grammatical word: fluke

{ October 12, 2010 @ 12:57 am } · { grammatical word }
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Today, I would like to teach you a commonly used noun in the English language: “fluke”. It is used when we want to talk about being successful at something just from being lucky. For example:

When I was playing pool, I sank two balls in one shot, but it was just a fluke.

I made dinner for my friends last night, but I didn’t use a recipe. Usually when I do that, the food isn’t so good, but this time it turned out well. It was a total fluke.

A: How did Ryan manage to score the winning goal in the soccer game?

B: I think it was a fluke. He’s usually not such a good player.

So, as you can see, we use the word “fluke” with the verb “be” in the past tense – “was”. We often use it when talking about ourselves or other people who are not present, but it’s not polite to say directly to another person that the reason for their success was because it was a fluke. This word is usually used in casual conversations.

the difference between words: on, in, at and for + time

{ October 11, 2010 @ 12:33 am } · { the difference between words }
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The prepositions “on”, “in”, “at” and “for” can be used in many ways depending on the situation. In  my blog entry today, I would like to go over the difference between these words when it comes to talking about time.

The preposition “on” is used when talking about days or dates. For example:

I have to work on Monday, so I can’t stay out late on Sunday night.

I like to go to a temple on New Year’s Day and pray for health and happiness.

My birthday is on April 14th.

The preposition “in” is used when talking about months and years. For example:

I always take a vacation in August.

My company was founded in 1982.

The preposition “at” is used when talking about time. For example:

The meeting will start at 2:30 p.m.

I’ll meet you at the restaurant at 7:00. Is that ok with you?

The preposition “for” is used when making plans or reservations for a future event. For example:

I’d like to make a reservation for October 19th please. Do you have a single room available  then?

I booked the meeting room for 3:00.

Please arrange a meeting with the design team for 10:00 a.m. tomorrow.

The use of the word “for” is a little confusing for some people but, as I said before, it’s used to talk about a future time when making arrangements for a future event. So, today is Monday October 11th. Let’s say I call a restaurant today and make a reservation. The day of the dinner will be Friday October 15th. In this situation I would say:

I made a reservation on October 11th for October 15th.

However, we only use “for” when making reservations or arrangements. When we talk about the actual event, we use “on” again. For example:

The reservation is for October 15th.

The dinner will take place on October 15th.

I hope this is clear. I know prepositions can be very difficult, so the best way to learn them is just to memorize them within the context of a full sentence.

idiom: to rub someone the wrong way

{ October 10, 2010 @ 1:09 am } · { idioms }
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I’m sure you’ve all had the experience of meeting someone for the first time and not liking the person because they say or do something which annoys you. In that situation, you can use today’s idiom: to “rub someone the wrong way”. This is used when talking about people that we don’t like. When giving the reason we don’t like them, we can use this expression. For example:

I don’t like my new co-worker. I don’t know why, but he just rubs me the wrong way.

There’s a new student in my class, and the others don’t like him very much. He really rubbed them the wrong way when he started asking them really personal questions.

Tracy has a very aggressive personality, and she can really rub people the wrong way. I’ve tried to explain that to her, but she doesn’t listen to me.

Ian is always talking about sex, and he can really rub some people the wrong way because of it.

So, with this expression, we can only use it about ourselves or other people, but we don’t use it when speaking directly to someone. Therefore, we DON’T say, “You rub me the wrong way.” It would be very rude to say that, and it also sounds a little unnatural.

intransitive phrasal verb: pan out

{ October 8, 2010 @ 2:11 am } · { phrasal verbs }
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This week’s phrasal verb is “pan out”. Unlike many phrasal verbs, it has only one meaning, so today’s entry will be quite short. It is used when we talk about someone’s plans and if they ended successfully or not. For example:

I heard you were trying to get a new job. How did that pan out?

Apparently, James was planning to start his own company. I wonder if that panned out or not.

I wanted to go to Italy for my vacation, but it didn’t pan out.

We almost always use this expression as a question (How did that pan out?), or in the negative (It didn’t pan out.)

In the case of the question, we are basically asking, “Was that situation successful or not?” In the case of the negative sentence, we’re basically saying, “No, it wasn’t successful.” or “It couldn’t be done.”

However, it sounds strange in English if we say, “It panned out.” Instead, we would say something like: “It was very successful.” or “It worked out well.” or something like that.

grammatical expression: easier said than done

{ October 7, 2010 @ 2:27 am } · { grammatical expression }
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Today’s expression is “easier said than done”, and the meaning is probably quite obvious to you. It is used when we talk about accomplishing something which is easy to talk about but difficult to do. For example:

My doctor told me I have to quit smoking. That’s easier said than done. I’ve tried to quit before, but I couldn’t.

A: All you have to do to get into ABC University is get an A in your math course.

B: Well, that’s easier said than done. I’m not very good at math.

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A: The city government needs to fix all the problems with the roads. There are so many potholes!

B: That’s easier said than done. There isn’t much money in the budget now, and there are many other problems that need to be solved as well.

