an interesting destination.

blook:  a book written by a blogger (this one seems important to me).

cyberchondriac:  a person who imagines they are sick or have caught a disease after reading about the symptoms on an internet health site.



He seems to be enjoying his staycation.
 

funemployed:  someone who doesn't have a job, but enjoys not working

netizen:  a citizen of the internet--that means any of you reading this blog.

Lesson 339--Burst into something emotional

English has some great ways to describe things.  Today we are going to look at spontaneous emotional things.  When we want to describe this we often use the following phrases:

burst out

break out into

burst into

examples

Jonathan burst into tears when he saw the scene of the car accident.

Daniel burst into laughter when he saw his sister's bridesmaid's dress.

 

The whole stadium broke out into a huge cheer when the goal was scored.

The audience burst out shouting for an encore.

Lesson 337--subscriptions

In this day of Netflix and Spotify, subscriptions are an important piece of vocabulary.  It is also important that we use the word correctly.

verbs: subscribe to

Jane subscribes to 10 weekly magazines.   She has barely enough time to read them.

Malcolm subscribes to Rogers most expensive cable package.

Some of you subscribe to this blog.  (Thanks)

noun (thing): subscription

Jane has a subscription to 10 weekly magazines.  She has quite a busy reading schedule.

Malcolm has a subscription to Rogers most expensive cable package.

noun (person): subscriber

Jane is a subscriber to 10 weekly magazines.  She is personally responsible for the death of many trees.

Magazines are losing paper subscribers but gaining lots of online ones.

Lesson 335--Bicycle Trick Vocabulary

As a kid, we did lots of fun stuff on bikes.  We jumped over small rivers, we raced around the streets and forests.  We  had so much fun.  Today, I want to teach you some cool phrases to describe bicycle actions.

 

pop a wheelie:  to put your front tire up in the air while the bike is still moving.  (this can also be done on a motorcycle)

 

skid:  to brake hard and leave a mark on the pavement from your tire. (this can also be done in a car or on a motorcycle)

 

 

biking with no hands:  this one is pretty easy to understand.

 

 

Lesson 334--Blaze a Trail

 

 

Blaze a Trail (verb)

trailblazer (noun)

 

This verb is used to describe an action that is being done for the first time.

This noun is used to describe the person doing this unique action.

examples

Martha blazed a trail for all women when she became Mayor of the city.

Martha was a real trailblazer.  She became the first female Mayor of the city.

By being the first person to sign up for the new program, Jimmy was considered to be a trailblazer.

Melissa was blazing trails when she became the first one in her family to go to university.

Lesson 333--Stick to Your Guns

She liked it so much she got it tattooed on herself permanently

 

This expression in English sounds a little military, but don't think it really is.  This expressions means stick with your opinion, or don't give up easily.  We often use it when we want to encourage people when they are facing a tough situation.  We want them to know we believe in them and their opinion and beliefs are correct.

examples

Don't give up!  Stick to your guns!

I know he is putting pressure on you, but stick to your guns and this will all work out in the end.

My boss wants me to work on Saturday, but I don't want to.  If I stick to my guns, I might get fired.  However, I feel strongly about this.

You've got to stick to your guns or people will walk all over you.

Lesson 332--expressions used for guests

 

Today, thanks to the fact that I had guests over, I used two important phrases you can use when dealing with guests.  These phrases are used to make the guests feel welcome, and to make them feel at home.  Both of them give permission for them to treat your house/apartment like they're home.

Be my guest

Help yourself

examples

If you want something to drink, just help yourself.

Can I have some of that?  Be my guest.

If you need something, be my guest.

Treat this like your home and help yourself to whatever you want.

Lesson 330--Another way to use Even

Even Spock cried once.

One similar use of even comes with the same idea of surprised behaviour is when we include someone else in the group.

examples

Even Jimmy likes her and he hates everyone.

All of the students got the answer right--Even Kevin!

Even the weakest person can complete the task.

Even the slowest runner could finish the course in the time allotted.

Lesson 329--Using Not Even

 

One interesting word in English is even.  The previous lesson and this lesson focus on using it both positively and negatively.  This lesson will be on the negative.

We use not even when we want to explain that someone doesn't do as much as we expected, especially if that thing is easy and should require no effort.

examples

He's so useless that he can't even comb his hair.

Wanda was so tired that she couldn't even take off her shoes before falling asleep.

Samantha wanted to leave but her girlfriend hadn't even started packing yet.

position

a) between the auxiliary verb and the main verb

b) after the verb be

c) before other verbs.