Students often ask me the difference between ‘everyday’ and ‘every day’. They both sound the same, so when do we need to put a space between the two words? ‘Everyday’ is an adjective and doesn’t need a space. E.g. He gets up at five in the morning as part of his everyday …
There was another food-related article on the BBC news today. A worker in a chocolate factory died when when he fell into a giant mixing tub full of chocolate. Maybe if it had been the hot dog man from yesterday, he could have survived by eating his way out! Some interesting words from this article …
There was a funny article on the BBC news a couple of weeks ago about the world hot dog-eating champion. He managed to eat 68 hot dogs. I think the most I could ever manage would be three bit I’m sure it would make me feel really sick! There is an interesting expression in the …
I love mornings here in Bali because they are so beautiful. Some people call it ‘the morning of the world’ because it is so spectacular! I have not always been an early riser, though. In fact, I used to be a real night owl until a few years ago. I saw this blog entry a …
There was a really interesting audio slideshow on the BBC news site today with the title ‘Quacks and Cures’. What is a ‘quack’ though? In the slideshow, the presenter talks about ‘quacks’ as a mixture of a showman selling some kind of medical treatment. In modern English, we usually use the word in a slightly …
I love trying different kinds of local fruit when I travel. Here in Indonesia, we have some really interesting varieties of fruit. I think the most unusual to a foreigner are durian and mangosteen. I was pleased to see this article on the BBC website yesterday because I have fond memories of making jokes about …
I saw this interesting article on Al Jazeera news today and this piece of vocabulary caught my attention: Bouillard said the search for the flight recorders, or “black boxes“, from the Airbus A330-200 aircraft would continue until July 10. (Al Jazeera News) I think the meaning of ‘black box‘ is fairly clear here. It is …
Scorpions are the only animals I’m afraid of. I really can’t stand them. That’s why I was shocked to see this article in the news today. The customs officers must have been very surprised! There’s an interesting phrase in the article, too. One of the customs officers is quoted as saying: “This time we had …