Tag: repertoire
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Under the sun
Phrase: Under the Sun People often use the phrase under the sun in daily conversation to describe talking about various topics. For example, you might say, “We talked about everything under the sun yesterday.” This means that you and the person you were talking to discussed topics ranging from your jobs to your families and…
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Cry wolf
Phrase: Cry wolf If you want to expand your vocabulary repertoire, follow the news. You can learn the English language, or any language for that matter, from the newspaper. Recent European events have provided us with the opportunity to look at the idiom cry wolf. When someone cries wolf, they raise a false alarm. Do…
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The gift of gab
Phrase: The gift of gab They call it the gift of gab, but really it’s the ability to speak fluently and with eloquence. Language students say they want to speak like a native speaker, but what does that mean? Do you want to talk like a high school student or an undergrad at university? Donald…
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Vice versa
WotD: Vice versa Remember what I said on November 12th about Latin? No? Well, let me paraphrase for you. If you want your English to be more sophisticated, you need to know some standard Latin terms. Vice versa is another one of those that you should know. It means that if one thing is true…
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Two cents’ worth
Phrase: Two cents’ worth From time to time, in conversations, I, in my role as a teacher, intentionally say things that entice students to contribute their two cents’ worth (or more) to the discussion. It’s called playing devil’s advocate. A good conversation teacher knows how to create a desire in their students to say something. Japanese students…
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How goes the battle?
Idiom: How goes the battle? The idiom how goes the battle? is another way to ask someone how they are doing. The idiom ‘how goes the battle?‘ is another way to ask someone how they are doing. It refers to the daily struggle of life as a battle. Of course, we have the standard ‘how…
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Bug
Word of the Day: Bug You can think of bug as an insect, bacteria or virus that you can catch such as a cold. You can think of it as a device or software that someone secretly puts into your phone to hear your private conversations. You can think of bug as a problem in…
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Dappled
Word of the Day: Dappled Dappled is a lovely little adjective that you can use to describe something covered with light and dark spots. For example, in the accompanying picture, you can see the sunlight shining through the trees onto the road. Dappled is used to describe something covered with light and dark spots. The road is…
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Repertoire
WotD: Repertoire If you know something about how to tell the origin of English words, you probably have already noticed that repertoire comes from the French language. A person’s repertoire is all the things that they can do. For example, if a person is a poet or author, it contains all their written works. If you are an English…
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The thing
Word of the Day: The thing You will hear native English speakers say the thing multiple times daily, but what are they talking about? The thing is precisely the idea, fact, question, etc., that the person needs, is talking about or means. Many students say, ‘English is too difficult!’ But, you see, that’s just it. English…
