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 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 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 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 318--The Gravy Train

This expression refers to easy money given for little or no work.  It also refers to perks that some workers get.

examples

The mayor said he would end the gravy train at City Hall.

Bruce liked his job.  He called it riding the gravy train because he mostly got paid for standing around and doing nothing.