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Many of my students get confused between the words “shop”, “store” and “restaurant”, so I would like to go over that in my blog today.

Generally speaking, a “shop” and a “store” are places where you go to buy something. The difference is that a “shop” is usually quite small, and a “store” is big. On the other hand, a “restaurant” is a place where you go to eat something. Even if it’s for cheap food like hamburgers or chicken, we still call it a restaurant but, in that case, it will be called a “fast food restaurant”. Let me give you some examples:

I bought this necklace in a cute little shop near my house.

Is there a shop around here where I can buy some cigarettes?

ABC Limited is my favorite clothing store. They always have a good selection of the latest fashions.

XYZ Company is a huge chain of electronic goods stores. There are many locations all over the country.

I like to go to this cozy little Italian restaurant in Shinjuku with my girlfriend. It’s very romantic.

A: Would you like to go to the French restaurant for dinner tonight?

B: Actually I don’t have much time. Let’s just go to a fast food restaurant instead.

I don’t usually eat at fast food restaurants because it’s not very healthy.

There are some exceptions where we can refer to a restaurant as a “shop”. They are a  “pizza shop” and an “ice cream shop”.

In Japan, people often say “sushi shop”, but instead they should say “sushi bar” or “sushi restaurant”. A “sushi shop” is a small store usually on the street where people can buy sushi, but they don’t stay there to eat it.

Some people get confused between the meanings of “realize” and “understand”, so I’m going to write about that today.

In English, we use the word “realize” when we think about something that is confusing for us and then suddenly know its true meaning. We can also use “realize” when we suddenly discover the reality of a situation that we didn’t know before because something happens to make us understand it.

We use “understand” when we can comprehend information or a situation. For example:

After I thought about it for a long time, I realized I would have to get an education if I wanted to be successful in life.

I didn’t realize that restaurant was so popular until my friend and I went there. We had to wait 45 minutes to get a table!

I realized that I had left my cell phone at home when I put my hand in my pocket.

I first realized how hard it is to speak another language when I took a Spanish class about five years ago.

I understand why Jim is so angry about not getting a promotion because the same thing happened to me.

I didn’t understand the meaning of that word, so I looked it up in a dictionary.

I understand philosophy because it was my major at university.

A: Do you understand what Carol is talking about?

B: No, she’s always talking about science, so it’s over my head.

So, with the examples for “realize” we use that word because the person comes to know the reality of the situation because they think about it for a long time, they go to the restaurant and see that it’s popular, they feel their cell phone is not in their pocket and they take a Spanish class and have a hard time with it.

In the last example for “understand” I use the idiom to be “over someone’s head”. I wrote about this idiom before, but if you don’t remember the meaning, you can check my blog entry for March 28, 2010.