Your ESP Coach • English for Specific Purposes: VOCABULARY

Showing posts with label VOCABULARY. Show all posts

The 10 personality traits English cannot name, by Alex Rawlings (From BBC Future)

👉 GO TO FULL ARTICLE: The 10 personality traits English cannot name

👉 by Alex Rawlings

From the “un-take-out-able” to the “magnets for bad luck”, other European languages have a rich vocabulary of personal characteristics that English struggles to describe succinctly.

An 'I-don't-care-ist', someone who is overly complacent, indifferent or apathetic (Credit: Javier Hirschfeld/Getty Images)

The English language may be one of the richest in the world. It draws on its unique combination of a Germanic heritage and strong Romance influences to offer speakers a broad range of nuances when expressing themselves. Just consider the difference between a ‘hearty welcome’ and a ‘cordial reception’ to see where the possibilities lie.

Yet, as English continues to rise as the world’s de facto lingua franca, it’s important to also remember its limitations. Languages encapsulate culture. They are an embodiment of the way in which a particular group of people has agreed to communicate. As a result, they reflect those people’s experiences of the world through the idioms and expressions that become common parlance.

Learning other languages offers insights into the way that other cultures see the world. For someone like myself, gaining those insights can become addictive, and that fixation has led me to study 15 different languages. My recent book, 'From Amourette to Żal: Bizarre and Beautiful Words from Around Europe', explores some of the words that other languages have, but that English doesn’t. The following 10 words, for example, describe character traits and behaviours that may be familiar to us all, but that the English language struggles to succinctly express. (Continue reading)

👉Alex Rawlings is a polyglot and writer, who in 2012 was named Britain’s Most Multilingual Student after being tested for fluency in 11 languages. His most recent book is From Amourette to Żal: Bizarre and Beautiful Words from Around Europe.

WEEKLY PICKS - 22

This is a weekly selection of reading articles, free online exercises, YouTube videos, games, quizzes and resources for you to further improve your English language skills and have fun – ENJOY!

📜READING PICKS – Articles, blog posts, quizzes and more:

From BBC CAPITAL: How similar you are to your partner can affect your happiness, by Christian Jarrett. Researchers have found that how similar you are to your partner can affect your happiness – but it’s complicated.

Among many monogamous species, from cockatiels to cichlid fish, studies have revealed a clear pattern: it helps to be more similar to your mate. When mating pairs are behaviourally similar, their reproductive success tends to be higher.

In human terms, this would imply it’s better to be similar to your partner. Indeed, for a long time psychologists and others have argued that similarity is probably beneficial – after all, then we will be more likely to enjoy the same pursuits, values and outlook on life.

But no matter how intuitive the idea seems, for decades nearly every study has failed to support it.

Now, though, a team of psychologists at the University of Amsterdam think they know why. They have taken a far more sophisticated and nuanced look at the issue than in previous research. (Continue reading)

From BBC REEL: Reel: The oldest coffee in the world. From huts in remote villages to internet cafes in the capital city, coffee ceremonies are the centre of social life and hospitality in Ethiopia, the birthplace of coffee. (Continue reading)

🎬 VIDEO PICKS – Short and fun videos:

LESS-THAN-5-MINUTE VIDEOS:

How to show annoyance (4:11 minutes)

Bill Gates' Top Book Recommendations - #FavoriteBooks (3:17 minutes)
Britain’s food waste problem (3:46 minutes)
Digital Literacy – Troubleshooting (4:24 minutes)
A brief history of banned numbers - Alessandra King (4:42 minutes)
Ireland | Blarney Castle (4:11 minutes)
Situational irony: The opposite of what you think - Christopher Warner (3:11 minutes)
Is it bad to hold your pee? - Heba Shaheed (3:57 minutes)

5-TO-10-MINUTE VIDEOS:

Salary Negotiation: 6 Tips on How to Negotiate a Higher Salary (9:56 minutes)

How to ask for directions and how to give directions (6:15 minutes)
New York City vs London - City Comparison (8:33 minutes)
How long will human impacts last? - David Biello (5:29 minutes)
Are Intelligent People More Lonely? (5:04 minutes)
Martin Luther King Jr. - A 5 Minute Biography (5:53 minutes)
Why is Herodotus called “The Father of History”? - Mark Robinson (5:02 minutes)

A LITTLE LONGER BUT WORTH IT!

