Abbreviations and initials

Long time not see (or LTNS) !
Yap ! I've been quite busy and I hadn't written a post for a long time, so this is the perfect time to resume my writing so that my English doesn't get rustier. Anyway, the topic I have chosen this time is 'abbreviations.' Have you ever wondered what some words with initials stand for ? This is definitely your post ! In addition, you will be able to see the differences between Spanish and English. 
As in any other language, we use abbreviations because we feel the need of economising with language, and English has a wide range of really interesting abbreviations. Do you know some of them ? I bet so, but let's see if I get you to learn some new ones :

From : https://expertmediatraining.com/acronyms-and-abbreviations-in-media-interviews-and-speeches/

Abbreviations for texting 
Want it or not, new technologies have broken into our world, with their advantages and disadvantages. They have also brought some interesting languages and expressions. Can you guess them ?
b = be                        h8 = hate
c = see                       l8 = late
u = you                      ASAP  = as soon as possible
y = why                      r = are
2 = to, two, too           tbh = to be honest
bf = boyfriend            bff = best friends forever
gf = girlfriend             tmi = too much information
b4 = before                @ = at
btw = by the way       KIT = keep in touch
LOL = laughing out loud
OMG = Oh my god / Oh my gosh / Oh my goodness

Other common abbreviations
e.g. = Exemplum Gratia = for example
i. e. = Id Est = in other words. 
aka = Also Known As 
FAQ = Frequently Asked Questions.
D.J. = Disc Jockey.
P. S. = Post Script 
FBI = Federal Bureau of Investigation
ETA = Estimated Time of Arrival
MIA = Missing in Action
PC = Personal Computer
RIP = Requiescat in Pace = Rest in Peace
TBA = To Be Announced
ATM = Automatic Teller Machine = cash machine.
UFO = Unidentified Flying Object
AIDS = Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome
WWW = World Wide Web
DNA = Deoxyribonucleic Acid
NGO = Non Governmental Organization.
Laser = Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation.
CD = Compact Disc
US / USA = United States (of America)
TGIF = Thank God It's Friday

Well, did you like the abbreviations ? I hope so. In my next entry I will upload some exercises about this. BFN (bye for now).

Songs in the Classroom : It's a Beautiful Day

Oh man ! It's pouring with rain ! But we have to be optimistic and think that it is a beautiful day today.  Indeed ! Now, it's time for singing ! What better option than completing this song by Michael Bublé with modal verbs and then try to identify the meaning of the phrasal verbs in bold ?:
Click on the first video and try to do the exercise. Then click on the second video to check your answers. Good luck ! 

1. Complete the song with modal verb :
2. Try to infer the meaning of the phrasal verbs in bold. The answers are below.
3. Correct the conditional underlined in the penultimate stanza.

"It's A Beautiful Day"

I don't know why

You think that you __________ (1) hold me.

When you ____________ (2)  get by by yourself

And I don't know who

Would ever want to tear the seam of someone's dream.

Baby, it's fine, you said that we _________ (3)  just be friends.

Well, I came up with that line and I'm sure

That it's for the best

If you ever change your mind, don't hold your breath.

'Cause you __________ (4)  not believe, mmm mmm mmm

That baby, I'm relieved, mmm

When you said goodbye, my whole world shined.

Hey hey hey

It's a beautiful day and I _______ (5)  stop myself from smiling

If we're drinking, then I'm buying

And I know there's no denying.

It's a beautiful day, the sun is up, the music's playing

And even if it started raining

You won't hear this boy complaining

'Cause I'm glad that you're the one who got away.

It's a beautiful day.

It's my turn to fly, so girls, get in line

'Cause I'm easy, no playing this guy like a fool.

Now I'm alright

________ (6) 've had me caged before, but not tonight.

And you ______ (7) not believe, mmm mmm

That baby, I'm relieved

This fire inside, it burns too bright

I don't want to say "so long," I just want to say "goodbye."

It's a beautiful day and I ________ stop myself from smiling

If we're drinking, then I'm buying

And I know there's no denying.

It's a beautiful day, the sun is up, the music's playing

And even if it started raining

You won't hear this boy complaining

'Cause I'm glad that you're the one who got away, mmm mmm

'Cause if you ever think I'll take up

My time with thinking of our break-up

Then you've got another thing coming your way

'Cause it's a beautiful day, mmm mmm.

Beautiful day, oh, baby, any day that you're gone away.

It's a beautiful day.

Answers to exercises 2 and 3:
a) Get by = manage to do something; do something with a bit of effort and struggle. e.g. 'a lot of families get by with just 500 euros a month.'

b) Come up with : Find and suggest and idea, as you can see in the sentence : 'after some time thinking, he came up with the best idea to save him company from bankruptcy.'

c) Get away : Escape. 'The police couldn't catch the burglar. He got away.'

d) Take up : This context is negative. It means to 'occupy' or in a wider sense, 'to lose', as in 'don't worry. I don't want to take up your time and bother you.'

e) Break up : Split up with someone; end a relationship; finish a relationship with someone. 'My girlfriend broke up with me yesterday and I'm really sad.'

f) Go away : 'Leave', 'go far'. It is clear in the sentence. 'Go away, I don't ever want to see you again.'

The conditional can be corrected in two ways : 
a) Even if it starts raining, you won't hear this boy complaining (conditional 1)
b) Even if it started raining, you wouldn't hear this boy complaining (conditional 2)

Did you like this extremely positive song ? I hope so. Remember, if you want to keep practising with songs, you can click on the following links: songs about peace; Paradise; Christmas carols; Fast Car;  Somebody I Used to Know.

Homophony : how can you distinguish these words ?

