Category Archives: Word of the Day

Word of the Day: to Suggest and How to Make Suggestions

Word of the Day, , , , , ,

Would you agree with me if I said one of the trickiest verbs in English is ” suggest“?

This is one of the most common mistakes students make with this verb. Do you have this mistake?

My  mother suggested me to learn English

The sentence above is wrong  because “suggest” is not followed by object+infinitive. 

Below you’ll find some of the most common structures with “suggest”:

 

  • Suggest+that clause:  We can use present, past, should+infinitive and subjunctive in the that clause. That  can be omitted in informal style.

My mother suggested (that) I should learn English.

I suggest (that) you study a bit more

  •  Suggest+-ing

I suggest eating in that Italian restaurant.

  • Suggest+ Wh-word (when, where, who, how..etc)

Can you suggest where we  can have a nice meal?

  • Suggest+ noun

He suggested  the new restaurant in town for the wedding.

If we need to mention the person who receives the suggestion, we use a to-construction.

He suggested a new restaurant to me.

     He suggested me a new restaurant.

MAKING SUGGESTIONS

And now that we are on the subject, do you know how to make suggestions in English?

Click “play” on the interactive mind map below to study the different ways we can suggest in English and then see the video to do some practice.

Mapa Mental creado con GoConqr por cristina.cabal

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Tools used: Goconqr and Picovico

Word of the Day: Bring Up and Educate

Word of the Day,

WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE?

These two words can be a bit confusing for some learners as in some languages the translation is the same, for example in Spanish.

  • BRING UP is used for the moral and social training that children receive at home. The noun is upbringing.
  • EDUCATE is used for the intellectual and cultural training people get at school and university. The noun is education.

EXAMPLES

I was brought up by my grandmother.

She was brought up as a Catholic

Her strict upbringing shaped her whole life

My mother was educated at a private school

His lack of education prevented him from getting a good job.

NOTE: Don’t confuse being educated with having good manners. 

Ex from WikiHow

If you want to have good manners, then you have to master dining etiquette, phone etiquette, as well as to learn basic etiquette, which includes being polite and holding doors for people.

 

Word of the Day : High and Tall

Word of the Day

WHAT IS HIGH AND WHAT IS TALL?

This forest has very tall trees

  • TALL. This simple idea is easy to remember: if a thing is higher than it is wide, then we use Tall .

People , trees , ladders, street lamps,  buildings with a lot of floors are Tall

I am 1,70 cm tall

I live in a very tall building. It has 20 floors

  • HIGH: we use high for things which are wider.

There are some high mountains in Austria

Prisons have very high walls

A BIT MORE?

  • When talking about measurements, Tall is used for people and High for things. So, as you can see there are things that can be “tall” or “high” depending on the context

I am 1,70 cm tall

This building is 25 m high (tall) / I live in a very tall building

  • The adjective High is used when talking about distance above the ground

The shelf is too high for me to reach. Can you help me?

  • Parts of the body are long, not tall

TEST YOURSELF

The clouds are very ... today

high

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This park has very ... trees

tall

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The woman is six feet ___

tall

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What is the ___mountain in the world?

highest

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This building is 75 metres ___

High ( we are talking about measurement)

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This is a very ___ building. It has 30 floors.

tall (higher than wide)

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The fence was too ___for a man of his age to climb

high

[collapse]

 

high

Word of the Day: Expressions with MIND

Word of the Day, ,

How many expressions do you know containing the word MIND? Have a look at these ones:

Can you guess their meaning? Click to display

What gift do you have in mind for Harry?

 Intend ( to get)

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Emily has set her mind on a degree on medicine

decided to try and achieve// it can also be followed by “to”

[collapse]
You should bear in mind that the text is only one hour

remember

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I must be out of my mind lending Gavin money!

crazy

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I tried to remember her name, but my mind went completely blank

cannot remember anything

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He turned to go and then seemed to change his mind

Adopt a different opinion or plan

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He made up his mind to attend the meeting although it was a difficult decision

Make a decision

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I do not have any particular person in mind for this job

Be thinking of someone or something

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We should take Alice to the cinema tonight.It will take her mind off her exams

make her stop thinking about

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Now , try to answer these questions containing expressions with the word “mind”

  1. What do you need to bear in mind when …?
  • buying a second-hand car?
  • setting up your own business?
  • writing a composition?
  1. Are you an indecisive person ? Do you often change your mind? Do you change your mind about trivial things or about more serious ones? When was the last time you changed your mind about something?
  2. Are you planning your next holidays? What sort of holidays do you have in mind?
  3. Do you find it easy to make up your mind ..
  • when you are buying clothes?
  • when the option is telling a lie or telling the truth?
  1. Talk about the last time your mind went blank. Where were you? What were you doing? What happened?
  2. Talk about a time
  • you went out of your mind with grief
  • you wanted something so much , you just went out of your mind and paid a fortune for it
  • you were bored out of your mind
  1. Finish the sentence: It seemed impossible at first but I set my mind on …. and
  2. Where do you go and what do you do to take your mind off your problems?

Test your knowledge below (only for Spanish students)

 

Word of the Day: Teacher , Professor and Lecturer

Word of the Day, ,

Do you know the difference between these three seemingly identical terms?

Let’s start by stating the obvious, all of them are related to “teaching”; but is there a difference between them? Indeed there is, as otherwise I wouldn’t be bothering you with this issue and well you know it!  🙂

Alright,  let’s get down to the point. I know you’re all on tenterhooks and I don’t want to see you suffer.

At school, there are teachers. At university , there are lecturers and professors.

♥A lecturer  is a university teacher who has just started teaching at college or university. Lecturers do not have tenures ( permanent position) and they are at an early stage of their careers.

Some words that collocate with lecturer are:

I was a junior  lecturer in Spanish at Oxford  University when I was in my 30s

♥A professor, on the other hand,  is the principal teacher in a department and he usually has a doctorate degree. When he   first gets his doctorate degree, he becomes an assistant professor  and teaches  for 5 or 6 years. Then, he is  given tenure and  becomes an associate professor and finally he  can promote to become a  full professor. So, professor is the highest rank an academic can get.

Some words that collocate with professor are

I spent  a year as a visiting professor at Oviedo University. He is a distinguised professor of history.

 To finish, I would remind you that teachers give  lessons and lecturers and professors  give lectures.