Ouch ! These idioms really hurt !

Hiya ! 

How's your weekend going ? I hope OK. Today I have prepared a selection of idioms. Last time, I prepared some idioms about food, but this time I have something special in mind: some idioms about violence. Yap! You heard right: in the English language there are plenty of idioms of violence. Are you ready to receive this punch (he he) or rather bunch of idioms? Let's begin:

- To kill to birds with a stone (my favourite one): to solve two problems at a time with one single action. E.g. 'I have to go out to buy bread. If you want, I can also take your clothes from the cleaner's. I will kill two birds with a stone'. 

- To hit the books: To study hard. 'I have to hit the books this week. We have a lot of exams'. 

- To kick the bucket: To die or pass away (really informal expression), for example, 'the old man kicked the bucket last week and all the family are eagerly waiting to see his last will.'

- To shoot oneself in the foot: To do something that will bring you problems to yourself, for instance, 'he had a lot of things to do that afternoon, but he promised to help his neighbour as well. As a result, he went to sleep really late. He shot himself in the foot.'

- To beat the gun/the clock: To do something before the end signal. E.g. 'in the race, John wanted to beat the gun, but he didn't make it. He was second. 

- To fight like cat and dog: When two people (usually enemies) argue together all the time, as in the sentence: 'Peter and Jimmy can't stand each other. Every time they're together, they fight like cat and dog.'

- To be up in arms: To become angry or to rebel against something or someone, for example, 'everybody in the class was up in arms when the teacher set up the exam for a Friday, just when they already have four exams.'

- To fight tooth and nail: To make a huge effort to achieve something, as can be seen in the utterance: 'I'm going to fight tooth and nail to get an A in all the subjects this course, but it's going to be hard.'

- Break a leg: To wish someone good luck (specially said to actors and actresses before their performance in a theatre play): 'Tomorrow it's the great day. Break a leg.'

Did you enjoy the idioms ? Can you think of more violent idioms ? To end this post I will post some material related to arms and violence. The first one is one of my favourite songs by Green Day: 21 Guns (see video). The second one is an article reigniting the debate on whether police officers should carry guns while in service. The last one is an article about the right to bear to bear arms in bars and restaurants in America. Have a look at all the links provided and, who knows ?, maybe you'll kill two birds with a stone: you will enjoy yourself and will learn English at the same time. 

See you around.

The English language: a melting pot of different languages

Where do English words come from? As the title suggests, English receives influence from a great deal of languages. In the same way that - as seen in the picture above- America is a melting pot of different cultures, English is a melting pot of different languages.  In this post, I will try to show you some of the languages that deeply influenced the English language and I will try to exemplify it with English words.

First of all, one of the main influences English had was French. In the 11th Century, Edward the Conqueror – who was French - became king. As a result, many French words started to appear in English language. We, as speakers, use these words without realizing they have a French origin. French words influenced started to enter the English language. At some point both the English and the French words managed to coexist, but in different contexts and registers. In this link, you can see more clearly the influence of French in the English language and viceversa, and also the influence of Spanish.  In general, French words are used in more learned formal contexts. For example, the French words have specialized to deal with the meat of animals, whereas the English words depict the animals themselves. Here is a list for you to see what I mean more clearly. 

ENGLISH WORDS	WORDS WITH FRENCH ORIGIN
Pig	Pork (French: ‘porc’)
Deer	Venison (French: ‘venaison’)
Sheep	Mutton (French ‘mouton’)
Ox	Beef (French ‘boeuf’)
Calf	Veal
Motion	Movement
Front of building	Facade  (French ‘façade’)
Feature	Characteristic (French: ‘characteristique’)
Large, splendid	Grand
Character / VIP	Personage
Naivety	Naiveté
Trip	Journey (French ‘journée’)
Trade	Commerce
Underwear	Lingerie
Curriculum (Latin origin)	Résumé
Newspaper	Journal

Moreover, Latin has also influenced English. The influence in Latin is vast, frequently causing the English language to resemble Spanish. Here you have a list of Latin words. My advice is to use Latin words with caution and merely in formal contexts, the English words being far more common:

ENGLISH WORDS	LATIN WORDS
Student	Alumnus (pl. ‘alumni’)
Moon	Lunar (Latin: ‘luna’)
Sun	Solar (Latin: ‘sol’)
Life	Vital (Latin: ‘vita’)
Speed	Rapidity (Latin: ‘rapidus’)/ velocity (Latin: ‘velox’)
Aerial	Antenna (Latin: ‘antenna’)
Marriage	Matrimony (Latin: ‘matrimonium’)
Sell	Vend (Latin: ‘vendere’)
Undefeatable	Invincible (Latin ‘vincere’)
Unreadable	Illegible (Latin: ‘leggere’)
Unbelievable	Incredible (Latin: ‘credere’)
End	Finish/terminate (Latin: ‘finis’/’terminus’)
Start/begin	Initiate (Latin: ‘inicio’)
Unavoidable	Inevitable (Latin: ‘evitare’)
True	Veritable (Latin: ‘veritas’)
Channel	Canal (Latin: ‘canalis’)
Hundred	Century (Latin: ‘centum’)
Head	Capital (Latin: ‘caput’)
Do	Fact (Latin: ‘faccio’)
Keep/carry on	Continue/proceed (Latin: ‘continuare’/ ‘procedere’)
Husband / wife	Spouse (Latin: ‘spondeo’)
Build	Construct (Latin: ‘construo’)
Answer	Respond (Latin: ‘respondere’