High ! Wooops, it is not this word, I meant 'hi !' Why did I make such a terrible mistake ? Well, it is clear. 'High' and 'hi' are pronounced in the same way, although they are written differently and have different meanings. How is that possible ? They are homophones, of course ! Homophony is an English quirk that I had anticipated in a previous post. There are hundreds and hundreds of homophones in the English language and homophony more often than not leads to confusion, especially for Spanish speakers. There are some homophones in Spanish like 'vaca' and 'baca', but just few of them.

Here you have some example of the most famous homophones :
a) son - sun
b) hear - here
c) write - right
d) one - won
e) eight - ate
f) hi- high
g) buy - by - bye
h) sent - cent- scent
i) blew - blue
j) steal - steel
k) sea - see

Let's continue with some more quirks about homophones. Native speakers find confusing some homophones that non-native speakers usually distinguish (since they study this grammar at school over and over again) :
- Whose vs. who's (who is)
- their vs. there vs. they're (they are) 
- would have vs. would of (the latter is obviously grammatically incorrect but it sounds the same).

There are some surprisingly incredible homophones like 'island' - 'Ireland' where you can make funny sentences like 'Ireland is an island'. In fact, these homophones are only homophones is British English, given that in America the 'r' is 'Ireland' would be pronounced.

- There is a pair of homophones which means the same thing. This pair is 'gaol' (British) and 'jail' (American), both pronounced [ʤeɪl].

- Homophones can form funny ambiguous sentences like 'I love this [flaʊə]'. This sentence can mean : a) I love this flower; b) I love this flour.

From : http://www.clipartpanda.com/categories/flower-clipart

From : http://www.wisegeek.org/what-is-graham-flour.htm

Another example of this is : 'I like the dog's [teɪl]. This sentence can mean : a) 'I like the dog's tail'  or  b) 'I like the dog's tale.' 

To conclude this post, I would like to propose you an exercise about homophones. I am warning you, some of them are really daunting and challenging and will drive you crazy, so think carefully before answering. You can find the answers down below.

1. The words in bold are incorrect. Correct them for their appropriate homophone.

a) My sun is playing football outside.

b) “The Big Bang Theory” is my favourite TV cereal.

c) If some animal crosses the road abruptly while you are driving, do not press the break, simply loose the accelerator.

d) I live in island. I love its music, animals and symbols!

e) He is working for the marine core.

f) I like the fable of the turtle and the hair.

g) I told her a very good complement to flirt with her but it didn’t work.

h) Look write before you cross the road.

i) I had a Grecian earn on my chimney. It’s beautiful there!

j) Before getting on the bus, you need to pay the fair.

k) Your marks will be posted on the bored.

l) She is my favourite actress. I want to meat  her.

m) This racket is not made of wood. It’s made of steal.

n) In this factory, they used to make flower.

o) I like the tail of Little Red Riding Hood.

p) How much does it way? Ten pounds.

q) Weight for me at the airport.

Answers : a) son b) serial c) brake d) Ireland e) corps f) hare g) compliment h) right i) urn j) fare k) board l) meet m) steel n) flour o) tale p) weigh q) wait.

Did you enjoy my selection of homophones. I hope 'sew' (ups, rather, 'so'). As usual, you can contribute to my blog with your comments ! Please do.

Buy ! Sea ewe ! 

April Fools' Day : Let's pull some pranks and spread some hoaxes !

"April Fools ! " Should you hear these words, it means two things : 1) it is April, 1st; 2) someone has just pulled a prank on you ! Why ? It's April Fools' Day. On this day, people pull pranks and spread rumours and hoaxes. The media also invent some fake -flabbergasting - news and some people usually fall for them or buy them! Yeah! This is similar to Spain's Innocents' Day (28th December). This day goes back to the year 1957, where the BBC broadcast people picking spaghetti from plants. The audience thought it all was true and phoned the station to buy these plants ! Here you can watch it in the video : 

1. Now I will propose you a little game. I will enumerate five 'news items' and you will have to decide which one of them is TRUE! Four of them will be hoaxes. Ready ?

a)  UFO lands in London

From : http://hoaxes.org/af_database/permalink/ufo_lands_near_london

b) Queen Elizabeth sent her first email in 1976

From : http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-34185586

c) A new species of penguins that can fly have been discovered 

d) Big Ben will go digital in 2020

From : https://currentopinionsofnews.wordpress.com/2014/02/16/big-ben-to-go-digital/

e) Mummified fairy discovered ! 

From : https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/lebanoncircle/the-derbyshire-mummified-fairy-ooak-kit-and-dvd-wo

Answers: Only one of the news is true. Which one? Well, letter b, indeed, surprising though it may sound ! If you want to see some of the most famous hoaxes of all time, click on this link.

2. Now let's learn some vocabulary for this day, related to tricks :

- Tell jokes / crack jokes = 'contar chistes'

- Trick someone / deceive someone / fool someone = engañar a alguien

- Play tricks on someone / pull pranks on someone = gastarle bromas a alguien

- Fall into a trap = 'caer en la trampa'

- Take the bait = 'picar el anzuelo'

- I don't buy it / I haven't fallen for it = 'no me lo trago' / 'no me lo creo'.

- He is a prankster / joker / jester / quipster = 'Él es un bromista.'

- April Fools ! = '¡ Inocente !' 

- April Fool pranks = 'inocentadas.'

- Spread a hoax = 'extender un rumor.'

3. To finish with, if you are much of a prankster, here you have a compilation of some interesting pranks of April Fool's Day. 

4. This video will prompt you to pull pranks on others. I hope you never put these "inspiring" ideas into practice.

I hope you have learnt a lot about April Fools' Day. Which is your favourite prank ? Post it on a comment !