HISTORY: CONSUMERISM (10:52 minutes)

Medieval China: Crash Course History of Science #8 (12:22 minutes)
British Pubs | Join The Girls & Learn About The British Pub | British Traditions & Culture (19:06 minutes)
London Accents: RP | Cockney | Multicultural London English (12:10 minutes)

💬 VOCABULARY PICKS:

VOCABULARY: Words with more than one spelling (6:16 minutes)

Collocations 1 (Some words are often used together: Click on the buttons until you find the correct collocation.)
Collocations 2 (Some words are often used together: Click on the buttons until you find the correct collocation.)
Do vs. Make (List) ⇒ Exercise: DO or MAKE?
make-do exercise
make/do
Business Expressions 1
GV022 - General Vocabulary Sentences
Exercise on Asking and Giving Directions
Exercise on Asking and Giving Directions
Vocabulary For ESL
Parts of a Car (The names of different parts of a car)

💡 GRAMMAR PICKS – Assorted exercises and games:

Learn English: "last year" OR "in the last year" (8:26 minutes)

Can't have and Must have
Abstract Nouns test.
Adjectives followed by prepositions
Adjectives followed by prepositions 2
Quiz: Articles - 'The' with Place Names
Adjectives and adverbs
Adjectives with -ed or -ing
Present Perfect & Past Simple: Right or Wrong? (Which of these sentences are correct and which contain errors?)
Present Perfect & Past Simple: Right or Wrong? 2 (Another exercise where you need to find which of these sentences are correct and which contain errors?)
Past simple or present perfect? (4 DIFFERENT EXERCISES)
Phrasal Verbs using UP
Singular or plural? (Are these sentences correct?)

MORE PICKS NEXT WEEK!

WEEKLY PICKS - 21

📜READING PICKS – Articles, blog posts, quizzes and more:

From BBC CAPITAL: How to avoid awkward work conversations, by Alison Green. BBC World Service contributor Alison Green has been giving workplace advice for over a decade. She is still surprised at how many people avoid difficult interactions with colleagues. [This story is from an episode of Business Matters from the BBC World Service. To listen to more episodes, please click here.] (Continue reading)

From BBC FUTURE: A little bit of boasting could have benefits, by Talya Rachel Meyers. Many cultures tend to praise modesty and humility. But new research has revealed that the tendency to feel, and show, pride evolved for a reason – and plays a key role even today.

Pride is the downfall of many a tragic hero. Mr Darcy has to let his go before he can earn Elizabeth Bennet’s love. Dante listed it as one of the seven deadly sins. And as the famous (and oft-misquoted) verse from Proverbs cautions us, it “goeth before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall”.

There’s no question about it: we’re consistently told that pride makes us obnoxious at best and doomed at worst.

But pride may not entirely deserve this reputation as a destructive force. There’s new evidence that this emotion has an evolutionary function, and that it plays an important role in the way that we interact with the world. (Continue reading)

🎬 VIDEO PICKS – Short and fun videos:

LESS-THAN-5-MINUTE VIDEOS:

Visiting London - Beginner's Guide for Shopping in London (3:48 minutes)

How does your body process medicine? - Céline Valéry (4:12 minutes)
TIPS FOR FOOD TO EAT WHEN VISITING LONDON (3:35 minutes)
Why Are You Anxious? (3:46 minutes)
BBC Masterclass: Question tags (4:30 minutes)
Why do airlines sell too many tickets? - Nina Klietsch (4:59 minutes)
Getting down to business - 64 - English at Work gets you working (3:38 minutes)

5-TO-10-MINUTE VIDEOS:

HOW TO: Making informal invitations (6:02 minutes)

Tell Me About Yourself - A Good Answer to This Interview Question (7:05 minutes)
9 TURN Phrasal Verbs: turn on, turn off, turn over, turn around, turn out... (6:50 minutes)
News Review: Toxicity tax for London's polluting cars (7:40 minutes)
CRITICAL THINKING - Fundamentals: Bayes' Theorem [HD] (6:20 minutes)
How to Keep a Conversation Going in English (5:35 minutes)
13 Ways How Pickpockets Rob You! (9:30 minutes)

A LITTLE LONGER BUT WORTH IT!

