Listen to the author reading this blog post:
This week, I’m looking at the language we use to say that things or people are similar, either in appearance or character. There are a tremendous lot of interesting words and phrases in this area so this post will be in two parts. Continue reading “Alike and analogous (Talking about similarities, Part 1)”
Listen to the author reading this blog post:
by Liz Walter
Here in the UK we are well into our spring season, which made me think about the words and phrases we use to describe the plants that are now growing or coming back to life after the long winter. Continue reading “Shoots, blooms and blossom: talking about plants”
Listen to the author reading this blog post:
In my last post, I looked at a range of collocations for the words ‘famous’ and ‘fame’. This week, I’m continuing the ‘fame’ theme but considering synonyms (and near-synonyms) for the adjective ‘famous’. As ever, I’m looking at the precise differences in meaning and use between them. Continue reading “Renowned and celebrated (Words meaning ‘famous’)”
Listen to the author reading this blog post:
by Liz Walter
Back in 2016, my colleague Kate Woodford wrote a pair of posts on ways of describing good and bad things. However, sometimes things aren’t particularly good or bad, but somewhere in between. This post covers a selection of words and phrases you can use in these cases. Continue reading “It’ll have to do: talking about things that aren’t very good or very bad”
Listen to the author reading this blog post:
by Liz Walter
In my last post, I wrote about verbs that describe circular movements. I’m staying with the theme of movement today and looking at shaking movements and movements from side to side. Continue reading “Juddering, quivering and wobbling: more verbs to describe movement”
Listen to the author reading this blog post:
by Liz Walter
This week’s post looks at the topic of circular movements. It is quite surprising how many verbs we have to describe different ways of turning round and round or moving things in a circular motion. Continue reading “Twisting, rotating, and spinning: verbs for circular movements”
Listen to the author reading this blog post:
This week, we’re looking at alternatives to the word advice, including single word near-synonyms and phrases. We’ll start by considering the noun ‘advice’ itself because it has some nice collocations. You give advice and you get advice. If you do what someone advises you to do, you take or follow their advice: Continue reading “Hints, hacks and pointers (Words meaning ‘advice’)”
Listen to the author reading this blog post:
This week we’re putting on our best clothes and grabbing a box of chocolates for the host because we’re going to a party! Well, okay, we’re not actually going to a party, but we are looking at words that we use to refer to social occasions where people meet up to enjoy themselves. You might be surprised at how many words there are. Continue reading “Reunions and housewarmings (Words for different parties)”
Listen to the author reading this blog post:
Today I’m looking at words that mean ‘very or extremely large’. You’ll already know several words in this area – adjectives such as enormous, huge and massive – so I won’t focus on those. Instead, I’ll look at a set of adjectives that you might not know. Most have rather similar meanings. The differences are mainly found in the register of the words, that is, whether they are formal or informal. Continue reading “Vast, mahoosive and monstrous (Words meaning ‘very large’)”
Listen to the author reading this blog post:
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”