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 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.

Lesson 328--Using Even

 

One interesting word in English is even.  This lesson and the next two lessons will focus on using it both positively and negatively.  This lesson will be on the positive.

We use even when we want to explain that someone has done more than we expected or that they have done too much.

examples

Maggie has eaten all the food.  She has even eaten the stale bread.

Garth annoys everyone.  He even annoys his wife.

Dennis is never on time.  He will even be late for his funeral.

Charles wakes up early.  He even wakes up early on his vacation.

position

a) between the auxiliary verb and the main verb

b) after the verb be

c) before other verbs.

Please click below to see a past lesson on how to use get even.
How to use "get even"

Lesson 321--Money is tight

 

"money is tight"
 

Phrases that deal with money are always useful.  Today and Friday, I will present some useful ones dealing with your financial picture.

money is tight = you are worried about how much money you have and you are worried about spending it.

examples

When money was tight, Chris brought his lunch to work.

Paul wanted to go to the concert, but money was tight.

Money was always tight growing up, so Martha made sure to be generous to her daughter.

Lesson 300--rhyming adjectives

In Canada (and other English speaking parts of the world) we have some interesting rhyming words that we use to describe things.

plain Jane = not particularly glamorous or gorgeous, or just plane.

examples

I don't like that actress.  She so plain Jane.

Bobby wants a couple of those plain Jane donuts.

artsy-fartsy = artistic, but somewhat negative in meaning.

examples

I don't like going to artsy-fartsy events.

The crowd was too artsy-fartsy for Helena's taste.

humdrum = boring, uninteresting

examples

It was a rather humdrum evening.

The movie was so humdrum that he fell asleep before it ended.

Lesson 293--using prefer

Prefer is a great verb to use because it can be followed by so many things and it can make some great sentences

Prefer + gerund

I prefer walking.

I prefer flying.

Prefer + nouns

I prefer the Playstation.

I prefer pizza.

Of course, the best thing is that you can make longer sentences using the comparative preposition "to"

I prefer flying to driving.

I prefer pizza to any other food.

You can also use infinitives, but you should not use the preposition "to" because it is very confusing.

I prefer to walk

I prefer to eat pizza.

When using would, the infinitive is prefered.

I'd prefer to walk home tonight.

I would prefer to watch the new Xmen movie.

Lesson 280--make do with/without



If it's good enough for the Bolt

 

 

If you can make do with something, it means that it is sufficient enough to survive.  If you can make do without something, it means that it really isn't necessary.

examples

After checking the fridge, John said that they could make do with the food they had.

Jonathon's salary was small, but he could make do with it.  His life wouldn't be luxurious, but it would be fine.

Dennis was going to store and asked if they needed more milk or if they could make do with what they had.

Although she wanted a PS4, Theresa said she could make do without one.

There were no batteries for the flashlight, so they would have to made do without it.

Philip's phone plan was out of minutes and he didn't know how he was going to make do without his phone.

Lesson 279--a house of cards

 

 

This idioms describes something or a situation that is very delicate.  A false move or miscalculation and everything will be destroyed.

examples

The company finances were a house of cards.  One false move and the company would be finished.

They didn't know their relationship was a house of cards, but Bobby's return proved that.

Maria wept because her marriage was a house of cards and Diana had already started knocking it down.

Lesson 275--Rush into something

Today's phrasal verb means to do something without thinking.

examples

Jim and Mary rushed into marriage and divorced in less than a year.

Theresa did a lot of research because she refused to rush into anything.

Paul always regretted rushing into university without knowing what he wanted to study.

Lesson 274--Colourful Language

 

 

Colourful ( American spelling colorful)

Obviously this word means full of colour, but it can have another, entirely different meaning.  When we use it with language, it means crude, dirty, foul and inappropriate.

Examples

Martha always used colourful language to describer her ex-husband.

The school principal punished any student caught using colourful language.

Recently, television has allowed more and more colourful language.

Lesson 268--make room, time and space

one of these cats needs to make room

 

The word make causes a lot of problems for my students.  I wish it weren't so difficult.  The problem is that make means create, but it also means a lot of other things depending on the collocation.  In today's lesson, I will teach you some collocations where the idea of make means to create something.

 

make room/space  =  create room/space

examples

Jim cleaned out the spare bedroom to make room for the new baby.

