Category Archives: Easy

Vocabulary : How is that plural?

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Question from Salim in Lebanon:

Recently I stopped on the word vocabulary to find that it can be countable..so can you offer me the way we can use vocabularies in a sentence..in what sense can it be correct..thanks

Answer:
Hi Salim, this is a quick question to answer for you. The word ‘vocabulary‘ can of course be singular as in ‘the English vocabulary‘, that is all of the words in the English language, or ‘my English vocabulary ‘, all of the English words that I know, but, as you point out, it can also be plural.

Think about all of the languages in the world – each one has its own vocabulary. So there is a Chinese vocabulary, and an Arabic vocabulary, a Russian vocabulary – each one is very different, and we can say, ‘ the Chinese, Arabic and Russian vocabularies contain a large number of items’.

You can also have sub-sets of word groups in a language, such as English, where we talk about a ‘vocabulary’, for example the ‘vocabulary of marketing’ or the ‘vocabulary of banking’ – we could group these together under ‘business vocabulary’ and talk about the different business ‘vocabularies‘.

Hope that has helped.

‘On a holiday’ or ‘for a holiday’?

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Question from Sarika in India:

Which is correct ‘on holiday‘ or ‘for a holiday‘

A quick answer to Sarika’s question:

Sarika, you can use ‘for’ or ‘on’ with holiday and both would be correct. You can also drop the article ‘a’ when using ‘on’ (the third sentence below). Look at these three sentences, all of which are correct:

  1. I went there for a holiday.
  2. I went there on a holiday.
  3. I went there on holiday.

You can substitute the word ‘holiday’ with ‘vacation’ (the more usual word in American and Canadian English) using ‘for’ and ‘on’ in the same ways.

Positive Vocabulary List … absolutely juicy!

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Be Positive: Here's how!

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Being positive is not always easy in a world that gives us plenty of reasons not to be!

Mainly to change the pace a little from the daily dose of grammar points that I send you, I thought I might give you a list of words that you can be positive about.

This is not a list I’ve compiled, in fact I’d find it hard to get too positive about some listed words like ‘drool‘ and ‘juicy‘ and I have a few doubts about just how much bending of the meaning we need to do to make words like ‘shy‘,’spice‘ and ‘tan‘ positive. Maybe that’s why the magazine, Competitors Journal, that first published this list of Bob Hitching’s Positive Words no longer exists!

Anyway, for those of us sitting in the Northern Hemisphere, winter is here and its time to ward off the cold, bleak weather with a bit of positive vocabulary. Who knows, you may even find that you can use one or two of these gems of positive vocabulary in your next email, letter or essay.

For those of you who are only listening to the podcast, you can find the printed list on the English4Today blog site or the Grammar FAQ.

So here it is … I hope you find it tangy, tasty and timeless!

 

Absolutely Absorbing Abundance Ace
Active Admirable Adore Agree
Alert A1 Alive Amazing
Appealing Approval Aroma Attraction
Award Bargain Beaming Beats
Beautiful Best Better Bits
Boost Bounce Breakthrough Breezy
Brief Bright Brilliant Brimming
Buy Care Certain Charming
Chic Choice Clean Clear
Colorful Comfy Compliment Confidence
Connoisseur Cool Courteous Coy
Creamy Crisp Cuddly Dazzling
Debonair Delicate Delicious Delightful
Deluxe Dependable Desire Diamond
Difference Dimple Discerning Distinctive
Divine Dreamy Drool Dynamic
Easy Economy Ecstatic Effervescent
Efficient Endless Energy Enhance
Enjoy Enormous Ensure Enticing
Essence Essential Exactly Excellent
Exceptional Exciting Exclusive Exhilaration
Exotic Expert Exquisite Extol
Extra Eye-catching Fabled Fair
Famous Fantastic Fashionable Fascinating
Fab Fast Favorite Fetching
Finest Finesse First Fizz
Flair Flattering Flip Flourishing
Foolproof Forever Fragrance Free
Freshness Friendly Full Fun
Galore Generous Genius Gentle
Giggle Glamorous Glitter Glorious
Glowing Go-ahead Golden Goodness
Gorgeous Graceful Grand Great
Guaranteed Happy Healthy Heartwarming
Heavenly Ideal Immaculate Impressive
Incredible Inspire Instant Interesting
Invigorating Invincible Inviting Irresistible
Jewel Joy Juicy Keenest
Kind Kissable K.O. Know-how
Leads Legend Leisure Light
Lingering Logical Longest Lovely
Lucky Luscious Luxurious Magic
Matchless Magnifies it Maxi Memorable
Mighty Miracle Modern More
Mouthwatering Multi Munchy Natural
Need New Nice Nutritious
O.K. Opulent Outlasts Outrageous
Outstanding Palate Palatial Paradise
Pamper Passionate Peak Pearl
Perfect Pick-me-up Pleasure Pleases
Plenty Plum Plump Plus
Popular Positive Power Precious
Prefer Prestige Priceless Pride
Prime Prize Protection Proud
Pure Quality Quantity Quenching
Quick Quiet Radiant Ravishing
Real Reap Recommendation Refined
Refreshing Relax Reliable Renowned
Reputation Rest Rewarding Rich
Right Rosy Royal Safety
Save Satisfaction Scores Seductive
Select Sensitive Sensational Serene
Service Sexy Shapely Share
Sheer Shy Silent Silver
Simple Singular Sizzling Skilful
Slick Smashing Smiles Solar
Smooth Soft Sound Sparkling
Special Spectacular Speed Spicy
Splendid Spice Spotless Spruce
Star Strong Stunning Stylish
Subtle Success Succulent Sun
Superb Superlative Supersonic Supreme
Sure Sweet Swell Symphony
Tan Tangy Tasty Tempting
Terrific Thoroughbred Thrilling Thriving
Timeless Tingle Tiny Top
Totally Traditional Transformation Treat
Treasure Trendy True Trust
Ultimate Ultra Unbeatable Unblemished
Undeniably Undoubtedly U Unique
Unquestionably Unrivaled Unsurpassed Valued
Valuable Vanish Varied Versatile
Victor Vigorous Vintage V.I.P.
Vital Vivacious Warm Wealth
Wee Whiz Whole Whopper
Winner Wise Wonderful Worthy
Wow! Youthful Yule Young
Zap Zeal Zest Zip
Zoom 101 1990s 20th Century
Mmmm Sshhhh! Top of the Pops/ Crops /Hops It refreshes the… other…. cannnot reach
SOS A step ahead A racing start Growing demand
Take the biscuit On the right foot Softly, softly Making an impression
So-so Maximum protection Get up and glow Stands supreme
The ultimate Hi! Star in its own right An eye for bargains
Heaven sent A shining example The bare necessities Make the penny drop
Shoulder to cry on Get it together Really cool The one
King of the Goodness only knows Easy as 1 2 3 (ABC) Nothing to declare
Brightens up Adds distinction Goes without saying The
No 1 Child’s play Sounds good Take pride
Take some beating Set the pace Sky high Second to none
Save a packet Rest easy Run for my money It’s ‘in’
Pole position Perfect combination On my wavelength Just like that
All systems Mint condition Make dreams come true Make my day
Knock spots off 5 star Extend your scope Down to a fine art
Does the trick Draws me back Think ahead

