a row of three Golden Retriever dogs and one life-sized model of a dog, which one of the Golden Retrievers is watching with a suspicious expression - illustrating the concept of hiding in plain sight

Hidden in plain sight: words and phrases connected with hiding

On May 1, 2024April 29, 2024 By Liz WalterIn the English language, Vocabulary4 Comments

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The other day, I read a report about someone whose crimes were hidden in plain sight. In other words, they should have been easy to spot, but in fact were so obvious that nobody noticed them. We can also say that someone hides (or hides something) in plain sight:

Clues to his feelings were hidden in plain sight in his poems.

The hijackers hid in plain sight, taking flying lessons at private schools. Continue reading “Hidden in plain sight: words and phrases connected with hiding” →

photograph of a green pea pod that has been split open to show two peas inside, illustrating the idiom "like two peas in a pod" used when talking about similarities

Dead ringers and peas in pods (Talking about similarities, Part 2)

On April 24, 2024April 16, 2024 By Kate WoodfordIn Idioms, the English language7 Comments

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by Kate Woodford

Two weeks ago, I published a blog post on the language of describing similarities, including words such as identikit and analogous. This week I’m looking at idioms and phrases in this area. Continue reading “Dead ringers and peas in pods (Talking about similarities, Part 2)” →

close-up of a woman's hands, wearing white gloves, as she hammers in a nail to join two pieces of wood together - illustrating the concept of fastening things together

Binding, nailing, and gluing: talking about fastening things together

On April 17, 2024April 5, 2024 By Liz WalterIn Synonyms, the English language, Vocabulary8 Comments

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by Liz Walter

Today’s post is about words we use for fastening and unfastening things.

The verbs fasten and attach are very general. It doesn’t matter what you use to join the parts together: it could be glue, buttons, string – anything! Secure is also general and emphasizes how strongly the things are joined. Continue reading “Binding, nailing, and gluing: talking about fastening things together” →

a white-haired, bearded man in a blue floral print shirt, holding a small white dog that is wearing a shirt of the same pattern and style, illustrating the concept of similarities

Alike and analogous (Talking about similarities, Part 1)

On April 10, 2024April 3, 2024 By Kate WoodfordIn Synonyms, the English language, Vocabulary18 Comments

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by Kate Woodford

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)” →

close up of bright yellow daffodils in spring sunshine, with trees and other plants visible in the background against a blue sky

Shoots, blooms and blossom: talking about plants

On April 3, 2024March 22, 2024 By Liz WalterIn Synonyms, the English language, Vocabulary7 Comments

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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” →

close-up of a smartly-dressed person holding a folded broadsheet newspaper and leaning against the railing of a fence

Sitting on the fence (Newspaper idioms)

On March 27, 2024October 7, 2024 By Kate WoodfordIn Idioms, Idioms and phrases in newspapers, the English language21 Comments

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by Kate Woodford

Today we’re looking at idioms from a range of national newspapers that were published on the same day. We do this every couple of months in order to provide you with up-to-date, frequently used idioms. Continue reading “Sitting on the fence (Newspaper idioms)” →

a young man sitting at a busy desk holding his head in his hands as he stares in concentration at his laptop

Paying attention and listening intently: talking about concentration

On March 20, 2024March 7, 2024 By Liz WalterIn the English language, Vocabulary15 Comments

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by Liz Walter

We often need to keep our minds fixed on the things we are doing, and this post looks at ways of talking about this. Regular readers know that I like to focus on collocations, or words that often go together, and that will certainly be the case for this topic. Continue reading “Paying attention and listening intently: talking about concentration” →

rear view of a speaker in smart business clothing presenting to a large audience of applauding people, illustrating the concept of being famous and words meaning 'famous'

Renowned and celebrated (Words meaning ‘famous’)

On March 13, 2024March 6, 2024 By Kate WoodfordIn Synonyms, the English language, Vocabulary7 Comments

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by Kate Woodford

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’)” →

a bearded man in a striped shirt is looking directly at the camera, eyes wide and mouth open in a surprised expression, holding his hand to his head as though he has just realised he has forgotten something

Forget doing it or forget to do it? Avoiding common mistakes with verb patterns (2)

On March 6, 2024February 26, 2024 By Liz WalterIn Grammar, Learning, the English language12 Comments

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by Liz Walter

In my last post, I discussed the importance of learning verb patterns. In this post, I will look at a few slightly more advanced points.

I’ll start with verbs of perception, such as feel, see, watch and notice. These are most often followed by -ing verbs, but bare infinitives (infinitives without to) are also possible:

I felt the sun warming/warm my skin.

We watched the children playing/play in the park. Continue reading “Forget doing it or forget to do it? Avoiding common mistakes with verb patterns (2)” →

a crowd of paparazzi holding microphones and cameras, all looking at the viewer as though interviewing a celebrity, illustrating the concept of fame and being famous

World-famous and newfound fame (Collocations of ‘famous’ and ‘fame’)

On February 28, 2024April 2, 2024 By Kate WoodfordIn Idioms, the English language, Vocabulary6 Comments

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by Kate Woodford

It’s said that the artist Andy Warhol once predicted that in the future, everyone would be world-famous for 15 minutes. We can’t say for certain what he meant by this. Perhaps he was reflecting on the desire that so many people have to be famous. Given this desire and the great level of interest in the lives of famous people, it is not surprising that there is a lot of vocabulary in this area. Continue reading “World-famous and newfound fame (Collocations of ‘famous’ and ‘fame’)” →