vocabulary « Readable Blog

Good Words: Stress Relief Phrases

March 15th, 2011

Here are some phrasal verbs/idioms that are often used when we’re talking about relieving (reducing) stress. “I’m going to treat myself to a piece of chocolate.” “Tonight, I’m treating myself to a hot bath and a novel. I haven’t had time to read in two weeks!” To “treat yourself (herself/etc.) to something” is to do [...]

Hats and Shoes

January 10th, 2011

We’ve been talking about hats on Twitter. I noticed a little confusion about the relationship between “hats” and “caps.” Let’s talk about it here. (This is a pretty advanced vocabulary point, so don’t worry about it if you are a beginner.) The basic word for something that covers your head is “hat.” It is the [...]

Thanksgiving 2010

November 26th, 2010

Yesterday was Thanksgiving. A few days ago, my brother-in-law flew up from San Diego to join us. On Wednesday, my brother-in-law and I baked two pies and made cranberry sauce. On Thanksgiving, my husband, brother-in-law, and I cooked everything else: sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, broccoli, stuffing, and turkey. We bought the rolls (bread) and gravy. [...]

Pitfalls: Air Conditioner

November 17th, 2010

In the Northern Hemisphere, it’s about time for the weather to become cooler. That’s why I thought about this vocabulary pitfall today… In standard American English, the word “air conditioner” only means “a machine that makes the air cooler and drier.” It’s very surprising to us to see someone say “I turned on the air [...]

Spam

September 6th, 2010

You probably know about Spam, the meat product. Do you know about the connection between Spam and the English verb/noun “spam”? The noncountable noun/verb “spam” means “e-mail and other internet messages that you don’t want.” Usually, these messages are advertising something (“BUY SOFTWARE CHEAP NOW”). People also use this word to mean “posting too often” [...]

When are Phrase Guides OK?

May 20th, 2010

I understand why people want to use phrase guides, follow phrase-posting Twitter accounts, etc. Here are some reasons I thought of. You want to memorize correct language and use it exactly the way you learned it with no mistakes. You know it’s easier to remember language in “chunks” (larger pieces) instead of single words You [...]

A rant!

May 18th, 2010

I am going to take a minute to do something different. I’m going to write a “rant.” A rant is when people write or talk about something in an angry way. Usually, they talk about something that bothers them personally. They don’t just yell and scream. They explain why they are upset. Here is something [...]

WonderCon

April 7th, 2010

On Saturday, my husband, my friend, and I went to San Francisco. We went to a convention called WonderCon. This convention is for fans of comic books, animation, movies, TV shows, and so on. Last year, about 32,000 people went to the convention–women, men, kids, older people, etc. It’s not the biggest convention like this, [...]

Backyard Chickens

March 20th, 2010

On Tuesday, my husband and I went to see one of our friends. She lives in a nearby city. Even though she lives in town, my friend has chickens. My friend’s chickens live next to her house. There are two hens (female chickens) and one rooster (male chicken). Right now, she also has some chicks [...]

Pitfalls: MV, PV, CM, CF

June 2nd, 2009

The terms “MV,” “PV,” “CM,” and “CF” are popular in countries such as Japan, China, Taiwan, and Korea. However, most people in North America and other English-speaking countries don’t know what MV, PV, CM, or CF mean. You need to be careful with letter-based words (usually called “acronyms”). Even though they’re based on real English [...]

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