grammatical word: put

{ August 3, 2010 @ 12:41 am } · { grammatical word }
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As I have explained before, many common verbs in English have more than one meaning. The verb “put” has many subtle meanings, but the main definition is to place something in a certain location. There is another meaning which most people don’t know about though; it also means to say something in a certain way. For example:

My sister is very articulate. She always puts things in a very impressive way.

A: I thought the movie was really stupid!

B: Well, that’s not how I’d put it, but I didn’t really enjoy it either.

A: Well, how would you put it then?

B: I’d say it was disappointing rather than stupid.

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A: I asked Cary if he liked you and he said that he did.

B: Really? He likes me? How exactly did he put it?

A: He said that he thought you were really pretty and cool.

So I hope this is clear to everyone. The word “articulate” in the first example means that a person can speak very well in their own language. You can check my blog entry from April 30th, 2010 for more examples. If anyone is interested in the other meanings for “put”, they can look up the word at The Free Dictionary; the website link is on this blog page.

the difference between words: so and such

{ August 2, 2010 @ 12:32 am } · { the difference between words }
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Many of my students get confused about how to use the words “so” and “such” correctly. Sometimes they say things like, “My friend is so nice guy.” or “It is such hot today.” These sentences are completely wrong in terms of grammar.

When we use the word “so”, it is followed by an adjective. When we use the word “such”, it is followed the article “a” or “an”, then by an adjective and finally, by a noun. Sometimes there is no adjective in the sentence at all. For example:

My friend is so nice.

My friend is such a nice guy.

My friend is such a gentleman.

It’s so hot today.

It’s such a hot day today.

It’s such a scorcher today.

Harriet is so intelligent.

Harriet is such an intelligent woman.

Harriet is such a genius.

In case you’re wondering, the word “scorcher” in the sixth sentence is a casual word that refers to a very hot day. The word “scorch” has a similar meaning to the word “burn”.

It’s important to note that when we use “such”, we only use “a” or “an” in the sentence if the noun is countable. If the noun is uncountable, we must drop the article. For example:

This is such good wine. Where did you get it?

My guidebook gave me such useful information.

We had such beautiful weather during our vacation.

It’s also possible to use “so” with an adverb. For example:

My sister dances so well.

The construction job was done so badly.

Please note that we cannot use “such” with adverbs.

idiom: to not bat an eye

{ August 1, 2010 @ 2:17 am } · { idioms }
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I have another idiom for you this week. The expression is “to not bat an eye”. It is used when we want to talk about someone who is not shocked or surprised when most people would be shocked or surprised by a certain situation.

If someone bats their eyes, it basically means that they blink.  Usually if we receive some shocking news, it’s natural for us to blink our eyes when we hear the news. Therefore, if a person doesn’t blink or “bat an eye”, they are not shocked or surprised at all about something. For example:

When the salesman told Walter that the price would be $150,000, he didn’t  bat an eye. He just agreed to pay the money without hesitation. He must be really rich.

I told my girlfriend I wanted to go to Europe for six months alone, and she didn’t even bat an eye. I think maybe she doesn’t love me anymore.

My co-workers are really strange. The boss announced that everyone would have to take a 10% paycut and none of them batted an eye. I seem to be the only one who’s upset about that.

So, as you can see, this idiom is usually used when someone doesn’t react in a shocked or upset way to something another person tells them. Also, for emphasis, we can put the word “even” before “bat an eye”, as in the second example.

separable phrasal verb: kick out

{ July 30, 2010 @ 12:32 am } · { phrasal verbs }
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The phrasal verb for today is “kick out”, and it is used when we talk about a person being told to leave a place by someone else. For example:

The bartender at that bar kicked out my friend because he insulted him.

My friend was kicked out of that bar last night because he insulted the bartender. (passive voice)

My landlord is kicking me out of my apartment because I can’t pay the rent.

I’m being kicked out of my apartment because I can’t pay the rent. (passive voice)

My wife found out that I was having an affair, so she kicked me out.

I was kicked out by my wife because she found out I was having an affair. (passive voice)

So, a person can be kicked out of a public place (as in the example with the bartender) or a person can be kicked out of a private home (as in the examples with the landlord and the wife). When it’s a public place, the person might be allowed to come back at another time but, when it’s a private home, the person is usually never allowed to come back. So, in the example with the wife, the sentence has the sense that she will probably divorce him.

grammatical expression: let me…

{ July 29, 2010 @ 1:22 am } · { grammatical expression }
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When you’re a guest in someone’s house, you’ve probably heard the host say something like, “Let me take your coat.” Some people think this means that the host is asking for permission to take the coat from the person, but the meaning is a little different. When English speakers use the expression “let me…”, they are basically stating what they are going to do. However, it’s not polite to say, “I’m going to take your coat.” Therefore, we use “Let me take your coat.” in order to make it sound more polite. Here are some more examples:

Let me give you a ride to the station.

Let me get you another glass of wine.

You must be hungry. Let me get you something to eat.

Let me show you where Mr. Brown’s office is.