Making the Negative with ‘DO’

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Question from Rick in the USA

Why do we say “I did not meet him” rather than “I did not met him”, since this is the past tense?

Hi Rick. I’m going to answer this one although the answer is explained in the English4Today Online Grammar under the section dealing with forming the negative.

Let’s do a quick review of how the negative is formed in English. First we’ll take your sentence in the affirmative:

  • I met him.

That’s fine… we have the verb in the Simple Past (don’t forget that ‘meet’ is an irregular verb and the past form is ‘met’). Now let’s make it negative. To make the sentence negative we have to use:

SUBJECT + DID + NOT + INFINITIVE OR BASE FORM OF THE VERB WITHOUT ‘TO’

I DID NOT MEET HIM.

What you need to remember here is that the auxiliary verb ‘DO’ is the one that carries the tense – that is, if we are using the Simple Past, as in the original sentence, then DO becomes DID. But the main verb ‘MEET’ stays in the infinitive – that is in its base form without ‘to’ – and is not put into the Simple Past.

Try making this one negative:

  • She went to Rome last month.

OK … you should have written:

  • She DID NOT GO (or ‘didn’t go’) to Rome last month.

If you’re still not sure, have a look through the English4Today Online English Grammar section on forming the negative.

Biography or Autobiography

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Question from Suresh Prabhu, India:

What is the difference between biography and autobiography?

Hello Suresh and thanks for your question. Well, this is a very quick and easy one to answer:

Biography:

  • Biography is the story of a person’s life written or told by a person or persons other than the person who is the subject of the story.

Autobiography:

  • Autobiography is the story of a person’s life written by the person themselves.

So, Suresh, if you were to write a book about your own life, for example ‘The Life of Suresh‘ by Suresh Prabhu, this would be an autobiography.

However, if I were to write the story of your life, for example ‘The Life of Suresh‘ by James Gordon, this would be a biography.

Hope that has cleared that up for you!

Confusing spelling : American or British?

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Question from Heather in the USA

Which one is correct – theatre or theater?

Hi Heather – well it all depends on where you live!

Have a look at the article in the English4Today Online English Grammar called ‘Which English?’ to give you more details.

The spelling of words such as ‘theatre‘ and ‘centre‘ differ depending on where you are in the English speaking world. In the USA and Canada it is ‘theater‘ and ‘center‘ and in Britain it is theatre and centre are spelt. There are quite a few of these variations which is one of the reasons why we have an ‘American English Dictionary’, ‘Australian English Dictionary’ and a ‘British English Dictionary’. The important thing to remember is that none of the variations is more correct than another! And if you are a non-native English speaker living outside of one of the usage regions you can really take your pick without feeling that you are making a mistake!

Here’s a short list of some of the main variations between British spellings and American spellings:

British English American English
humour humor
favourite favorite
realise realize
theatre theater
kilometre kilometer
socks sox
cosy cozy
colour color
dialogue dialog
cheque check
jewellery jewelry
traveller traveler
tyre tire
organisation organization
centre center

This is a short list only! And spelling isn’t the only area of difference – for example, there are vocabulary differences such as the difference between fall (American) and autumn (British) to talk about the season before winter… however, that is for another posting!

Hope that has helped Michelle!