Today’s post is the latest in a thread devoted to describing people’s characters. In the previous two posts, we looked at ways of talking about people who are hard-working, ambitious, and lazy, among other traits. As usual, we start on a positive note, looking at words and phrases that describe people who are relaxed.
Continue reading “Laid-back and sunny (Describing character, part 3)”
With this post, we continue the ‘describing people’ thread, looking at adjectives that we use to describe people’s characters. Today, we focus on a set of near-synonyms for the adjective ‘kind’.
Continue reading “Kind-hearted or ruthless? (Describing character, Part 2)”
We often describe the characters of people that we know. Sometimes we say something complimentary (= positive) about a person and at other times, we’re more critical (= negative). Very often, we mention a particular aspect of someone’s character, perhaps in relation to something that has happened. As this topic has so much useful vocabulary, this is the first post of a thread on this blog.
Continue reading “Driven or bone idle? (Describing people’s characters, Part 1)”
Last month, we looked at words used to describe the intensity of light. This week’s post continues the light theme, looking mainly at words for light that moves, or seems to move, and areas of light.
Continue reading “Sparkling, glinting and glistening (Words related to light, Part 2)”
COVID-19 has made us all very aware of how clean our hands and surfaces are. With cleanliness in mind, we thought it might be a good time to look at the language around being clean and being dirty.
Continue reading “Spotless or squalid? (Words for ‘clean’ and ‘dirty’)”
I’m often surprised by the number of words and phrases that exist in a particular area of the English language. This was the case when I started to look at the language around light and all the things it does and the various ways it appears. Indeed, there are so many words that this will be a 2-part blog post.
Continue reading “Sparkling and dazzling! (Words related to light, Part 1)”
This is the second of two posts that focus on idioms that contain a word for a colour. A couple of weeks ago, we looked at blue, green and red idioms. This week, we’re rather monochrome, looking mainly at idioms with ‘black’ and ‘white’ in them.
The phrase in black and white is sometimes used to mean ‘in writing’, usually in the context of proof: I could scarcely believe it was true, but there it was, in black and white.
Continue reading “Black sheep and white lies (Idioms with colours, part 2)”
Idioms are sometimes easier to remember when they create a vivid image in your mind. The English idioms in this post all contain a word for a colour which might help you to commit them to memory.
Continue reading “Seeing red and green with envy (Idioms with colours, part 1)”
This post takes a look at a group of phrases that we use when we talk about the future.
Some of the phrases that we use when we talk about our future plans and ideas simply mean ‘at some time in the future’, (without mentioning a particular time), for example at some point: At some point, we’ll look into buying a new laptop. Continue reading “Going forward, sooner or later (Expressions to talk about the future)”
As COVID-19 continues to force so much of the world’s population into lockdown (= a situation in which you are ordered to stay at home), I thought it might be interesting to look at the language that we use to describe what we are now doing with our days.
Continue reading “Stir-crazy and climbing the walls (Life during lockdown)”