Timothy asked his parents to move over and make more space on the couch for him.

If you clean out the fridge you can make more room for food.

 

make time  =  set aside time to do something/ free up time to do something

examples

Pamela drove fast enough that she made time for a long lunch.

My boss asked me to make time for more meetings.

Most doctors recommend making time for breakfast.

Thank you for making time for this blog.

Lesson 259--The Future Using the Present Simple

 

 

Yes, in some cases, we can use present simple when we are talking about the future--that means there are quite a few ways to talk about the future (including "going to" and "will", but also some others.)

When we talk about things that are scheduled, like buses, trains and planes, we can use the present simple.  Other scheduled things include movies. concerts, and plays.

examples

My flight leaves at 9:00 and arrives at 4:30.

The bus departs around 2:45.

I have to be at the airport at 4:00 because the planes takes off just after 6:00.

The movie starts at 9:00, but there will probably be a lot of trailers.

The curtain goes up on the play around 8:45.

School at EC now starts at 8:30 for some students.

 

Lesson 248: Labour

 

 

Today is a vacation day, and none of my current students has to go to class.  Today's holiday is called "Labour Day" which is the first Monday of September.  In honour of the day, perhaps we should learn how to use the word labour.

definition:  (verb) to work hard, to exert oneself

                   (noun) hard work, a task, people who do the physical jobs (not management)

examples:

 

He laboured hard everyday to earn money.

Manuel worked in construction.  His job was considered hard labour.

The train laboured to get up the steep hill.

Jeffery worked as  day labourer in the mines.

 

idioms:  a labour of love

a task which is hard or long, but because you enjoy it, or really want to do it.  You do it for satisfaction rather than payment.

 

Lesson 233--Using the Present Simple

 

 

The present simple (or simple present) is a useful tense.  We can use it to talk about routine things that happen usually, or with some regularity, or that are facts.

examples

He works at EC Toronto.

Jane lives in Toronto.

The sun rises in the east.

Margaret goes to the gym three times a week.

Another, perhaps more interesting use of the present perfect is when we use it to talk about the future.  Whenever we talk about a scheduled event (like an airplane departure time, or arrival time) we can use the simple present to talk about it.

examples

John's flight leaves at 9 pm.

The game starts at 7:15.

I have to wake up early because my train leaves early.

Lesson 232--decide

 

Decide has two important structures.

decide + infinitive

decide + on + noun/gerund

examples

They decided to go home early.

Paul decided to buy a PlayStation 4.

Marcia and Nelson have decided to get married.

Marcia and Nelson decided on the colour blue for the bathroom.

They decided on the date to get married.

My brother decided on getting his hair cut.

Some time phrases don't use these, but the prepositions depend on the words that follow, not the word decide.

examples

Patrick decided at the last minute.

I will decide in September.

Lesson 228--Taking a Page from Someone's Playbook

 

This expression is used to indicate you are copying someone's behaviour or strategy.  It is a very useful idiom, and not too complicated.

examples

Taking a page from his sister's playbook, he told his mother and father two different stories about where he was going that night.

Taking a page from father's playbook, Maurice went to sleep before his wife could yell at him for being drunk.

Matthew took a page from his brother's playbook when he wanted to borrow the family car.  It worked exactly as it did for his brother.

Jennifer decided to take a page from her best friend's playbook when she wanted a new dress.  She started crying before she asked for the money to buy the dress.

Lesson 222--Ride vs. Drive Quiz

 

It is quiz time everyone, so let's see how much you know.  When you have done the quiz go and check your answers by clicking on the quiz answers link in the top right corner (and I will know if you don't... don't risk being wrong)

	ride	drive	other
a horse
a car
a bus
a motorcycle
a helicopter
a camel
a surfboard
a canoe
a bicycle
an elevator
a rollercoaster
a skateboard
a streetcar
a jet ski

Lesson 221--Not up to scratch, Not up to par

Maybe this food isn't up to par.
 

English is full of phrases to say you're not good enough, or it's not good enough.  One of my favourites is "not up to scratch or not up to par."  (These are both golf related idioms)

examples

How is the chef's cooking?

It really isn't up to scratch/par.

I want to hire him, but his French isn't up to scratch/par and that is an important part of the job.

If you're skills aren't up to scratch/par, maybe you should take a course.