Tag: proverbs

“You snooze, you lose.” – English proverb

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If you snooze, you lose. - English Proverb - Free English Materials For You.jpg

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Example sentences from the web:

  • John: Hey! I wanted a glass of milk too!
    Sarah: It’s too late. You snooze, you lose.
  • Isabel: Mark is so selfish, he knew I wanted to go to the show, but yesterday he bought the last ticket for himself.
    Cristina: If it was so important, why didn’t you buy the ticket before? You snooze, you lose.

you-snooze-you-lose- Learning English Proverbs.png

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“Love is blind” – English proverb

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St. Valentine’s Day is approaching, for this reason, I decided to tell you about this proverb:

love is blind

 

I think this saying is common all around the world, but what is less known is that a research study was conducted to find out if the blindness of love was just a figurative matter. In 2004, a group of researchers of  UCL (University College London) found that feelings of love suppressed the activity of the areas of the brain that control critical thought. So guys … be careful with love be careful with love !

What’s the origin of this proverb?

This saying was first found approximatively in 1405, in Chaucer’s Merchant’s Tale:

For loue is blynd alday and may nat see.

At that time, it didn’t become a popular expression. Only later on, Shakespeare decided to use it in several of his plays making it famous and popular all around the world.

Two Gentlemen of Verona:

SPEED: Because Love is blind. O, that you had mine eyes;
or your own eyes had the lights they were wont to
have when you chid at Sir Proteus for going ungartered!
(2.1.67-69).

 

Irregular verbs

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It’s since a while that I am not uploading posts on grammar. In my opinion, for a beginner is not so easy to memorize irregular verbs, that’s why I decided to make mind maps and other resources on this topic. I hope you’ll find it useful.
Irregular verbs in English - mind map

You can download this mind map on Biggerplate (imx file). If you don’t have the possibility to open this kind of file, just download the image from Free English Materials’ Facebook Page (Album: Mind maps)

Since there are a lot of irregular verbs I decided to make smaller mind maps for each single group. In this way, it will be easier for you to read them.

Group one - one word

GROUP 1 – ONE WORD

  • cut
  • cost
  • hit
  • hurt
  • let
  • put
  • shut

Group two- two words

GROUP 2 – TWO WORDS

  • WITH ‘T’

    – build/built
    – dream/dreamt
    – get/got
    – keep/kept
    – lend/lent
    – shoot/shot
    – send/sent
    – sit/sat
    – sleep/slept
    – spell/spelt
    – spend/spent

  • WITH ‘GHT’

    – bring/brought
    – buy/bought
    – catch/caught
    – fight/fought
    – teach/taught
    – think/thought

  • WITH ‘D’

    – find/found
    – have/had
    – hear/heard
    – hold/held
    – make/made
    – pay/paid
    – read/read
    – say/said
    – stand/stood
    – tell/ told

  • SAME FORM FOR INFINITIVE AND PAST PARTICIPLE

    – become/became
    – come/came
    – run/ran

English Irregular Verbs - Group 3.png
GROUP 3 – THREE WORDS

  • WITH ‘EN’

    – be/was-were/been
    – beat/beat/beaten
    – bite/bit/bitten
    – break/broke/broken
    – choose/chose/chosen
    – drive/drove/driven
    – eat/ate/eaten
    – forget/forgot/forgotten
    – give/gave/given
    – hide/hid/hidden
    – ride/rode/ridden
    – rise/rose/risen
    – see/saw/seen
    – speak/spoke/spoken
    – steal/stole/stolen
    – take/took/taken
    – wake/woke/woken
    – write/wrote/written 
  • WITH ‘E’ – ‘WN’

    – blow/blew/blown
    – draw/drew/drawn
    – fly/flew/flown
    – grow/grew/grown
    – know/knew/known
    – show/showed/shown
    – throw/threw/thrown 
  • WITH ‘I’- ‘A’- ‘U’

    – begin/began/begun
    – drink/drank/drunk
    – ring/rang/rung
    – sing/sang/sung
    – swim/swam/swum

I’ll upload soon some quizzes on this topic. 😉

SIMPLE PRESENT OR PRESENT PROGRESSIVE?

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Simple present or present progressive?

Answers

Taken from Alexander, L. G. (1998), Longman English Grammar Practice for intermediate students, Harlow, Longman

“Every cloud has a silver lining” – English proverb

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Every cloud has a silver lining

This phrase is often said to people who are feeling down or depressed in an attempt to try and cheer them up.
Here you can read some information on this proverb: Origin of this proverb.

 
Example sentences from the web:
  • Well, I suppose it’s nice to know that every cloud has a silver lining.

  • Interview With Mexican Quake Witness (CNN, 2003):

    HARRIS: Well, actually, then, if that’s the case, this toll of only 23 deaths can — I should say — shouldn’t say only 23 deaths — but 23 deaths is actually quite a low number, considering the fact this could be a lot worse, then.
    PETERS: In fact, Mexican authorities are saying they’re quite amazed that the casualties appear to be so low at this point. They do expect them to rise, but they say — well, I guess every cloud has a silver lining. This may be that for this earthquake because previous earthquakes of this magnitude in Mexico have killed hundreds.
    HARRIS: Well, here’s hoping that silver lining gets even bigger and more pronounced there. Thank you, Gretchen Peters, thank you very much. We appreciate it. Take care. Gretchen Peters of the ” Christian Science Monitor ” talking to us from Mexico City.

  • Don’t forget that every cloud has a silver lining. The sun will shine again.

Words from the example sentences you may not know:

  • TOLL: the extent of loss, damage, suffering, etc., resulting from some action or calamity: The toll was 200 persons dead or missing.
  • CASUALTIES: loss in numerical strength through any cause, as death, wounds, sickness, capture, or desertion.
  • EARTHQUAKE: a shaking of a part of the earth’s surface that often causes great damage

“You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make him drink.” – English proverb

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ENGLISH PROVERB 31-08

English Proverb 31-08

Example from the web:

  • You can go to all the therapy in the world and as I — as the saying goes, you can lead a horse to water, you can’t make them drink. Unless you decide you want to change and go through the work of changing yourself, it ain’t going to happen.

“Two heads are better than one.” – English Proverb

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Two heads are better than oneExample sentences from the web:

  • Mary: Can you figure out what this insurance document means?
    John: Why ask me? I don’t know anything about insurance.
    Mary: Neither do I, but two heads are better than one.
  • I couldn’t figure out the answer of the puzzle so I asked Sarah to help me out. After a short time, we figured out the answer. It really shows that two heads are better than one.

Words from the example sentences you may not know:

  • INSURANCE = coverage under a contract in which one party agrees to compensate another for a loss.
  • TO FIGURE OUT = to solve; to understand.

“The pen is mightier than the sword”. – English proverb

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proverb_-_28-05

The pen is usually linked with writing while the sword is a weapon. Only who is strong can wield a sword. But words can flow from the pen of even a feeble man.
A person can cause people to change their opinions and not by force. Those who control information have far more power than those with military force.