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Word of the Day: Weigh, Weighed and Weight

Word of the Day, , ,

“I promise you that I keep trying to lose weight… but it keeps finding me !”  Unknown

Who gives a damn about “weight” when spring has come and it has been raining nonstop for two long weeks. I, for a start, have to keep reminding myself, that bad weather will eventually end and that, eventually, I’ll have a chance to wear my new bikini. And, every single Monday, I get on  my bathroom scale and I can almost hear the joking scale saying: “Is someone on here with you?” or “Hey, get Pavarotti off me” and every single Monday I promise myself I am going to start a diet and lose some weight so that the next time I climb onto the scale, it’ll hear something like  “Right on, girl! You’re loosin’ it baby.”

Now, what’s the difference between “weigh” “weighed” and ·weight”.

♥ To weigh /weι/ is a verb  and it means to physically assess the  weight of something or someone— is it 2 pounds? 50 kilos? 15 grams?

“You can weigh the tomatoes you’re buying”

♥Weighed /weιd/ is the regular past of the verb “weigh”

“ The butcher weighed the chicken”

♥ Weight /weιt/ is a noun and it means the mass or heaviness of a person or thing.The weight of a Yorkshire Terrier  on your lap might not bother you, but the weight of  a 60 kgs German Sheperd?
              “He has had a problem keeping his weight in check “
Weigh yourself to know your weight! 🙂

Having Fun while Revising Vocabulary

Games, , , ,

Some time ago I took a methodology course in London and I’ve been using this game to revise vocabulary ever since. It’s the kind of game I love playing in class for two reasons: it requires no preparation and it’s lots and lots of fun. Students love it!

♥How to Play: the class is divided into teams and one person from each team sits on a chair at the front of the classroom facing their team. I normally put myself behind the person playing and show the rest of the team a card with the word I want to revise. The team has to give hints about this word using English only. They have 1 minute to guess as many words as possible and I give them as many points as words they have guessed. Then, it’s the turn for the other team.

♥Post-Activity: At the end of the activity and when we have a winner I ask students to write on a piece of paper all the words, used in the revision game, they can remember so we have further opportunity to revise.

♥My humble Tip: I wouldn’t use it to revise a Vocabulary Field because it would be too predictable. It is, on the other hand, perfect to revise vocabulary at the end of a unit.

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Video : Travelling to Antarctica

Listening, ,

Antarctica is earth’s southernmost continent, encompassing the South Pole. The name Antarctica is the Romanised version of the Greek word Antarktik, meaning “opposite to the north” . It is the coldest, driest and windiest continent and is considered a desert. Only cold-adapted plants and animals survive there, including penguins, seals, mosses, lichen and many types of algae.

Some interesting facts about this continent are:

♥ There are no native people or permanent residents

♥ There are no shops, hotels, billboards or cafes.

♥ It doesn’t belong to any country

Unbelievable as it seems, if you have an adventurous spirit and enough money, you can actually visit this continent. In fact, its popularity as a tourist destination is growing. Now, if you get itchy feet and decide to travel to this continent, watch this video first and try to answer the questions below.

Level: intermediate. (tapescript: here)

Now, answer the following questions about what you’ve heard.

1. How big is Antarctica?

2. Does it rain a lot? Justify your answer

3. What’s the average temperature in winter?

4. Why do tours often take place in summer?

5. What are some of the animals you can see in this continent?

6.What are some of the things you can do in Antarctica?

A Cool Dictionary: Vocabulary.com

Dictionaries, ,

I just love this dictionary! Really ! I love it!  ♥ It’s one of those sites that is worth bookmarking. Have I mentioned it’s called Vocabulary.com?


You might be asking yourselves why all this enthusiasm over a simple dictionary but it’s just that when you see something that is really helpful not only to me, as a teacher, but also to students, you get all cheered up.

Why do I like it?
♥First it has The Challenge Section where you are posed questions about vocabulary and you are given points every time you answer correctly. Better to try it than to explain it! You can also compete against other people if you sign up.


♥Secondly, it has The Dictionary itself. If you sign up whenever you look up a word, you can add it to your learning queue. Each vocabulary word includes a short blurb that is easy to understand and fun to read. The dictionary also provides usage examples from real life, so you can see how words are used in context .

♥Third, The Vocabulary List . You can create your own list of words you need to revise and then do different activities to help you remember them. One of them includes audio.

Now, aren’t you dying to give it a go? Yes? Off you go!

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