5 English Pronunciation Tricks EVERY English Student Should Be Using (13:59 minutes)

PHILOSOPHY - Kant: On Metaphysical Knowledge [HD] (10:08 minutes)
12 English Expressions with ALL: "for all I know", "all along", "all talk"... (17:32 minutes)
Ancient & Medieval Medicine: Crash Course History of Science #9 (12:05 minutes)
Why We Can't Invent a Perfect Engine: Crash Course Engineering #10 (12:54 minutes)

💬 VOCABULARY PICKS:

VOCABULARY: How to use synonyms (6:08 minutes)

ESL Vocabulary Test (Multiple choice exercise: Choose the correct words to complete the sentences.)
Football / Soccer (Vocabulary about the world's most popular sport.)
Kitchen (Different things you will find in a kitchen and their uses)
See Look Watch Hear Listen
Weather Idioms (The meaning of common idioms about the weather.)
Idioms - exercise 12
Food Containers
Antonyms Matching Worksheet 4 (DRAG & DROP exercise)
Work & jobs

💡 GRAMMAR PICKS – Assorted exercises and games:

BBC Learning English - 6 Minute Grammar - Phrasal and prepositional verbs (6:32 minutes)

Phrasal Verbs with GET
Amount / Number - exercise 2
Prepositions of Place Multiple Choice Exercise (Choose the correct preposition of place for each question.)
Prepositions Of Time (When do you use "on", "in" or "at"? When don't you use any preposition? This exercise will help you.)
CAUSATIVE FORM (Passive) 2
Past Simple or Present Perfect Gap Fill (Which of these two tenses should you use to complete each of these sentences?)
Past Simple or Present Perfect Gap Fill 2 (Further practice of the difference between past simple and present perfect.)

MORE PICKS NEXT WEEK!

WEEKLY PICKS - 20

📜READING PICKS – Articles, blog posts, quizzes and more:

From BBC FUTURE: The pill can make the body store more fat – and gain less muscle, by Zaria Gorvett. Many women believe that the pill can cause weight gain. Research hasn’t found this – but it has found that it can change body shape (and fat storage) in other surprising ways. (Continue reading)

From BBC NEWS: Introducing BBC Reel This week, we launched our new video platform that will be the global home for the BBC’s best factual digital output. Here you can find some of the interesting characters and deeper human stories featured on Reel. (GO TO BBC REEL)

From BBC TRAVEL: The most expensive down in the world, by Meg Lukens Noonan. Just south of the Arctic Circle, a few dedicated Norwegians are keeping the tradition of sustainable eiderdown farming alive – and are making some of the world’s most coveted duvets. (Continue reading)

🎬 VIDEO PICKS – Short and fun videos:

LESS-THAN-5-MINUTE VIDEOS:

Polite questions: Stop Saying (2:29 minutes)

BBC Masterclass: Words used to connect ideas – so to speak, I mean... (Discourse Markers 2) (3:38 minutes)
Too Many Choices? God Dammit (3:57 minutes)
The myth of Prometheus - Iseult Gillespie (4:46 minutes)
The Poop Cycle (3:12 minutes)
How we conquered the deadly smallpox virus - Simona Zompi (4:33 minutes)

5-TO-10-MINUTE VIDEOS:

Do you lead a sedentary lifestyle? Watch 6 Minute English (6:14 minutes)

HOW TO: Say ‘no’ to invitations (6:00 minutes)
News Review: Racial inequality in the UK (7:44 minutes)
Are you a body with a mind or a mind with a body? - Maryam Alimardani (6:09 minutes)
How in vitro fertilization (IVF) works – Nassim Assefi and Brian A. Levine (6:42 minutes)
Why Are Rolex Watches So Expensive? (7:01 minutes)

A LITTLE LONGER BUT WORTH IT!

