English lexis can be specific :verbs related to sight and vision I

I see an interesting entry ahead of me.... As I mentioned in an old entry, the English language can sometimes be incredibly specific. Today's entry will be devoted to a very quirky English quirk, hehe, verbs related to vision. There is a wide range of verbs related to vision with different nuances in English. Let's start with the basics!

1. Basic verbs related to vision

a) SEE : This verb is the basic verb related to your sight in English. It means look at something with your eyes. It is quite general!

b) LOOK AT : It is more specific than seeing. When you look at something, you focus on one particular object. My students are always looking at the window when they are bored!

c) OBSERVE  : This verb goes beyond looking. It means looking at something with close attention to detail. After some time, he observed she had a stain on the shirt.

d) NOTICE : This verb is very similar to observing. The verb 'notice' is linked to 'perceive something with the different senses, including sight.' Have you noticed that I had a haircut?

E) WATCH : 'Watch' implies a lot of effort. It means to look at something with attention and interest. That's is why in English we say watch TV. This verb is also connected to spying on someone. Haven't your parents ever asked to watch (over) your younger sibling?

F) STARE AT : To look at something or someone with the eyes wide open. The dog stared at me when I saw I was eating filet mignon. 

If you see TV, your eyes are detecting the television set (which may be off)

If you look at TV, your eyes focus on the television set (which may be off)

If you notice that the TV is on, you are just seeing the colours coming from TV.

If you watch TV, you are paying attention to a given TV programme and the TV is on.

2. Verbs related to vision starting with letter g-

Another English quirk is that in English a great deal of verbs beginning with g are related to vision, but they have very different nuances. Let's examine this:

- Glare at: To look at something fixedly as if you were angry.

- Gawk at : To look at something or someone with astonishment. He gawked at my girlfriend when he found out she was gorgeous and much younger than me! 

- Gape at : To look at something with extreme surprise, to gawk at something, e.g. gape at the people in an accident.

- Glance at : To have a quick look. Glance at the newspaper.

- Glimpse : To see something very quickly, in little time. When I looked out, I could glimpse some person stand by in the darkness, but then it suddenly disappeared.

- Gaze at: To look with curiosity and wonder. The little child gazed at the telescope.

- Glower at : To look at something with disgust or discontentment. The girl glowered at her spinach. 

- Take a gander at: Have a look at something. 

Well, did you know that you could get to look at something in so many different ways in English ? This entry is far from being over. Next week, we'll get to know some more expressions related to sight and vision in English. Interested?

Songs in the classroom: The Hall of Fame (by the Script)

Hello there,
I'm on a holiday spree in Basque Country and, despite that, I managed to keep writing this blog! Well, in fact, what I'm doing today is to reuse a song that I played with my students of Intermedio 1 to deal with the topic of sports, no other than The Hall of Fame. The message of this song is quite clear: you have to make a big effort if you want to succeed in the sports world (or in life). 
Listen to the video and try to do the exercises provided. As usual, the answers are at the bottom of the post :

"Hall Of Fame"
(feat. Will.I.Am)

Yeah, you can be the greatest
You can be the best
You can be the King Kong banging on your (1) _____________

You could beat the world
You could beat the _____________ (2)
You could talk to God, go banging on his door

You can throw your hands up
You can beat the ____________ (3) (yeah)
You can move a mountain
You can break ______________ (4)
You can be a master
Don't wait for _______________ (5)
Dedicate yourself and you gon' find yourself

Standing in the hall of fame (yeah)
And the world's gonna know your name (yeah)
'Cause you burn with the brightest flame (yeah)
And the world's gonna know your name (yeah)
And you'll be on the walls of the hall of fame
(Chorus) 

You can go the distance
You can run the __________ (6)
You can walk straight through hell with a smile

You could be the hero
You could get the gold
Breaking all the ____________ (7) they thought never could be broken

Yeah, do it for your people
Do it for your ______________ (8)
How you ever gonna know if you never even try?

