by Liz Walter
Back in the 1990s, a social networking site called Friends Reunited enabled people to find old friends and communicate with them again. It was immensely popular but eventually closed down, unable to compete with platforms such as Facebook. I was reminded of it as I recently waited to meet someone I hadn’t seen for a long time myself, and I started to consider the language we use in these situations. Continue reading “Reuniting and reminiscing: talking about meeting old friends”
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by Liz Walter
My last two posts have looked at figurative and idiomatic uses of the verb ‘throw’. My final post on this remarkably useful verb will focus on some of the phrasal verbs formed with it. Continue reading “Throw away and throw in: phrasal verbs with ‘throw’”
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by Liz Walter
The covid pandemic and the continued rise of social media have both caused fundamental changes in the way we communicate and spend time with one another. Because of this, we often need to specify whether we are talking about being in the same physical place as someone or whether we are interacting online, for example to take part in work meetings, family chats or even romantic relationships. Today’s post looks at some words and phrases we use to make that distinction.
Continue reading “In real life or the virtual world: ways of being present”
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by Liz Walter
We all have times when we need to reassure someone, perhaps because they have done something they regret, because they are worried about something they have to do in the future or because they are experiencing something that is causing them anxiety.
Continue reading “Nobody blames you: phrases for offering reassurance”
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Today’s post has a very positive feel to it as I’m looking at the language around responding to opportunities.
Starting with a useful collocation, we say that we take an opportunity, meaning that we use a chance to do something.
Continue reading “Making the most of it (How we talk about using opportunities)”
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Today’s post looks at phrasal verbs and prepositional verbs relating to studying, learning, and taking exams.
Let’s start with some useful verbs for reading.
Continue reading “Skimming through and writing up (Studying phrasal verbs)”
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It’s been a while since we published a phrasal verb post on this blog, so we’re making amends with this round-up of phrasal verbs relating to a subject that most of us are interested in – eating. Continue reading “Tucking in and pigging out (Eating phrasal verbs)”
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by Liz Walter
Today’s post looks at ways of talking about things that prevent or delay us doing things we want to do. Continue reading “A bump in the road: talking about things that prevent progress”
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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)”
This is the second of two posts on the theme of showing and not showing emotions. The words and phrases in Part 1 focused on adjectives and verbs. Today’s post looks at idioms and phrasal verbs in this area. Continue reading “Pouring your heart out and bottling it up (Showing and not showing emotions, Part 2)”