Lesson 327--One Hit Wonders

 

As most of my students like music, today's lesson contains an important piece of vocabulary for talking about music, musicians and song writers.  I hope you find it useful and use it in conversation in the near future.

One hit wonder = a band, singer, or song writer who has one great song but then never makes another great one.  Songs like "unbelievable" by EMF or whomever wrote "who let the dogs out" come to mind.

examples

Even though I love the song, I am pretty sure the artist is going to be a one hit wonder.

I heard that song every day, all summer long, but then I never heard another song by that band again.  They were such a one hit wonder.

Every year MTV does a whole show on one hit wonders.  Last year, I knew every song.

Lesson 249--Using Time as an adjective

 

 

Time is something special in English.  We have so many expressions and idioms that involve time. We also express time in so many ways.  Today's lesson focuses on using time to describe things.

When we normal talk about time, or duration we use plural nouns.

examples

It takes three hours to get there.

My vacation will last for about four weeks.

Jim's personal best marathon time is 3 hours, 24minutes and 17 seconds.

However, when we describe things using time (like all adjectives) we only use the singular form.

It was a three-hour trip.

Maria is taking a 6 week course at the university.

It is a 2 hour and 14 minute journey from my house to work every day.

 

The best part is that we can use either form.

Daniel is six years old.

Daniel is a six-year-old boy.

Maria works 40 hours a week.

Maria has a 40 hour work week.