Do it for your country
Do it for your ____________ (9)
'Cause there's gonna be a day when

(Chorus)

Be a champion, be a champion, be a champion, be a champion
On the walls of the hall of fame

Be students
Be _____________ (10)
Be politicians
Be ______________ (11)
(Yeah)

Be believers
Be______________ (12)
Be astronauts
Be champions
Be truth _____________ (13)
Be students
Be ______________
Be politicians
Be _____________

Be believers
Be leaders
Be astronauts
Be champions

Chorus

(You can be a champion...) Repeated and mixed with chorus

Standing in the hall of fame

Exercises 
1. Fill in the gaps of the lyrics of the song. If it's too difficult, choose the right answer:

1. a) chess                   b) chest                       c) church                     d) checks

2. a) war                     b) word                       c) world                      d) worst

3. a) crock                   b) cock                        c) cork                         d) clock

4. a) crocks                 b) rags                         c) racks                       d) rocks

5. a) look                    b) lack                         c) luck                         d) lark

6. a) mare                    b) mire                        c) mile                         d) mine

7. a) seconds               b) rackets                    c) records                    d) rates

8. a) ride                     b) pride                       c) proud                      d) fide

9. a) name                   b) vein                        c) cane                        d) plane

10. a) features             b) teachers                  c) T-shirts                   d) tickers

11. a) seekers              b) features                  c) preachers                d) teachers

12. a) leaders              b) livers                       c) leathers                   d) litter

13. a) siders                b) sitters                      c) seekers                    d) shitters 

2. Find three superlative forms in the lyrics of the song

3. Find a relative clause where the relative pronoun has been omitted

4. Explain the meaning of the following expressions:
a) beat the clock
b) break a record
c) hall of fame

5. Find an example of an onomatopoeic word

Answers :
1)
1b; 2c; 3d; 4d; 5c; 6c; 7c; 8b; 9a; 10b; 11c; 12a; 13c

2) Greatest, best, brightest

3) Breaking all the records (that/which) they thought never could be broken

4) Beat the clock : Perform a task quickly. In sports, perform a sports task in better time.
    Break a record: To perform a given task at a better degree than the one currently known.
    Hall of fame: A kind of ranking containing particularly industrious, hard-working, record-breaking sportspeople in different categories. 

5) The word 'bang' is onomatopoeic since it reproduces an explosion-like noise. 

Well, don't you enjoy learning English with songs? I'm sure that's the perfect way to advance with your English learning process? If you're interested in polishing your English with songs, do not hesitate and click on the links below. See you next week!
The Script's The Hall of Fame; Jessie J's Price Tag; The Police's Every Breath You Take; U2's I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For; Bruno Mar's Don't Give Up; The Cure's Friday I'm In Love; Smash Mouth's I'm A Believer; Michael Bublé's It's A Beautiful Day; songs related to peace; Cold Play's Paradise; Christmas carols; Christmas carols II; Tracy Chapman's Fast Car; Gotye's Somebody That I Used To Know; Happy Birthday songs.

Love is in the air... Love and expressions related to love

Well, folks, want it or not, St. Valentine's Day is about to arrive in town! Last year, I devoted two entries to this lovely festivity: one related to different ways to address your soulmate; and another one related to the history of St. Valentine. 
This year, I thought it might be a good idea to revise your vocab related to relationships! So, I'll be delving into some expressions that you can use when talking about relationships.

Expressions related to the beginning of a relationship



- Woo/court someone (=be courteous so to persuade that person to go out with you)
- Ask someone out (for a date)
- To strike up a relationship (=to begin)
-To be in a relationship
- I'm dating someone / I'm seeing someone/ I'm going out with someone 
- Have a blind date with someone you don't know / go on a date with someone
- Fall in love with someone / fall for someone / fancy someone / have a crush on someone.
- Flirt with someone / chat someone up (=when you try to find a partner). When you flirt with someone, you may be looking for a hook up / one night stand (nothing so serious) or for a steady relationship. If you are good at flirting with others you are considered to be a heart-breaker / a Romeo / a Casanova
- It was love at first sight.
- You can fall heads over heels in love (=love someone very ardently)

If you are interesting in passing to the next level (wedding, I mean), do not miss my entry on wedding vocab!

Expressions of love


- You can kiss your partner passionately
- You can hug each other / you can embrace someone
- You can cuddle someone
- You get along (=get on well)
- You can get on like a house on fire (=very well)
- You can hit it off (=become very good friends quickly)
- You can cheer someone up / you can cherish someone

Problems in a relationship

- You can argue / have a big argument / bicker over something
- You can have a big row/ quarrel
- You can fall out with your beloved (=argue and stop talking to her/him)
- You can fight like cat and dog.
- To break the other's heart (=to deeply disappoint someone)

Expressions related to the end of a relationship


They broke up / they split up
She dumped him only to find another man. 
A smooth breakup vs. a rough breakup
Get over a breakup
If you don't love the other person, it is better to end the relationship.
After breaking up with someone, that person becomes your ex.
We couldn't make sense













Well, do you have a Valentine to cherish this year? Have you got any interesting plans for next Wednesday? I hope so. Anyway, if you are into songs and want to practise your English over a song dealing with relationships, click on the link. 
I hope you have a great St. Valentine's day!