English also receives influence from Spanish. Even though some Spaniards find it difficult to speak English, Spanish seems to leave a mark among English speakers. Here you have a list of Spanish words that have successfully entered the English language:

ENGLISH WORDS	SPANISH WORDS EXISTING IN ENGLISH
Nap	Siesta
Party	Fiesta
Canteen	Cafeteria
Coffee shop	Café
Watcher	Vigilante
Alone	Solo
Donkey	Burro
Courtyard	Patio
Friend	Amigo
Village	Pueblo

There are other languages influencing English such as Italian (‘piano’, ‘tempo’…), Greek (‘philosophy’, ‘telephone’, ‘criterion’), Hebrew (‘kibbutz’), but I will speak about them in another post. As you see, the English language is unique but it also borrows a lot of words from other languages, and has a decisive influence over countless languages throughout the world. This is what makes the English language the most generous language of all, don’t you think ?

Give me some homographs

Are you familiar with homographs ? They are words spelt the same but with different meanings. Among them, there are some words which, in addition to having different meaning and the same spelling, they are pronounced differently.  Yes, you have heard right. Homographs are but one of the countless quirks of English ! Here I bring you a small selection of them:

1. Read [ri:d] : Infinitive (to watch at written material). 

    Read [red]: The past and participle of the verb 'read'.  

   E.g. I usually read [ri:d] adventure novels but last week I read [red] a romantic novel and I loved it. 

2. Wind [wɪnd]: Air in motion.

    Wind [waɪnd]: To take a curving direction.

    E. g. The wind [wɪnd] blows hard just where the road winds [waɪndz]. 

3. Wound [waʊnd]: The past and participle of the verb 'wind' 

    Wound [wʊnd]: An injury or to inflict an injury.
E.g. He had wound [waʊnd] some wire and he got a small wound [wʊnd] as a result.

4. Minute ['mɪnɪt]: 60 seconds.

    Minute [maɪ'nju:t]: Very small, either in size or in importance.

 E.g. After thinking for a minute ['mɪnɪt],he realized that was but minute [maɪ'nju:t] problem. 

5. Row [rəʊ] (British) or [roʊ] (American): A line of seats or people, or move a boat in a      river using some sticks. 
    Row [raʊ]: An noisy argument.
E.g. In the front rows [rəʊz] of the theatre there was a big row [raʊ] because of the seats  assigned. 

6. Bow [bəʊ] (British) or [boʊ] (American): The tool or gadget to shoot arrows.

    Bow [raʊ]: To bend your body to greet someone showing respect and courtesy.
    E.g. Robin Hood used to bow [baʊ] his enemies before using his bow [bəʊ].

7. Polish ['pəʊlɪʃ] (British)  ['poʊlɪʃ]: A thing or person from Poland. 

    Polish ['pɒlɪʃ]: To make something smoother by rubbing it. 

    E.g. The Polish ['pəʊlɪʃ] guy polished ['pɒlɪʃt]my nails perfectly well.

8. Tear [tɪə] (British) [tɪɚ] (American): Drops of water emerging from your eyes when you   cry or weep.
   Tear [teə] (British) [teɚ] (American): To pull something apart into pieces by force.

    E.g. You'll burst into tears [tɪəz] when I tear [teə] your skin.

9. Dove [d˄v]: A bird of the pigeon family.

    Dove [doʊv] (American): The American irregular past of the verb 'dive'.

    E.g. The man dove [doʊv] into the water to save the dove [d˄v].

10. Live [lɪv]: To inhabit or dwell in a place. 

      Live [laɪv]: Something happening at the moment in front of people. 

      E.g. Today, we will be able to see how beggars live [lɪv] in the street on live [laɪv] TV.

11. Lives [lɪvz]: Third person singular of the verb 'live' (inhabit or dwell).

     Lives [laɪvz]: The plural of 'life', the period or amount of time of living existence of an individual

     E.g. My cat lives [lɪvz] a happy live and much more in we take into account that cats are said to have nine lives [laɪvz].

12. Stress shifts: Some homographs simply change the stress depending on whether they are nouns or verbs. Here you have some examples:

NOUNS	VERBS
Subject [‘s˄bʤəkt]	Subject [səb’ʤekt]
Research [‘rɪs3:ʧ]	Research [rɪ’s3:ʧ
Import [‘ɪmpɔ:t]	Import [ɪm’pɔ:t]
Conduct [kɒnd˄kt]	Conduct [kən’d˄kt]

Well, did you enjoy these homographs ? As you have seen, homographs make English even a more special language. Feel free to comment !