English

irish gaelic

Thu, 01 Jan 2015 10:33:53 -0500

Can someone please translate "insanity laughs under pressure we're cracking" into irish gaelic for me? Im having difficulty and am working on an art project...dont want to foul it up. Thank you.

Confusing Verbs and Nouns and Quiz

Sun, 28 Sep 2014 15:29:43 -0400

English has several examples of nouns and verbs that are can be confused because they have similar pronunciation or spelling.

Let's see some examples:

affect (verb) - to change x effect (noun) - the result of a change

advise (verb) t- o suggest x advice (noun) - a suggestion

all together - all in one place or at once x altogether - completely

assent - agreement, approval x ascent - hill, climb

censure - criticize x censor - to cut parts of movies, books or newspaper content

chord - musical notes x cord - a string

council - a group of people giving advice x counsel - to advise or advice

defuse - make a situation less tense x diffuse - to spread

Now, can you complete the following sentences with one of the words from the commonly confused pair of words given?

The answers come after the quiz.

1. He gave me the best _____ I've ever gotten. (advice / advise)

2. Air pollution can _____ humans and the environment. (affect / effect)

3. He wasn't _____ happy in the new house. (all together / altogether)

4. The _____ gets together to decide on important issues. (council / counsel)

5. Many governments _____ content on the internet. (censure / censor)

6. I need to tie a _____ around the suitcase so it won't open. (chord / cord)

7. She needed the _____ of all the members to pass the new regulation. (assent / ascent)

8. The writer's ideas were _____ all over Europe last century. (defuse / diffuse)

Answers:

1. advice; 2. affect; 3. altogether; 4. council; 5.censor; 6. cord; 7. assent; 8. diffused

Prepositions at, on and in

Fri, 26 Sep 2014 12:47:15 -0400

At, on and in used as prepositions of time

At: used to tell time / with o'clock / with very specific dates

Examples; at 3:00 o'clock, at recess, at Easter

On: used for an amount of time that represents one day

Examples: on Tuesday, on my birthday, on May 1 2016

In: all other periods of time

Examples: in spring, in June, in 1997

At, on and in used as prepositions of place

At: used for specific places (a place where one would put an x on a map, for instance)

Examples: I'll meet you in the hotel at the restaurant, I live at 344 Peach Street.

On: used for surfaces or places that look like a line

Examples: on the table, on river, on Peach Street

In: used for places confined by boundaries.

Examples: In New York, in our city, in a room

What prepositions would you add to the following paragraph:

I called Mary ____ 8:00 last night because I wanted to invited her to a party _____ my house _____ May 22. It's to celebrate my birthday, but the party won't be _____ my day of birth because it would fall _____ a Monday and then nobody would come. So we decided to celebrate it _____ a Saturday. It's nice to have a birthday _____ spring because it's warmer. I hope she can come even though she moved and doesn't live ____ our neighborhood anymore.

Answers: at; at; on; on; on;on; in; in;

Gender of Certain Words

Thu, 18 Sep 2014 11:36:19 -0400

The English language contains very few nouns that have a masculine and a feminine version. For example, a host is masculine and a hostess is feminine.

Some other examples are widow (m.) and widower (f.), actor (m.) and actress (f.), salesman (f.) and saleswoman (f.).

Nowadays, however, gender-specific words are avoided, especially those that describe a profession and end in -man. Instead prefer the neutral term person.

These are called gender-neuter nouns.

Some examples are are salesperson, letter-carrier (former mailman, mail-woman), firefighter (former fireman, fire-woman) and flight attendant (former steward, stewardess).

Many x Much - A Quiz

Mon, 15 Sep 2014 17:03:11 -0400

You probably already know that many is used for countable nouns and much for uncountable nouns. However, many English plurals are irregular, so the notion of what can or cannot be counted isn't always very clear.

For a little practice, take the following quiz:

Put C for countable and UN for uncountable after the nouns below.The answers are at the end.

1. children _____

2. geese _____

3. cheese _____

4. feet _____

5. media _____

6. curriculum _____

7. police _____

8. education _____

9. cargo _____

10. information _____

Answers: 1.C; 2.C; 3.UN; 4.C; 5.C; 6.C; 7.UN; 8.UN; 9.C; 10.UN

Bizarre Expressions

Mon, 11 Aug 2014 18:20:09 -0400

Besides idioms, English is host to many other strange expressions, such as I park my car on a driveway and drive my car on a parkway.

Also, in English two positive words can become a negative as in "yeah, right", which means I don't believe you.

And when you hear someone says "get out of here", the person is really saying "that's cool!" and not leave! Or "a fat chance" is said when there is next to no chance of something happening and not a big one as the word fat might suggest.

Just like with idiomatic expressions, write down sentences and phrases that don't have literal meanings, along with an explanation of what they refer to and one or two sentences with the expression in context. You'll master these in no time, which means very soon!

Idiomatic Expressions and How to Learn Them

Mon, 11 Aug 2014 18:02:22 -0400

English, as many other languages, has idiomatic expressions that have to be learned on an individual basis.

Idiomatic expressions, also called idioms, occur when the words that compose a phrase or sentence have meanings that are different from their dictionary definitions.

