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One of various things that we like to do on this blog is consider the many different ways we express the same thing in English. (Of course, we are rarely expressing exactly the same thing and it’s the differences – sometimes very subtle – that make language interesting.) In today’s post, I’m looking at words and phrases we use to convey the basic meaning of ‘enough’. Continue reading “Ample and adequate (Other ways of saying ‘enough’)”
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Today’s post is the latest in my ‘newspaper idioms and phrases’ series. The aim of this series is to keep you supplied with up-to-date, frequent English idioms. As with previous ‘newspaper idioms’ posts, these expressions all come from a range of national newspapers published on the same day. Continue reading “A flash in the pan (Newspaper idioms)”
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In my last couple of posts, I’ve looked at the language we use to describe how and when we sleep (Part 1 and Part 2). In this, the third of my ‘sleep’ posts, I look at the language of not sleeping and stopping sleeping. Continue reading “Tossing and turning (Talking about sleep, Part 3)”
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I recently published an article on the word ‘sleep’ and its related collocations and idioms. Continuing the theme, this week’s post looks at the range of alternatives to the word ‘sleep’ and the phrase ‘fall asleep’. As you might expect, it includes a good number of phrasal verbs. Continue reading “Dropping off and snoozing (Talking about sleep, Part 2)”
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Sleep is a necessary activity that allows us to rest and recuperate. Although it’s essential, we sometimes find it surprisingly difficult. Perhaps for this reason, we often talk about sleep. This post – in two parts – will give you lots of useful vocabulary for speaking about this subject. Continue reading “How did you sleep? (Talking about sleep, Part 1)”
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In a recent post, I looked at phrases containing the word ‘day’, most of which relate in some way to time. Today, I’m considering frequent idioms that feature the word ‘day’. In many of these, the original meaning of ‘day’ isn’t quite as obvious. Continue reading “At the end of the day (Phrases with ‘day’, Part 2)”
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The word ‘day’ features in a lot of commonly used phrases and idioms so I thought I’d take a look at the most useful ones. This post focuses mainly on phrases rather than idioms. Continue reading “From one day to the next (Phrases with ‘day’, Part 1)”
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I recently published a post on the various ways we describe the condition of objects, including words such as shabby and rickety and phrases such as beyond repair and on its last legs. Staying with this theme, today I’m looking at words that we use to describe specific types of damage to particular types of object. Continue reading “Chips, cracks and dents (Describing the condition of objects, Part 2)”
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A friend recently told me that she needed a new sofa. Her current one, she said, ‘had seen better days’, meaning that it was clearly old and damaged. This nice idiom (‘have seen better days’) got me thinking about the many ways we describe the condition of objects, both good and bad. This post, in two parts and covering both single words and phrases, is the result of this. Continue reading “On its last legs (Describing the condition of objects, Part 1)”
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This post is for anyone who feels they use the words ‘surprised’ and ‘shocked’ too much and is looking for more interesting alternatives. It will include both single words and phrases. Continue reading “Stunned and thunderstruck (Words for being surprised or shocked)”