Category Archives: Word of the Day

What is a “veggie”?

Funny Stuff, The English language, Word of the Day, , , ,

Well, I don’t know what I am, that’s why I have dedicated some time to finding an answer to what I am or rather to what I eat or don’t eat. For me,one of the most tiring things about not eating what everybody around me eats is having to hide the fact that I just eat differently and having everybody around me worried about what they might offer me; so, when my friends and I go to a party or birthday or whatever occasion where food is involved I ask them not to attract attention to my eating habits. I can tell you it’s not fun struggling to make people understand that I won’t eat anything cooked with meat and what is worst, trying to explain that even though they remove the chicken or the meat I still won’t eat it.
The word “vegetarian” is a blanket term used to describe somebody who does not eat meat, poultry, fish or seafood. But then, within this term there exist different sub-groups.
VEGAN . This person doesn’t eat any animal products or by products and this includes cheese, milk… some of them don’t even wear leather or wool.
LACTO-VEGETARIAN : The same as vegans but they eat dairy products
OVO- VEGETARIAN : The same as vegans but they eat eggs
OVOLACTO VEGETARIANS are by far the largest group of vegetarians
SEMI-VEGETARIAN are not vegetarians strictly-speaking as they may eat fish but not meat or the other way round.

Silly things people say to vegetarians ….. when given the chance. I no longer do.
•So what do you eat? A lot of salad?
•Can’t you just pick out the bits of meat in (insert name of dish here) and eat the rest of it?
•You should feel bad about the pain and suffering you’re causing all those plants you’re eating.
•What did you say gelatin was made of? You’re joking.

Some common mistakes : cook and cereal

General, The English language, Word of the Day,

Well,well , the first unit in the book I am teaching this year to Intermediate students is about food and if I didn’t know any better I would think it was intentionally placed in the first unit to remind me that I need to seriously consider going on a diet to try to lose the ??? pounds  gained after stuffing myself with tons of ice cream.  Haven’t I read somewhere that Uma Thurman, the actress, lost 25 pounds in six weeks by eating ice cream , chocolate and pudding??? Just joking !! But wouldn’t it be just great if  celebrities kept their strange fad diets to themselves ? Or rather not??? That way I can always put the blame on  Uma Thurman ! 😉

Anyway, talking about food , I feel I need to remind my students not to make two of the most common mistakes we, Spaniards, make when talking about food.

Mistake 1. When I grow up I want to be a cooker.  If a person who teaches is a teacher and  a person who runs is a runner  , why is a person who cooks called  a cook and not a cooker?

♥A cook= a person who cooks

My mother is a very good cook

♥A cooker= an apparatus where food is cooked  (also called stove in AmE)

Do you have an electric or a gas cooker?

Mistake 2. I like cereals for breakfast.

Cereal is an uncountable noun, so you  should say I like cereal for breakfast or a bowl of cereal.

Cereals can also be a plural countable noun. In that case, you are referring to the different kinds of cereals  such as oat, barley ,  wheat or brands like corn flakes , rice krispies or choco crispies.

There are so many different kinds of cereals in this shop that I never know which one to buy.

Hope it is helpful! Keep posted!

 

Word of the Day: to Go Viral

Word of the Day,

Viral??? As in Virus?  yes, Viral   comes from the medical term Virus. A Virus  , as everybody knows, is very quickly spread form person to person and this is precisely the meaning behind this expression. When we say that  a video, a picture, an email, a story… goes  viral , it becomes very popular, spreading very fast  on the Internet

For ex: “This video will go viral within minutes of its release”

One of the most successful viral videos was Susan Boyle’s performance in Britain’s Got Talent,viewed 100 million times in nine days.

Word of the Day: Crutch Words

Word of the Day, , ,

What are Crutch Words?

Crutch words are words or expressions that that we use far too often when we speak in order to give ourselves more time to think, to emphasize something we are saying or just because we use them so often that we don’t even realize we are using them. They are like tics but verbal and as such, more often than not, they don’t even add meaning and we often use them incorrectly .
Some of these crutch words are :

Think about it, when you use To be fair, honestly or seriously … do you really mean it? 🙂