Category Archives: The English language

What on earth is a palindrome?

The English language, ,

What’s a palindrome?
Although you might not have realized yet what a palindrome is what you cannot deny is that the word is beautiful. It comes from the Greek “palin”= return and “dromes”= path; but this won’t probably enlighten you as regards its real meaning.

All right, I know you are all on tenterhooks waiting for me to tell you but first of all, I’m going to give you an example … or several to make you rack your brains. I know, I know you’ve nearly finished exams and they have been hard enough but we don’t want you to put your mind at rest just yet, do we? Enough of beating about the bush …here’s the example: “no lemon no melon”.

Can’t see it? Not a clue? Really? Ok, I’m going to give you another example. It is said that the first sentence uttered by a human being was a palindrome. First and second human being? Adam and Eve. So when they met for the first time the gentleman in Adam said to Eve: “Madam, I’m Adam”. Although some people think that Adam was more talkative than this and that what he actually said was “Madam in Eden, I’m Adam”.
Now the penny’s dropped and you know!

A palindrome is a word or a phrase which is the same when read from the start or the end. Mystery solved!!


Can you think of any palindromes? Please do and then send me a post … you can even write a song. You think this is far-fetched? Have a look at this video

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Córcholis or it is raining cats and dogs

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Are you a Cat or a Dog Person?

Lesson Plan: Advanced, Listening, The English language, Word of the Day, ,

Well, this person you are going to see in the video is ,without doubts, crazy about cats. This is what would happen to me if I had to live with even one cat , let alone 130 as this lady… no wonder she’s called the crazy cat lady. Hey! No offence meant I’m just repeating what everybody seems to think about her.Honestly speaking, I admire what she does and I only wish I had the guts to do the same with my beloved dogs.
Now watch the video and if you fancy answering some questions about it. Click here



And as we are on the subject , how about learning some idioms containing ” cat and/or dog” ?
From the popular ” it’s raining cats and dogs” there’s a wide range of idioms containing these two words. I’m just going to write the ones easy to remember and whose meaning can easily be inferred from context, but bear in mind there are plenty of others.

The 32-year-old actress spent a large proportion of the week playing cat and mouse with the press
We were planning a surprise birthday party but Jack let the cat out of the bag and now she knows about it
I had a dog’s life at school: I was always being beaten.
After years of neglect, the old artist’s work was recognised and honoured: every dog has his day.

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Wordle: creating “word clouds”

Create your own stuff, Resources, The English language, Vocabulary, , , ,

It is not the first time I ‘ve used this tool, but it is the first time I’ve used it to revise vocabulary. I like it because it is easy to use and also attractive and we all know that students appreciate it when you give them something different.
How does this tool help me? Wordle is a “toy” for generating “word clouds” from the text you provide.
In the past I mainly used it to decorate some posts and in class to retell a text. It is a great tool for retelling as the clouds give greater prominence to words that appear more frequently in the source text.

But today I’ve discovered a new use to Wordle. I needed tor revise some vocabulary. I normally do it as a competition game with strips of paper and the word to be revised written on them. But today I tried writing the words to be revised and this is the result. I’ve created two word clouds as I am going to split the class into two and let them compete against each other by giving them a maximum of two minutes to try to define the words to their team. So, I’ve printed the word clouds and used it in the OHP. Hope they like it! I had a great time too tweaking the fonts, colours and layout.

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And yet another way to improve your vocab

Dictionaries, Listening, Resources, The English language, Vocabulary

Now that you have a certain skill at mastering new structures it’s time to improve your vocabulary. There is no point in learning a new word unless you know how to use it and it is also important to understand how words are used.
So here is a cool site you can enjoy. It is called WORDIA. What is this and what are they? I quote “We’re a team of language enthusiasts and general word nuts who have joined forces to create a new kind of dictionary – a democratic ‘visual dictionary’. A place where anyone with a video, webcam or mobile phone can define the words that matter to them in their life.”
As anyone can record words , it goes without saying that I accept no responsibility for anything incorrect, improper, wrong … you name it.
Click on the image and try it.

You can also get a new video sent to you everyday, just by adding your email address to the subscription field and each day you will be sent a link to the newest word.

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Food and cooking. Working with Flickr

Create your own stuff, freeware, Lesson Plan: Advanced, Lesson Plan: Pre-Intermediate, Resources, The English language, Vocabulary

Food! Food!! Food for thought! Always nice to learn something so useful. Nive way to teach too when it is as funny as doing it using this amazing tool which borrows pictures from Flickr and allows users to input sentences, phrases or even entire paragraphs and then turn them into illustrated slide shows .

Why don’t you try your own images and share them? Have a look at what I’ve done.
Ways of cooking
http://www.pimpampum.net/phrasr/?id=17840

Kitchen equipment
http://www.pimpampum.net/phrasr/?id=17841

Taste:
http://www.pimpampum.net/phrasr/?id=17844

What’s the difference between Sour and Bitter?
1.Take a drink of Vinegar : This would be sour or so considered to be.
2.Take a bite of Real pure dark chocolate: This would considered bitter
1.A Grannysmith green cooking apple would be sour
2.Coffee without sugar or cream would be bitter
Sour lemons and limes, or unripe fruit before it becomes sweet.

Vegetables
http://www.pimpampum.net/phrasr/?id=17846

Enjoy your meal!!