Finally back!!!

Hey guys!

Yeah, I know I disappeared but what matters is: I´m back!!!!

Grammar Confusion

Well, as a start I´d like to know how you say "mais ou menos" in English. Don´t you know? As a matter of fact there are some ways. So, let´s learn.

We normally use different expressions in three situations.
- When we are expressing quantity we should use "more or less", "about" or "around".
Examples: I believe there were around 500 people waiting for the news about the plane crash at the airport yesterday.
She spends around 1,000 dollars in useless things every month.

- When we make question with the word how, we use "so-so"
Examples: How is everything?
How is our family, Andrea?
How do you like your German classes, George?

- When do you want to make question about the intensity of something but it´s not with "how", use "kind of" or "sort of":
Examples: Did your boss understand the situation?
Do you like seafood?
Have you already decided about your trip to Europe?
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English Vocabulary Game - Words in a word

UNBELIEVABLE

As regras do jogo são:

* Registrar as palavras em inglês que você encontrou;

* São válidas as palavras com pelo menos 3 letras; e o número de letras de cada palavra equivale ao número de pontos (por exemplo: "act" = 3 letras = 3 pontos);

* Não são válidos os nomes próprios (pessoas, lugares, marcas etc.);

* Cada palavra encontrada deve ter seu significado conhecido por você sem uso de dicionários ou outro tipo de ajuda;

* Se a palavra original tem apenas uma letra "S", por exemplo, ela só poderá ser usada uma vez para formar novas palavras.

Este jogo é ótimo para treinar vocabulário.

Quantas palavras você consegue formar? Quantos pontos você consegue marcar?
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Expression

Como se desculpar em inglês...

Acredito que todo mundo conheça o famoso "I´m sorry" ou somente "Sorry!". Mas como sempre digo aos meus alunos, o objetivo deles é falar inglês com um nível tão bom quanto o português deles. Então vamos ver algumas formas de se desculpar em inglês de maneira mais formal, ok?

I need to acknowledge an unfortunate mistake that I made
I am truly sorry.
It was a mistake of my part.
I sincerely apologize
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Curiosity

How do I say "Xará" in English?

"Xará" em inglês é namesake. Veja o exemplo abaixo:

* A famous Brazilian actress is my namesake.
[Uma famosa atriz brasileira é minha xará.]

Observação:
Há um significado mais específico de namesake: alguém (ou algo) que recebeu seu nome inspirado em / por causa de / em homenagem a outra pessoa (ou outra coisa). Como exemplo, imagine uma pessoa que recebeu o nome de Carlos Maurício porque seu avô se chamava Carlos Maurício.

Alguns dicionários, como o American Heritage Dictionary, definem o termo namesake como a person or thing named after another, ou seja, o significado apontado pelo Roberto (veja a entrada no American Heritage).

O Merriam-Webster diz one that has the same name as another, especially one who is named after another, ou seja, alguém que tem o mesmo nome que outro, especialmente se o nome foi inspirado / em homenagem ao outro.

Já o Oxford English Dictionary define namesake simplesmente como a person or thing with the same name as another (é o nosso xará mesmo - veja a entrada).

Ou seja, não há unanimidade e os dois significados existem (dependendo da fonte consultada!).
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Interesting Link

Um ótimo dicionário online gratuito que agora faz companhia para os ótimos recursos (online e free!) para alunos e professores de inglês é o Macmillan Dictionary.

O site é http://www.macmillandictionary.com/ e suas três características mais importantes, na minha opinião, são:

* é possível ouvir a pronúncia dos termos procurados (American accent);
* são sinalizadas as 7.500 palavras mais comuns da língua inglesa (que compõem 90% dos termos usados pelos falantes de inglês);
* alguns termos são sinalizados com "T" (thesaurus) - um link para uma lista de palavras similares e suas definições.

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Slang

Nós conhecemos diversos usos para a expressão hang up, mas aí vai uma gíria americana que vale a pena conhecer:

hang up = quit

I have decided to hang up my teaching job.

Neste contexto a pessoa decidiu parar de dar aulas, já que sabemos que quit significa parar algo em caráter definitivo.

See you soon! ;)

Post April, 13th, 2009

Hey guys! What´s up? Did you have a good Easter? Did you get a lot of chocolates?

Well, today we´ll learn some good but confusing stuff.

Grammar

Do you know when using capital letters? No? So check it out!

Use Capital (T, S, B, etc.) letters for the following types of words:

* Days, Months and Public Holidays

Monday, January, Christmas

* Proper names of People and Places

Jack, Maria, New York, Germany

* Titles for People

Ms, Dr, General

* Nationalities and Regions (both nouns and adjectives)

Dutch, Swedish, Basque

* Titles of Works of Art (content words only)

The Last Day of Summmer, American Journal of Medicine

When to Double Final Consonants

The final consonant of a word is often doubled when adding -ed, -ing, -er, -est in the following cases:

* Double final "b, d, g, l, m, n, p, r and t" at the end of words:

rob - robbing
sad - sadder
big - bigger
travel - traveller
skim - skimming
win - winner
pop - popping
prefer - preferred
hit - hitting

* Double these final letters there is the following pattern "consonant - vowel - consonant" at the end of a word. For example: travel - 'vel' v - consonant - e - vowel l - consonant.
* Words of more than one syllable have their consonants doubled only when the final syllable is stressed.

begin - beginn ing BUT open - opening
defer - deferr ing BUT offer - offering

* When words have more than one syllable and end in 'l' British English always doubles the 'l', even in the case of unstressed syllables. American English, on the other hand, the 'l' is not doubled when the syllable is unstressed.