This expression is often used as a response to another person’s statement, as in the last two examples. It’s a very common and useful expression, so I hope you’ll be able to use it now.

adjective: hilarious

{ October 6, 2010 @ 1:59 am } · { adjectives }
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The adjective for this week is “hilarious”. It is used to describe a person, a thing (such as a joke or a movie) or a situation as being extremely funny. Just as a reminder, the word “funny” is only used when we laugh at something, not when we find it interesting. Here are some examples using the word “hilarious”:

That new Jim Carrey movie was hilarious. I haven’t laughed that much watching a movie for a long time.

My best friend just told me a hilarious joke. Do you want to hear it?

I love hanging out with Wayne! He’s such a hilarious guy. He always cracks me up.

At the party last night, Nancy and Cheryl were both wearing exactly the same dress. They were both really embarrassed, but I thought it was hilarious.

It’s important to note that when we use this word, it’s already very strong in meaning, so we DON”T say: “very hilarious”; we simply say “hilarious”. Also, it sounds unnatural to say, “not hilarious”. Instead, most people would say, “It wasn’t funny at all.”

In the third example, I use the phrasal verb “crack up”. This means to make someone laugh. If you want more examples of this expression, you can check my blog entry for March 29, 2010.

grammatical word: anyway

{ October 5, 2010 @ 1:54 am } · { grammatical word }
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In a previous blog entry, I wrote about the difference between “anyway” and “by the way”, “speaking of” and “at any rate”, but there is another way that we use “anyway” in English. We can also use it when we want to say that someone does something despite a situation that should have prevented it. For example:

Billy is in trouble at school. His teacher told him not to throw anything in the classroom, but he did it anyway.

My friend told me that the food at Georgio’s isn’t good, but I want to go there anyway. The decor looks really interesting.

My son’s football won their game last night and everyone was so surprised. Their best players weren’t in the game, and they were playing against the best team in the league, but they won anyway!

We’re not supposed to eat at our desks in my office, but my boss lets us do it anyway.

So as you can see, we use the word “anyway” at the end of a sentence. Also, it’s important to note that this word can only be used in positive sentences; so we can say, “He did it anyway.”, but we CANNOT say, “He didn’t do it anyway.”

the difference between words: nice and kind

{ October 4, 2010 @ 4:20 am } · { the difference between words }
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In my lessons, people often use the word “kind”, but it is overused, especially by Japanese people. English speakers use the word “nice” much more often than the word “kind”. However, we do use the word “kind” sometimes. The basic difference between them is that we say people are “nice” in a general way, and we usually use the word “kind” to talk about a specific action that someone does. For example:

My mother is a very nice person. She’s really friendly and is always willing to help other people.

It was very kind of your mother to help me cook dinner for my husband. Please tell her how much I appreciate it.

Bill is one of the nicest people I know. Everyone likes him.

Bill is such a kind man. Yesterday, he gave a homeless person $10 to buy some food.

Victoria is a really nice woman. She spent over five hours helping me with my project yesterday. That was so kind of her to do that.

As I mentioned before, “nice” is used much more frequently than “kind”. If you’re not sure about which one to use, you can use “nice”, and it will sound very natural.

idiom: to be out of one’s mind

{ October 3, 2010 @ 12:53 am } · { idioms }
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We have a few ways in English to talk about being crazy. Today’s idiom, to be “out of one’s mind” is one of them. So basically it means that someone is crazy. However, we don’t usually use this idiom when talking about a person with a serious mental illness; we usually use it when we are shocked by someone’s unusual behavior or idea. For example:

You want me to go bungee jumping with you? Are you out of your mind?!  

I must have been out of my mind when I agreed to make dinner for ten people! It’s so much work!

Matt is out of his mind if he thinks he’ll be able to get into Harvard. He didn’t get very good grades in high school.

My friends like to get up at 5:30 a.m. and go jogging. They enjoy doing it but, personally, I think they’re out of their minds.

This expression can be a little strong when used directly with someone. So saying, “Are you out of your mind?” is quite strong. It’s ok to say this with close friends, but please be careful with your intonation. If your voice is very flat or if your intonation goes down, it will sound very negative. However, if your intonation is up and light, it will sound like a joke.

separable phrasal verb: look up

{ October 1, 2010 @ 12:39 am } · { phrasal verbs }
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Today’s phrasal verb “look up” has three meanings. The first two are both separable, but the last one is intransitive. Let me go over the three meanings for you:

1. to find the meaning for something in a reference book or on the Internet. For example:

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

I looked up some good restaurants in Paris on the Internet. I want to try some of them when I’m there next week.

2. for someone to visit someone else when they’re in the area where they live. For example:

Please look me up if you ever come to New York. I’d love to see you.

I’ll be in Toronto next month, so I’m going to look up my old friend from university while I’m there. I heard she moved to Toronto about three years ago.

3. for a situation to improve (often used with “things”). For example:

My job was really bad when I first started, but things are looking up now.

The economy was in really bad shape a year ago, but things are starting to look up now.

So that is the phrasal verb for this week. As I mentioned already, the third meaning is intransitive which means the sentence doesn’t have an object.

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