Driving is a common activity with a very specific set of vocabulary, including a surprising number of phrasal verbs. It is also one of those areas where there are a lot of differences between British and American English. For instance, the glass window at the front of the vehicle is a windscreen (UK)/windshield (US), the place where you put your luggage is the boot (UK)/trunk (US), and the cover over the engine is the bonnet (UK)/hood (US). Continue reading “Words connected with driving”→
ZenShui/Laurence Mouton/PhotoAlto/Gettyaquafabanounthe water from cooked beans, used as an egg white substitute in vegan cuisine
Don’t pour that slimy chickpea brine down the drain – ‘Aquafaba’ is the latest healthy food substitute being used in cakes, meringue and mousse desserts
[www.dailymail.co.uk 29 November 2015]
food swampnounan area with an abundance of fast food retailers but a dearth of healthy, fresh food sellers
‘The food swamp or the lack of access to healthy food is a much bigger problem than the food desert,’ she said.
[http://www.thestar.com 10 November 2015]
wackagingnounproduct packaging that contains a cute or humorous element, often using an exaggeratedly friendly tone on its labelling
Most of the Innocent-inspired wacky packaging or ‘wackaging’ on the market ends up sounding twee or cringeworthy.
Most of us like to discuss movies and shows that we have seen and books that we have read. This is the first of two posts that will provide you with a range of adjectives and phrases for describing what you have seen and read in a way that is precise and varied.
We often want to say that we found a movie or a book enjoyable. Two very useful ‘-able’ adjectives here are readable and watchable. Books that are readable are easy and enjoyable to read (sometimes despite being about subjects that might seem difficult or boring): It’s a very readable account of the history of this great city. Continue reading “It’s very entertaining. (Words for describing movies and books)”→
fab labnouna fabrication laboratory; a science laboratory equipped with the latest digital technology in order to facilitate the learning of all the STEM subjects
The ‘Fab Lab’ equips students with an array of tools in a small-scale workshop setting that offers personal digital fabrication – a project-based learning method that will allow students to create ‘almost anything.’
[http://ind.gmnews.com/ 08 October 2015]
flexi schoolingnounan approach to schooling in which a child is registered with a school but attends that school for only part of the week, being home-schooled for the remainder
Other developments include offering more ‘flexi-schooling’ opportunities, where children can spend three days a week at either Hollinsclough or Manifold and two days being home-educated.
[http://www.stokesentinel.co.uk 06 October 2015]
forensicateverbto conduct a forensic examination of something
I suspect after they forensicate the phones and the computers from the evidence they collected, we’re going to find they used encrypted software to communicate.
This week we’re looking at the various expressions that we use to say that a thought or idea comes into our mind. As ever, when looking at a particular area of the language, we hope to provide you with a range of interesting ways to say something.
We’ll start with the verb strike. If a thought or idea strikes you, it suddenly comes into your mind: That was when the thought struck him. Like other verbs with this meaning, ‘strike’ is often used in the structure ‘It struck someone that…’
grip-litnouna genre of novel that has an exciting psychological storyline
The Bookseller magazine remembers otherwise. In a puzzling article in its most recent issue, it refers to ‘grip-lit’ (AKA the gripping psychological thriller) in a way that suggests it is a trend belonging to last year and, if we’re lucky, this year too […]
[www.theguardian.com/ 29 January 2016]
hunkvertisingnouninformalthe use of pictures of attractive, scantily-clad young men to advertise products
Beckham in his pants and David Gandy in his swimming trunks: How ‘hunkvertising’ has put men under pressure to get the perfect body
[www.dailymail.co.uk 27 January 2016]
sad rapnouna form of slow rap music with emotionally intense lyrics
Hopsin is a kind of new rapper who has great potential, but this song just doesn’t cut it, there’s plenty other sad rap songs that belong in this spot.
In a recent lesson, I discovered that many of my students did not know how to read numbers aloud, especially long numbers. Numbers are a basic part of the language and it can sometimes be very important to say them clearly!
One important thing to remember is that we say and after hundreds, before the tens (20, 30, etc) or units (1, 2, etc):
prebuttlenounan argument against something that has not yet been said
[Hilary Clinton’s] campaign actually issued a prebuttle yesterday, asking for Sanders to endorse some of her proposals.
[WNYC: WNYC News (US and local New York news) 05 January 2016]
Berniesplain verbinformal(of Bernie Sanders supporters and staffers) to explain Bernie Sanders’s positions to African-American voters in a patronizing
way
Charles Blow wrote a column in the Times today saying, ‘stop Berniesplaining’, and that he found that very condescending to African Americans.
[WNYC: Brian Leherer Show (NYC public affairs talk show) 11 February 2016]
virtue signallingnoundemonstrating that you are right-thinking in your politics, for example, by wearing a charity ribbon or by updating your profile on a social media website to signal your support for someone
This is all a rather roundabout way of getting to ‘virtue-signalling’, a phrase that began to spread via op-ed sections last year and proliferated rapidly on Twitter, and against which quarantine measures now urgently need to be taken.
