National Hamburger Day

Hello folks,

Today is a really special day, or so they think in the US. As you might be aware, celebrating something every day has become a preposterous tradition: Mother's Day, Father's Day, Black Friday, and the list just goes on and on. This tradition has culminated by having a National Hamburger Day, which happens to be today. Well, as you know hamburgers have become quintessential in American cuisine. No matter where you go, you'll always find a place nearby where you can grab this mouth-watering, yet unhealthy meal. But what is the story behind this well-known meal? 

Well, as you know, burger is a clipping from hamburger. Its origin is unclear given that all the countries want to take credit for this yummy invention, but, apparently, hamburgers are the result of immigration. Some German immigrants introduced it in the United States (in its origin called Hamburg steak, named after the city of Hamburg). How did the Americans contribute to the invention? Well, a cook would have come up with the idea of serving patties (the minced meat of burgers compacter together as seen in the photo) between to buns of bread in a fair in 1904 and from that day on, they started selling like hot cakes ! How clever! 

Now that you know about the origin, let's learn some figures about hamburgers:

- It is estimated that McDonalds sells a 75 burgers each second! Wow! 

- 60% of the sandwiches in the world are actually burgers

- Americans eat an average of 50 billion of burgers per year.

- Today there are countless types of burgers including veggie burgers. Most of them have a name (and tons of fat).

Well, in order to know more about hamburgers and National Hamburger Day, here you have two very interesting videos. See you around.

A: a letter that can create adverbs in English

Hiya!
Today I'd like to write a post about yet another English quirk (yap, after almost three years of blog I keep finding English quirks). Today's English quirk is one that I've been meaning to write about for some time: adverbs beginning with a-. Yes, strange enough English has quite an outstanding flexibility to create adverbs by adding the prefix a- to other words. 
Let's see how this works:
The prefix a- has been appended to many current everyday words, creating words that are constantly used (even though we don't realize that they consist of a prefix). Here you have some examples:


a + loud = aloud: Loudly
a + like = alike : Differently
a + part = apart : Separated
a + head = ahead : In front
a + side = aside : Separated
a + board = aboard : Onboard
a+ broad = abroad : Outside your homeland
a + cross = across : Crossing
a + way = away : In another direction, far
a + gain = again : One more time

However, the prefix 'a' is most cases is a bit old-fashioned and remains a bit stilted or literary (appearing in books and literature). These uses are not common in everyday English: 

a + drift = adrift : Without direction in the water.
a + back = aback : Directed to the back.
a + loft = aloft / a + top = atop : Directed to the top.
a + jar = ajar: slightly open.
a + kin = akin: Similar.
a + float = afloat : The opposite of sinking.. 
a + miss = amiss: Inappropriately.
a + new = anew  / a + fresh = afresh: Again.
a + pace = apace : Rapidly.
a + piece = apiece : To each other.
a + stern = astern : Nautical term for behind.
a + stride = astride : Opening the legs.
a + while = awhile : For a short time.
a + bed = abed : In bed.
a + shore = ashore : Onto the shore.
a+ breast = abreast : Side by side.
a + far = afar : From far away.
a+ field = afield : In the field.
a + foot = afoot : On foot.

Apart from this, the prefix a- can be a negative prefix but it is not so common in English, appearing in words like asocial, acellular, or atonal, amoral, achromatic,...

Well, what do you think of this English quirk? Even though it is not a striking one, pay attention to it, specially if you're reading literature! 
See you around. 

Grammaring with English: my webpage to practise your grammar autonomously

Hello there,

I hope you keep practising your English! Remember last week I shared with you my webpage for you to practise your listening autonomously: Listen 2 English. Today, I'd like to share with you the other webpage I created for you to improve your grammar online: Grammaring with English. This webpage is a compilation of online exercises, videos and Word documents that will put your grammar knowledge to a test, depending on your English level. Click on the link and enjoy it! 

GRAMMARING WITH ENGLISH (by Miguel Ángel Herrero Álvarez) 

Listen 2 English: my new webpage for you to practise your listening skill

Hello all,

I've been taking several online courses in Madrid lately and now that I'm about to finish them (at last!), I want to share with you the result of my hard work. 

What I did was create a webpage for you to practise your listening autonomously according to the levels in the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (A1, A2, B1, B2, C1 and C2). I have uploaded some self-correctable exercises and I will be uploading more as soon as I get more time.

The page is divided into six different sub-pages: "Inicio", where you have the address to my blogs, and some webpages for you to keep improving your English, and the levels of the Common European Framework of References, with exercises so that you can test your English listening skill. I have included videos of different topics, including songs, and excerpts from various TV series and even movies. 

Have a look at it and tell me what you think.

I'll add it to the list of interesting webpages on this blog (on the right-hand side at the bottom). Please, click on the link and give me your real opinion about this webpage. 

LISTEN 2 ENGLISH (by Miguel Ángel Herrero Álvarez).

Next week, I will be showing some other contents that I've been creating recently.

See you around.