Visit America - The DON'Ts of Visiting The USA (14:04 minutes)

Attending a Meeting in English - Useful English Phrases for Meetings - Business English (14.03 minutes)
The MOST INSANE Street Food in Thailand! (17:12 minutes)
17 Things Flight Attendants Want You to Know (13:33 minutes)
Disease! Crash Course World History 203 (11:36 minutes)

💬 VOCABULARY PICKS:

Learners' Questions: Using 'actually', 'in fact' and 'well' (2:24 minutes)

Quiz: Above & Over (Brief explanation: ABOVE or OVER? From Cambridge Grammar Today)
Quiz: No & Not (Brief explanation: No or not? From Cambridge Grammar Today)
Opposites Matching Exercise 3 (DRAG & DROP exercise)
ESL Vocabulary Quiz (Multiple choice exercise: Choose the correct words to complete the sentences.)
Feelings & Emotions
Personal Feelings
Idioms - exercise 11
Amount / Number

💡 GRAMMAR PICKS – Assorted exercises and games:

BBC English Masterclass: Gerund or infinitive? (4:19 minutes)

gerund-infinitive exercise
Gerund and infinitives - ing & to
phrasal verb exercise: be
Quiz: Phrasal Verbs - Look
conditional exercise
Been or Gone Error Exercise (Look how 'been' and 'gone' are used in these sentences. Is each sentence correct or not?)
Conjunction Test 9

MORE PICKS NEXT WEEK!

How many is a billion? (From Oxford Dictionary – Explore)

🔗 How many is a billion? (From Oxford Dictionary – Explore)

💡 In British English, a billion used to be equivalent to a million million (i.e. 1,000,000,000,000), while in American English it has always equated to a thousand million (i.e. 1,000,000,000). British English has now adopted the American figure, though, so that a billion equals a thousand million in both varieties of English.

The same sort of change has taken place with the meaning of trillion. In British English, a trillion used to mean a million million million (i.e. 1,000,000,000,000,000,000). Nowadays, it's generally held to be equivalent to a million million (1,000,000,000,000), as it is in American English.

The same evolution can be seen with quadrillion and quintillion. In British English, a quadrillion used to mean a thousand raised to the power of eight (1024), and is now understood to be a thousand raised to the power of five (1015). A quintillion, in British English, used to mean a million raised to the power of five (1030), and is now most commonly held to be a thousand raised to the power of six (1018).

Even higher are sextillion, septillion, octillion, nonillion, and decillion, some of which are not common enough to be included in OxfordDictionaries.com yet.

Other terms follow the same linguistic pattern (ending with -illion) but do not refer to precise numbers. These include jillion, zillion, squillion, gazillion, kazillion, bajillion, and bazillion. All of these words are used informally to refer to an extremely or indefinitely large number.

How many is a billion? (2:02 minutes)

💡 See other Vocabulary Questions.

💡Take a look at some differences between British and American English.

💡 Or you may be interested in:

COMMONLY CONFUSED WORDS (from Oxford Dictionaries)

What is the origin of the word 'quiz'?

What is the origin of the word 'OK'?

A BRIEF HISTORY OF SINGULAR 'THEY' (From Oxford English Dictionary Blog)

What is the origin of symbols like '@' and '#'? + The Origin of Other Signs! (from Oxford Living Dictionaries)

Other questions about the origins of words and phrases

WEEKLY PICKS - 19

📜READING PICKS – Articles, blog posts, quizzes and more:

From BBC CULTURE: Images that defined the Soviet Union, by Fiona Macdonald. Red Star Over Russia is an exhibition that offers a visual history of Russia and the Soviet Union. Fiona Macdonald finds out how these images foreshadowed fake news.

“We all live in an age of fake news. But it wasn’t invented with Twitter and YouTube – it was used in the 1930s to make real people disappear,” said curator Natalia Sidlina at the opening of a new exhibition at London’s Tate Modern. Red Star Over Russia, which launched on the centenary of the October Revolution, is focused on the powerful imagery created in Russia and the Soviet Union from 1905 to 1955 – but, inevitably, politics seeps through.

And the relevance of these images today is hard to escape. “We planned the exhibition to coincide with the anniversary of the October Revolution, yet it does seem to be inviting comparisons with what’s going on around the world right now,” Tate Modern’s head of displays Matthew Gale tells BBC Culture. (Continue reading)

From CAMBRIDGE DICTIONARY: 1066 and all that: How to say years by Liz Walter. Being able to name a year is a pretty basic English skill, but there are a few things that can make it complicated, and there are a number of differences between British and American English.