British English - travelled
American English - traveled
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Joke

Are you in the mood for some fun? ;)

Resolving to surprise her husband, an executive's wife stopped by his office. When she opened the door, she found him with his secretary sitting in his lap. Without hesitating, he dictated, "...and in conclusion, gentlemen, budget cuts or no budget cuts, I cannot continue to operate this office with just one chair."
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Word of the day

ATM

Have you ever heard of the word ATM or ATM machine? ATM means Automated Teller Machine. It is the machine where we are able to get money from our bank account without needing to get into the bank.
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Quote

What´s sucess? A man is a success if he gets up in the morning and goes to bed at night and in between does what he wants to do.

Bob Dylan (1941- )

See you later, guys!

Post April, 7th, 2009

Hi guys!

Today we are going to have some new interesting stuff to study.

Expression

A Steal

This expression is a little confusing if you are a Brazilian student. Why? Well, simply because we have a similar expression in Portuguese that means exactly the opposite. I´ll explain it better...

In Portuguese when we are looking products to buy and we see an expensive one we say:
It´s a steal!!! It means that its price is much higher than it´s worth.

In English it´s the opposite. When we say that something is a steal, it means that it costs much less than it´s worth.

Ex.: I bought a television like that for U$ 200 last week. Here it is only U$ 80. It is a steal!!!
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Interesting Link

This is really cool, guys. There´s a website where you can read several texts of different areas with audio. Yeah, you can listen to it and practice your listening and speaking skills. It´s a Californian website.

Check it here!
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Grammar Tip

Our grammar tip today is something simple, but also interesting.
Do you know the difference between Afraid to and Afraid of? No? Learn it now!!!

When do we use afraid + infinitive (to climb, to say, to go, etc.) and when do we use afraid of + …ing form (climbing, saying, going, etc.)?

We use afraid + infinitive when we explain the fear itself:
Ex.: I am afraid to go out in the dark.
He is afraid to travel by plane.
They are afraid to cross the high bridge over the river.

We use afraid of …ing when we see an unwelcome result of an action:
Ex.: I am afraid of falling. (= I am afraid because I might fall.)
He is afraid of making a mistake. (= He is afraid because he may make a
mistake.)
They are afraid of getting lost in the forest. (= They are afraid because they
may get lost.)

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Business

Today we are going to learn some payment terms. It ´s very useful either if you travel abroad someday or if you shop online.

I'd like to pay (in) cash. - Gostaria de pagar em dinheiro.
I'll put it on my credit card. - Eu vou colocar no cartão.
Could you send me an invoice? - Você poderia me enviar uma fatura?
Can I put it on lay-away? - Posso colocar em lay-away*?

* Lay-away is a form of payment. However, rather than taking the item home and then repaying the debt on a regular schedule, as in most installment plans (parcelamentos), the layaway customer does not receive the item until it is completely paid for. There is typically a fee (taxa) associated with a layaway purchase, since the seller must "lay" (pôr) the item "away" (de lado) in storage until the payments are completed. In the event the customer did not pay the amount due, the item would be returned to stock and any payments would be forfeited (perda por não-cumprimento).

Hope you´ve enjoyed it!

See you soon!

A fresh start

Hi, guys!

I hope you enjoy this new blog. It´s meant to help you improve your English skills. I´ll write it as often as possible, but if you want to get an e-mail warning of the updates, click here.

To start our new blog let´s divide this post into parts.

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Slang
What´s a slang? It´s an informal word we use to express ourselves. Every language has its own slangs and they´re part of a country culture.

Today´s slang is:

Cheesy - barato, brega, pobre de aparência

That is really a cheesy looking outfit.
Esta é uma roupa muito brega.

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Today´s Grammar point

Do you know the difference between few and a few? No? So, check it here:

Few and A Few

We should use "few" in a negative sense and should use "a few" in a positive sense.

Example Sentences

I have few friends in Los Angeles. (The person would like to have more friends.)
I have a few friends in New York. (The person is happy she has friends and is pleased with that.)

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Today´s Quote

Do you know what a quote is? It´s a sentence told by someone. The idea of having a quote here is giving you the opportunity to get some refletion in English in order to exercise your brain a little more. :)

"Take the attitude of a student, never be too big to ask questions, never know too much to learn something new". (Og Mandino - 1923-1996)
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Word of the day:

Trap - verb -

Definition

to catch or be caught by being tricked; to be unable to move or escape.

Example Sentences

He trapped me to talk about our breakup.
I've been trapped by my boss when I was about to leave the office to ask me to work late.

See you soon!