An example is when you hear "When I saw the man mistreating the dog, I lost my head."

In the sentence above lost my head doesn't mean that the person actually lost his or her head, but got very angry.

Other examples of idiomatic expressions include:

go fly a kite = stop annoying a person, go away

get cold feet = cancel a plan, such as a wedding, for fear of the consequences

gain the upper hand = win an advantage

split hairs = to argue over things that are not very important

A good way to learn idioms is to write each one down on a separate section in your notebook. Be sure to include the meaning, a brief translation and more than one sentence that features the expression in context. Also make sure to review these sentences periodically and create new sentences so you are sure you have learned them by heart!

305 = Three "oh" five or three hundred five?

Mon, 28 Jul 2014 18:11:48 -0400

When a number represents a result, a total or a calculation, say the whole number.

Example: 245 + 60 = 305 is said: two hundred forty five plus sixty equals three hundred five.

When saying a number, you can use or omit and.

Example: three hundred five or three hundred and five

When a number is used as a symbol or a form of identification, say each number separately.

Example: The number in "My hotel room is 305" is said three oh five.

I live on 266 East 118th Street is said "I live on two sixty six West one hundred and eighteenth street."

Note that saying each figure individually does not apply to ordinal numbers.

Example:"It's the university's three hundred fifth anniversary."

Say each figure separately when referring to flight numbers: "Passengers on flight five three six, your plane is now boarding." This is also the case when saying a phone number: "My cellphone number is nine one seven, seven three nine, five five, five two" Also note the comma between numbers indicating where there should be a pause, as they appear with the hyphen: 917-739-55-52.

The Difference Between Say and Tell

Thu, 24 Jul 2014 10:48:31 -0400

Say and tell have similar meanings, but they are used in different ways.

A good way to know when to use each is to remember that somebody says something, but somebody tell someone something. So the main difference is that when you use say, you don't mention who said it, while when you use tell you do.

Examples:

Mary said she likes her new teacher.

Mary told me she likes her new teache

Here's another example.

Can you say good morning in another language? I can say good morning in three different languages!

Can you tell your mother I called?

Another difference is that say can be followed by to, but not tell.

Examples:

What did he say to the police?

What did he tell the police?

Using More, Less and Fewer

Thu, 17 Jul 2014 16:47:24 -0400

More and most can be used with count and noncount nouns. More is used in comparative phrases or sentences and most in superlative ones.

Examples:

I have many books at home. In fact, I have more books than my friends do.

more + count nouns + than

I can't go to the supermarket because I don't have much time. I think you should go shopping today because you have more time than I do.

more + noncount nouns + than

When expressing the opposite of more, use less for noncount and fewer for count nouns.

Examples:

Albany doesn't attract many tourists. It attracts fewer tourists than New York City.

fewer + count nouns + than

John doesn't drink much coffee. He drinks less coffee than his friends do.

less + noncount noun + than

So remember, even though more can be used with both count and noncount nouns, use fewer with count nouns and less with noncount nouns to express smaller quantities or amounts.

Feel and Feel like

Mon, 23 Jun 2014 18:36:01 -0400

The verb to feel can be used to talk about emotions, health or opinions.

Examples:

Emotions: He feels depressed because he got a D on his test.

Health: I feel sick: I have a headache and a cough.

Opinions: The journalist felt the interview was good.

The phrasal verb to feel like + gerund expresses what a person has a desire to do.

Examples:

I feel like eating pizza.

Yesterday she didn't feel like going to school, but she had to go.

hi

Thu, 19 Jun 2014 11:46:01 -0400

review

usa

Mon, 13 Jan 2014 15:09:40 -0500

good morning

Reviewing Spelling Rules - 2

Fri, 28 Mar 2014 14:16:24 -0400

Here a few rules for when to double the last letter of a word (for three- and four-letter words).

1) Double the last consonant:

- When the last three letters of a word are consonant + vowel + consonant (a vowel sandwich!), double the last consonant:

Examples

hop

The rabbit is hopped along.

friz

They have frizzy hair.

2) Do not double the last letter:

- when the last three letters of a word are vowel + consonant + vowel

Example

hope

He hoped for a sunny day.

- when the last three letters of end in vowel + consonant + consonant

Example

word

English words are easy to spell.

- when the last three letters end in consonant + vowel + vowel

Example

blue

His eyes were bluer than the sea.

Reviewing English Spelling Rules - 1

Fri, 28 Mar 2014 14:15:36 -0400

English, unlike many other languages, lacks trustworthy spelling rules. The reasons for that are many and include the Norman Conquest in 1066.

However, there are some rules you can count on. Look the following examples:

A – Words ending in y:

When a word ends in vowel + y, add an s for plurals, ed for past tense and other suffixes. Example: play

I love all of Shakespeare’s plays.

He played tennis all day.

She’s the best player I know.

When a word ends in consonant + y, replace the y for ies for plural, ied for the past and ier or iest for comparatives or superlatives.

Example: cry

We could hear the hungry cries of the wolves.

The baby cried all night.

Example: funny

She’s the funniest comedian on TV.