Tag Archives: vocabulary

Word of the Day: On the Internet

Word of the Day, ,

I know, I know! You don’t have to tell me! Internet is not a difficult word to learn. Why should I, then, dedicate a post to the word Internet?   Come to think of it  this  post might be only meaningful to Spanish students as they are the ones who make the most mistakes when using this word in context. Why? For these two reasons.

♥ We don’t use the article “the”

♥We have a problem with the prepositions in and on and we tend to use almost invariably in.

By the way, did you know that the word Internet is feminine in Spanish?

A word on Grammar: made from/of/by/with

A word on Grammar, ,

Today the focus is on the verb “make” and  what it means when it collocates with four
different prepositions, namely” from”, “of” “by” and “with”. Choosing the right preposition can be a bit tricky sometimes. I hope the explanation below helps you understand a bit better the differences.

🙁 She claimed that the jumper was made from wool

🙂 She claimed that the jumper was made of wool

🙁 Many components are made by plastic

🙂 Many components are made of plastic

🙁 Margarine, which is made by natural ingredients, is more acceptable

🙂 Margarine, which is made from natural ingredients, is more acceptable

♥Use made from when the original materials have been completely changed and cannot be recognised. “Bread is made from flour and water”.

♥ Use made of when the original materials have not been completely changed and you can still see them. “Their dining table is made of solid oak”.

♥ Use made by when you mention the name of the company or person that has made something (NOT the names of materials). “This new razon is made by Wilkinson Sword”.

♥Use made with to talk about one of several  ingredients or materials (for example in cooking). “Paella is made with rice “

Source: Longman Dictionary of Common Errors and Practical English Usage

Now, let’s try a quiz!

Houses are made __ brick

of

[collapse]
Wine is made __ grapes.

from

[collapse]
His jacket is made ___leather

of

[collapse]
Penicillin was discovered ___ A. Fleming

by

[collapse]
Spanish omelette is made __ potatoes

with

[collapse]
All our furniture is made __ wood

of

[collapse]
Paper is made ___ wood

from

[collapse]
This sweater was knit ___ my granny

by

[collapse]

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Word of the Day: To text

Word of the Day, ,

Who said we cannot learn a new word and have a good laugh at the same time? The word to learn today is “to text” which means “to send a  written  message to someone using a mobile phone”.  For ex. She texted me when she arrived.

Before you proceed to read the message in the picture, let me be honest with you. The word to be taught here should have been  “crotch“ , but I know my mum would disapprove if I started the post saying I was going to teach you a word  meaning “the area between your legs where they join your body“.  And now, straight for the laugh! 😉

Spelling Revision with Spelling City

Audio, Create your own stuff, Games, In the Computer Room, Vocabulary, , , ,

We are almost on holidays and students are beginning to feel the heavy burden of passing all their exams. It’s never too late to start studying, is it?

English spelling is difficult. There is no point in pretending otherwise but… nevertheless, students have to learn to spell so let’s choose a motivating activity to speed up their learning.
I plan to take my students to the computers room and use the excellent website Vocabulary and Spelling City.com.

Aim: to revise the spelling of words and practise their pronunciation.

Procedure:
♥Assign a computer to every student (or alternatively to every two students)
♥Tell them they are going to help their classmates revise the spelling of some of the words studied in this course. Decide on the numbers of words you want to revise and ask students to go to the website Vocabulary and Spelling City.com
♥Students type the words in the spaces provided and click on the button Spelling Test. .See pictures below.
♥Ask students to stand up and choose a different computer. Students click on Say It and Sentence to guess the hidden word and type it. Click Check me to see your score and then there is the possibility of clicking on the button Teach me where the word will be spelled.
♥You can ask them to repeat the procedure and revise new words. They will surely love it.

If you want to read a bit more about English Spelling, click here

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Bravo Rafa! and some tennis vocabulary

Word of the Day,

Great, great Rafa! Although he was not at his peak, he was hungry for the prize  and Rafa Nadal has just won his 6th Roland Garros title and  maintains  his top position in ATP rankings which, in case of losing this final ,  he might  have given to Djokovic. And what is more, he  has equaled Bjorn Borg’s record of six Roland Garros titles .

Have you seen the match? Could you understand the umpire? Tennis has got a lot of words that might be Greek to some of you. If you want to learn what some of them refer to , read the list below to learn some of them and then next time you watch a tennis match , listen for these words you have just learned.

♥ATP Association of Tennis Professionals. The ATP are the governing body of the men’s professional tennis circuit.

♥Serve the shot that begins each point, in which the server hits the ball after tossing it into the air

♥Love no points

♥Match point the last point that a player needs to win in order to win a match

♥Ace a very fast serve that your opponent cannot reach with their racket

♥Deuce the score in tennis when both players have 40 points.

♥Lob a shot that is hit in a high arc, usually over the opponent’s head

♥Tiebreaker an extra game played to decide who will win when both players have six games each.

♥Rally a long series of shots

♥Let a service that hits the net and must be played again

♥Grand Slam the four most prestigious tournaments; Wimbledon ,Roland Garros and the U.S. and Australian Opens

♥Crosscourt a shot in which the ball is hit diagonally across the court

♥Advantage used for saying the name of a player who scores a point after ‘deuce’ , For ex: Advantage Nadal

If you feel you want to learn more vocab  about tennis, click here. Thank you Rafa, you are a legend!