“Onomatopoeia” (pronounced “on-uh-mat-uh-pee-uh”) is when a word sounds like the word it describes. For example, a “moo” is the sound that a cow makes, while “bark” is the sound that a dog makes. We use onomatopoeia all the time when we speak English – but you don’t often find these words in textbooks. When you… Read More
How much risk do you take? Or do you prefer to play it safe? Here’s a list of the most common risk and safety idioms in English. You can use these to talk about your personal situation and decisions, your career and business, and also risk of physical danger. Risk Idioms You can use many… Read More
In the last couple of weeks, we’ve seen worldwide demonstrations which started after a black man was murdered by a white policeman in the USA. These protests have been the biggest in more than 50 years. Here are some useful phrases and collocations to describe the protests. Stand stand up for = protect something /… Read More
English is a very flexible language, and one of the things we can do is to create nouns from verbs (and verbs from nouns!) See here for 25 common phrasal nouns. In this post, I’ve got twelve nouns formed with “down”. Be careful of the spelling – some of these nouns use hyphens. Nouns With… Read More
What activities can you do to stay sane during these times – and how can you talk about these activities naturally? Here are six things that you can do to stay calm, focussed and productive while you’re in lockdown, or quarantine. Check out the phrasal verbs for these activities as well – when you use… Read More
After three months at home (where we can only go out for essential food shopping, or exercise) we probably won’t look our best! Many of us go to the hairdresser every couple of months – but we might also have to miss non-essential dental appointments. Here are some of the things that we might rush… Read More
There are many words which start with the prefix “self”. We use the prefix “self” before nouns and adjectives, and it means “related to yourself” or “related to itself”. For example, “self-care” means “taking care of yourself”. Here are 30 expressions with the prefix “self”. Words with “self” in the news Self-isolate and self-isolation mean… Read More
The Coronavirus has spread throughout the world, and the World Health Organisation has said that the world is now in uncharted territory (we’ve never been here before). How can you talk about this disease in English – and what vocabulary do you need to talk about prevention, recovery and the impact of the virus on… Read More
Many phrasal verbs can become nouns. For example, you can “start up” a company (phrasal verb) or work in a “start-up” (phrasal noun) – a small company. When a phrasal verb becomes a phrasal noun, sometimes the verb comes first, like “start-up”; and sometimes the preposition comes first, such as “outbreak”. To show that it’s… Read More
Colds are more common in the winter months, and they’re very “contagious” – if people around you have a cold, you’ll probably get it as well. So how can you talk about having a cold in English? Check out the useful vocabulary to talk about cold symptoms; plus the different types of cold and flu.… Read More