Let’s start with the (relatively) easy ones. For years like 1345, 1682 or 1961, we say the first two and the second two digits as if they were single numbers: thirteen forty-five; sixteen eighty-two; nineteen sixty-one. If the third digit is zero, there are two possible ways of saying the year: … (Continue reading)

🎬 VIDEO PICKS – Short and fun videos:

LESS-THAN-5-MINUTE VIDEOS:

Why English is so hard to learn: silent letters (1:22 minutes)

What is the tragedy of the commons? - Nicholas Amendolare (4:57 minutes)
How Can You Change Somebody's Opinion? (4:38 minutes)
How Bill Gates reads books (2:11 minutes)
Why Do India And China Have So Many People? (2:58 minutes)
Blow the Cobwebs Away: The English We Speak (2:21 minutes)
Study Skills – How to think critically (4:17 minutes)
Academic Insights – 7 top tips for... critical thinking (3:27 minutes)

5-TO-10-MINUTE VIDEOS:

Skills for Work: Interview Skills (6:43 minutes)

How Emotionally Healthy Are You? (5:13 minutes)
Peter Singer on Effective Altruism (6:08 minutes)
LIST OF TOP 10 OLDEST LANGUAGES STILL SPOKEN IN THE WORLD || 2 OF THEM ARE FROM INDIA (8:11 minutes)
Why incompetent people think they're amazing - David Dunning (5:07 minutes)
Why do we dream? - Amy Adkins (5:37 minutes)
10 GET Phrasal Verbs: get down, get off, get through, get up, get away... (8:49 minutes)

A LITTLE LONGER BUT WORTH IT!

10 ESSENTIAL Do's and Don'ts in London (Don't make these MISTAKES!) (14:45 minutes)

Visit Amsterdam - 10 Things That Will SHOCK You About Amsterdam, The Netherlands (10:48 minutes)
The Industrial Revolution: Crash Course History of Science #21 (12:28 minutes)
Reaching breaking point: Materials, Stresses, and Toughness: Crash Course Engineering #18 (11:23 minutes)

💬 VOCABULARY PICKS:

English Grammar - comparing with LIKE & AS (9:10 minutes)

LIKE – AS (Brief explanation)
As and Like Exercise 1
Quiz: Beat, Earn, Lose & Win
Quiz: Lose & Miss
Quiz: Remember & Remind (Brief explanation: Remember or remind? From Cambridge Grammar Today)
Clothes
City
Countryside
Nature
Synonyms Matching Exercise 4 (DRAG & DROP exercise)
Opposites Matching Exercise 2 (DRAG & DROP exercise)
Vocabulary Quiz (Multiple choice exercise: Choose the correct words to complete the sentences.)

💡 GRAMMAR PICKS – Assorted exercises and games:

Stative verbs in the continuous form: BBC English Masterclass (3:45 minutes)

MORE PICKS NEXT WEEK!

WEEKLY PICKS - 18

📜READING PICKS – Articles, blog posts, quizzes and more:

From BBC NEWS: Body clock scientists win Nobel Prize, by James Gallagher. Health and science reporter, BBC News website. Three scientists who unravelled how our bodies tell time won the 2017 Nobel Prize for physiology or medicine.

The body clock - or circadian rhythm - is the reason we want to sleep at night, but it also drives huge changes in behaviour and body function.

The US scientists Jeffrey Hall, Michael Rosbash and Michael Young will share the prize. The Nobel prize committee said their findings had "vast implications for our health and wellbeing". (Continue reading)

From BBC TRAVEL: The rarest fabric on Earth, by Meg Lukens Noonan & Tom Garmeson. The once-endangered vicuna is thriving in the Peruvian Andes, thanks to a bold plan to sustainably gather and sell its valuable fleece – and give locals a stake in its survival. (Go to full article)

🎬 VIDEO PICKS – Short and fun videos:

LESS-THAN-5-MINUTE VIDEOS:

Why do blood types matter? - Natalie S. Hodge (4:41 minutes)