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)”
by Liz Walter
One of our readers recently asked for a post on collocations relating to the world of work. Well, she’s lucky because she’s getting two of them! This first one focuses on starting and leaving jobs.
Continue reading “Applying for a job or handing in your notice: collocations for work (1)”
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)”
by Liz Walter
I was writing some learning materials on the topic of communication the other day, when I noticed how many common phrases include the word ‘say’. This post looks at some of the most useful of them.
Continue reading “It goes without saying: phrases with ‘say’”
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)”
By Dr Heike Krüsemann
Motivation for language learning has changed during the pandemic – mainly because a lot of it has moved online. But how do students feel about the changes – and what is motivation anyway? Continue reading “How to stay motivated during the pandemic: What you told us, and why it matters”
by Liz Walter
Many of us have had to live with unprecedented restrictions on our lives in recent months. Our freedom to travel and meet up with friends and family have been limited in ways we couldn’t have imagined possible just a few months ago. This post looks at the language of rules and regulations, and in particular their collocations (the words that associate with them).
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)”
by Liz Walter
In an earlier post, I looked at phrasal verbs connected with children’s bad behaviour and with some general adult bad behaviour. In this post, I will cover phrasal verbs connected with bullying, violent and dishonest behaviour.
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’)”
Be bright, be ready
