Tag: ESL

Inane – What does it mean?

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Inane

Example sentences from the web:

  • He’s always making inane remarks.
  • Five minutes have passed since you started this inane conversation.
  • The film’s plot is inane and full of clichés.

Words from the example sentences you may not know:

– To yammer => (informal) to talk in an annoying way usually for a long time.
– Cliché => something that people have said or done so much that it has become boring or has no real meaning.

Elanguest YouTube Channel

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Elanguest has a fantastic YouTube channel where you can find a variety of videos with subtitles.

For instance, this is a video on English vocabulary (topic: hotel). It is perfect for those who are willing to review their vocabulary before going on holidays abroad. In this video, you can read, see, and hear all the most common words related to this topic:

Another video that could come in handy is on shopping vocabulary:

Elanguest’s videos are not only related to English vocabulary. For example, this one is on Active and Passive forms and their uses in English (Grammar):

The topic of the following video is Present simple/continuous:

“A penny for your thoughts” – English idiom

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A penny for your thoughts

Image source

Example sentences from the web:

  • A: What do you think of global warming?
    B: I don’t know.
    A: Penny for your thoughts?
    B: Well, if you want to know, I feel like people aren’t doing enough to stop it!
  • Noticing his friend was sad, Joe asked, “A penny for your thoughts?”
  • A: What do you think about Lisa? Penny for your thoughts?
    B: People don’t like Lisa very much because she is always giving her opinion, even if people aren’t asking for it.

A video on this idiom by Englishcafe:

Collocations with ‘journey’

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I made this mind map because students often confuse these collocations. In this way, I hope it will be easier for you to remember the most common verbs you can use with this word.

Collocations with 'journey'

Download the pdf version of this mind map: Verbs + journey or the imx file available on Biggerplate.

These are the most common collocations with ‘journey’ + adjective or adjective + ‘journey’:

collocations with journey 2

You can download this mind map (imx file) on Biggerplate.

Example sentences from the web with some of these collocations:

  • The train journey, which I’ve taken from Pyongyang to the border, takes about five hours.
  • In the evening, five days after leaving Irkutsk, the train arrived in the Russian-administered city of Harbin. Here my grandfather decided to end his long railway journey.
  • Rebecca was exhausted, jet-lagged, hot, still shaking from the hour-long bumper car journey from the airport.
  • The Yellow River’s epic journey across northern China is a prism through which to see the country’s unfolding water crisis.
  • I traded in my luxury car and briefcase for a pair of walking shoes and a backpack and started a cross-country journey from Times Square.
  • It was the worst possible scenario on the best of all trips: a sentimental journey into the finest elk country in the West.
  • I chose not to call him to wish him a safe journey.
  • In a long, hazardous journey west, G. reached Portugal in mid-1941, and later went to London.
  • Achieving a representative form of government has been a long and tortuous journey, and the search for equity and justice has been an ongoing attempt to find or fashion a world that recognizes and respects all of those who live in it.

Test – Time adverbs/ expressions

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Fill in the blanks with time adverbs or expressions written in the box:
16-08-2015 Test

Tomorrow the answers will be available on Facebook: Free English Materials (Album: Quizzes’ answers).

Click here for an interactive version of this quiz: Test – Time adverbs/expressions

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“Unconditional” – What does it mean?

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Unconditional

Example sentences from the web:

  • No terms except an unconditional and immediate surrender can be accepted.
  • This position corresponds to the American strategy to accelerate unconditional liberalization of the world market.
  • After the disaster, there was so much unconditional love around people, they were ready to sacrifice their own lives for others, for strangers.

Unconditionally – Kate Perry

Oh no, did I get too close oh?
Oh, did I almost see what’s really on the inside?
All your insecurities
All the dirty laundry
Never made me blink one time

Unconditional, unconditionally
I will love you unconditionally
There is no fear now
Let go and just be free
I will love you unconditionally

Come just as you are to me
Don’t need apologies
Know that you are all worthy
I’ll take your bad days with your good
Walk through this storm I would
I’d do it all because I love you, I love you

Unconditional, unconditionally
I will love you unconditionally
There is no fear now
Let go and just be free
I will love you unconditionally

So open up your heart and just let it begin
Open up your heart, and just let it begin
Open up your heart, and just let it begin
Open up your heart
Acceptance is the key to be
To be truly free
Will you do the same for me?

Unconditional, unconditionally
I will love you unconditionally
And there is no fear now
Let go and just be free
‘Cause I will love you unconditionally (oh yeah)

I will love you
I will love you
I will love you unconditionally

LyricsTraining link to this song: (Fill in the gaps).

‘In a pickle’ – English idiom

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In a pickle

Example sentences from the web:

  • Listen, I’m in a little bit of a pickle right now. Could you come to my place and pick me up?
  • He was in a bind, a bit of a pickle, sort of distressed.
  • I noticed that you were in a bit of a pickle yesterday. I’m sorry, but I was in a hurry and I couldn’t help you. Did you manage to finish your essay in time?

Words and expressions from the example sentences you may not know:

  • TO PICK UP SOMEONE =>
  • IN A BIND => Like ‘in a pickle’, it means ‘in a difficult situation’; ‘in trouble’.

This idiom is well explained here: In a Pickle: And Other Funny Idioms.

Learn English Through Stories

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I found this channel on YouTube which I think could be extremely useful for beginners and intermediate students.
Besides, you have subtitles on each video which is great ;-).

This is a Level 1 video on London:

 

This is the channel’s link: Stories To Learn English

This is Beauty and the Beast (Level 1):

For more advanced English students, this is a Level 6 video. Pride and Prejudice: