Today is June 21, the first day of summer 2015! The summer solstice arrives at exactly 12:38 p.m. EDT, when the sun reaches the highest point in the northern hemisphere. I’M not really INTO astronomy–the study of the planets and stars–but I love knowing what happens in THE HEAVENS when the seasons change. Because it’s… Read more »
#VOCABULARY BE INTO something/doing something – enjoy something PACKED – full; crowded DECOR – decoration; style BE FOND OF something – like something HIT THE SPOT – satisfying My wife and I ARE kind of INTO trying different ramen places these days. This one in the Upper East Side of Manhattan wasn’t bad at all. I… Read more »
In the news recently, there’s been a MASSIVE increase in bikes being stolen in New York City. More and more people are riding their bikes, which is great for several reasons–it’s good for the environment, good for people’s health, good for the health of the city, etc. Unfortunately, thieves are noticing the SURGE in bike… Read more »
I still have the morning fog that we had this past Thursday in mind and thought it would make a nice vocabulary lesson. First of all, I was running late and was in such a rush to catch my train that I didn’t notice that FOG had BLANKETED the area. It wasn’t until my train… Read more »
How often do you use the word “FOLK”? In my latest lesson at the small guide site, I explain the different uses of this word and talk about how the meaning changes depending on the form. It’s a simple word that’s used quite often. However, it can cause misunderstandings if you’re not familiar with the… Read more »
Sales like this one are just HARD to resist. I quickly decided to get two poundsand HARDLY had to think twice about it. I’m cooking one pound & freezing the rest. The words HARD and HARDLY can be confusing to English learners because the two words look directly related. You might think that HARDLY is… Read more »
SOAKING beans so they can absorb water and soften for quick cooking. I thought about the word SOAK today as I SOAKED my clothes in the washer while doing laundry and SOAKED some mung beans for an easy-to-cook soup for dinner. About 6 hours later, the beans were soft and cooked IN NO TIME (very… Read more »
A good idiom is worth teaching again, so here are a few more examples of an idiom we’ve taught here before. We first taught this two years ago, on Nov. 9, 2009. 1. I’ve got to hand it to Sue; she knows how to find good deals when she’s out shopping.2. Jim finished the project… Read more »
To commemorate National Punctuation Day, here are a few basic rules to live by when you write.1. Don’t use a comma between two independent clauses. You can either end the first sentence with a period or a semicolon if the two sentences have a clear connection.a. They love the beach. Surfing is their main hobby…. Read more »
In this fifth and final post of this GrammarReminder series on reported speech, we’ll look at a conversation between two people and see how both of them report what the other said. For a quick review on how to shift tenses, check out part 1 of this series. . the conversation: Tom: Hi Sue. How’s your new job going? Sue: It’s going really well. There’s a lot to… Read more »