So, when we use “let me”, it’s always because we intend to do something nice for the other person. If the other person doesn’t want what the person intends to do for them, they can say something like:

No, thank you. I’m ok.

That’s nice of you, but I’m ok.

I appreciate that, but I’m ok.

And if they accept what the person intends to do for them, they can simply say, “Thank you.”

adjective: diligent

{ July 28, 2010 @ 3:20 am } · { adjectives }
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I was recently explaining the meaning of the adjective “diligent” to a student, so I thought it would make a good entry for my blog. The word “diligent” is similar to “hard-working”, but it’s a little different. The word “hard-working” means that someone works a lot in a general way, but “diligent” is used when talking about a specific activity that someone always does when they’re supposed to do it. For example:

I’m very diligent about brushing my teeth three times a day. I think it’s very important to take care of your teeth.

I’m not very diligent about dusting my living room. I should do it at least once a week, but sometimes I get lazy and don’t do it for a long time.

It’s very important that you be diligent about filing the invoices. If you don’t do it everyday, we can lose track of them very easily.

So, as you can see, we always use the word “about” after “diligent”, and then it is followed the -ing form of a verb.

grammatical word: can

{ July 27, 2010 @ 3:22 pm } · { grammatical word }
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Today, I’d like to write about another word with a second meaning that most people don’t realize: “can”. The main meaning of the word “can” is to talk about skills that we have. For example:

I can play the piano very well.

My friend can cook French food.

However, the word “can” also has the meaning of “sometimes”. For example:

It can get really cold in my hometown in the winter.

My sister can be really blunt, but she’s not blunt all the time.

Learning how to cook well can be really difficult for some people.

When we talking about actions, we use the word “sometimes”, but we use the word “can” when describing a person or a situation with adjectives. However, we can also use the word “sometimes” in these situations. For example:

It is sometimes really cold in my hometown in the winter.

My sister is sometimes very blunt, but she’s not blunt all the time.

Learning how to cook well is sometimes very difficult for some people.

So, it’s possible to use “sometimes” in these sentences, but it’s more natural to use the word “can” because the sentences are describing a situation using adjectives.

the difference between words: believe and trust

{ July 26, 2010 @ 11:18 am } · { the difference between words }
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In English, there is a difference between “believe” and “trust” which confuses many people. The word “believe” means that we believe someone’s statement, but the word “trust” means that we believe a person is honest and reliable in general. For example:

Yvonne said she didn’t steal my money, and I believe her. She’s never lied to me before.

I don’t believe the promises that politicians make. They almost always break them after they get elected.

I really trust Peter. He’s always does what he says he’s going to do.

If I were you, I wouldn’t trust Rachel with your boyfriend. Apparently, she has stolen her friends’ boyfriends before.

We can also say “believe in” followed by some kind of spiritual or religious phenomenon such as “God”, “ghosts”, “reincarnation”, etc. However, in these cases, we can’t say “trust in”.

When can sometimes say “trust in” but this just a more formal way to say “trust”.

 

separable phrasal verb: burn up

{ July 23, 2010 @ 12:47 am } · { phrasal verbs }
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Today’s phrasal verb “burn up” has two basic meanings:

1. for something to make a person very angry. For example:

My boss is so arrogant and rude. He really burns me up!

It really burns me up when I hear about corrupt politicians taking bribes!

2. for someone to destroy something on purpose by burning it (usually something made of paper or cloth). For example:

After I broke up with my girlfriend, I didn’t want to keep her letters to me, so I burned them up.

The corrupt politician burned up all his financial records because he didn’t want the police to find out about his illegal activities.

There is another meaning of “burn up” which is very closely related to the second meaning. It is used when we want to say something was destroyed in a fire by accident. In this case, the phrasal verb is intransitive. For example:

I’m upset because all of my old photos burned up in the fire.

grammatical expression: I bet…

{ July 22, 2010 @ 12:38 am } · { grammatical expression }
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Last week, one of my students asked me about the proper way to use the verb “bet”. Of course, we can use this verb in a literal way as in when we are gambling. In these cases, the word “bet” is usually followed by some amount of money. For example:

I bet twenty dollars on one hand of poker, and I lost it.

However, it is more common to use “bet” in the expression “I bet…”. We follow this with a sentence containing a piece of information that we feel very confident about being true, but which we don’t know for certain. This assertion that something is probably true is usually based on some information that we have received through our observation or through logical thinking. For example:

I bet you got really good grades in school.

I bet Sandra Bullock is a nice person in real life.

I bet the mayor is going to be re-elected.

A: My sister just won the lottery. She’s so happy!

B: I bet she is.

So, I use “I bet” in these situations because: I feel confident that you got good grades in school because I’ve observed that you’re an intelligent person; I feel confident that Sandra Bullock is a nice person because she seems nice in interviews on TV; I feel confident that the mayor will be re-elected because I know he’s still popular; I feel confident that my friend’s sister is happy about winning the lottery because it’s logical that anyone would be happy in that situation.

This is a very common expression, so I hope you’ll be confident about using it now.

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