Give me some plurals

Hello there! 
I'm preparing some students to pass their public exams for them to become teachers of English and right now one of my tasks is to explain the topic of the expression of quantity to them. Within the contents of this theme, we find plurals and although plurals in English are not particularly troublesome, there are some irregular plurals that will make you sweat (fortunately, most of them are not widely used). This is why I devoted this entry to another English quirk, plurals and, more precisely, irregular plurals. Let's just get started:

Regular plurals

·     In English, plural is inflected by adding –s to a given noun. Adjectives do not have plural form in English

One cat à Two cats

However, there are some spelling variants and exceptions to this rule.

a) After sibilant consonants, -es is added. Sibilant consonants are represented by the spellings : <s>, <ss>, <z>, <x>, <sh>, <ch>

Gasà gases

Glassàglasses

Buzz à buzzes

Boxà Boxes

Watch à Watches

Dish à dishes

b) After nouns ending in –o, normally –es is added. However, there are some exceptions.

Potatoà Potatoes

Tomato à Tomatoes

Volcanoà Volcanoes

*Radio à Radios

*Piano à Pianos

* Buffalo à Buffalos / Buffaloes

c) After nouns ending in –f/-fe, the f is changed into v, and then –es is added (if it doesn’t already finish in –e). There are some exceptions:

Knife à Knives

Leaf à Leaves

*Dwarfà Dwarves / dwarfs

* Belief à Beliefs

*Roof à Roofs

d) When a verb finishes in –y preceded by a consonant, the <y> is changed into <i> and then –es is added

Studyàstudies

Fly à flies

* If the –y is preceded by a vowel, it doesn’t change and only –s is added

Boy à Boys

e) The final consonant is doubled in a few plurals

Quiz à quizzes

Irregular plurals

 

a) Plurals formed by mutation

Tooth à teeth

Foot à feet

Goose à geese

Man à men

Woman à women

Dormouse à dormice

Mouse à mice

Louse à lice

Die à dice

Penny à pence

Person à people

b) The –en plural from Old English

Brother à brethren

Child à children

Ox à oxen

c) Zero plurals

Fish à fish

Trout à trout

Sheep à sheep

Salmon à salmon

Cod à cod

Deer à deer

Reindeer à reindeer

Aircraft à aircraft

Means à means

News à news

Series à series

*Words ending in –ics

Aerobics à aerobics

Irregular plurals from other languages

Loanwords have left their print on the English language.

a) Latin

- Masculines finished in –us make the plural in –i :Alumnus à alumni; fungus à fungi;  stimulus à stimuli

- Feminines finished in –a make the plural in –ae : Alumna à alumnae; antennaà antennae; algaà algae;

- Neutral nouns finished in –um make the plural in –a : Curriculum à curricula; conundrum à conundra; medium à media

- Neutral nouns finished in –us make the plural in –ora : Corpus à Corpora; genusà genera

- Nouns finished in –ex make the  plural in –ices : Indexà indices; matrix—Z matrices

*Sometimes, there are two variants: mediums (the person who speaks to the spirits); media (the press and other means of communication); indexes/ indices; matrixes/matrices.

b) Greek

- Words finished in –is make the plural in –es: hypothesis à hypotheses; thesisà theses; crisisà crises

- Neutral words finished in –on make the plural in –a : Criterionà criteria; phenomenon à phenomena

- Other irregular plurals from Greek: Enigma à enigmas / enigmata

                                                              Schema à schemas / schemata

c) French

- Words finished in –s are invariable:  pas à pas; corps à corps

- Some words finished in –au make the plural with x: plateau à plateau; beauà beaux. Sometimes is not quite clear: bureaus / bureaux

d) Italian

- Some words ending in –o make the plural in –i : tempoà tempi;   libretto à libretti (librettos), with some exceptions : piano à pianos

e) Hebrew

- Some words are pluralized by adding –im: kibbutz à kibbutzim

Well, you can't deny that plurals in English are, at least, interesting, don't you think?
See you around