Confusing verbs and prepositions: to remind or to remember? to remind about or of?

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Since some of you quite liked my last post about prepositions, I thought I would write another one on the same topic. This time we’ll focus on the verb ‘to remind’ and the prepositions that can follow it.

But first, I would like to point out the difference between two verbs that students often seem to confuse: ‘to remind’ and ‘to remember’.

1) TO REMEMBER SOMETHING OR DOING SOMETHING

To remember something or doing something means to have a memory of it like in the following examples:

I remember meeting you at the party. >> I have a memory of meeting you at the party.

I remember her from my school days, we were in the same year. >> I have a memory of her from my school days.

Notice that when used to talk about your memories, ‘to remember’ is followed by a noun/pronoun (her) or a gerund (meeting).

2) TO REMEMBER SOMETHING OR TO DO SOMETHING

To remember something or to do something is used when talking about something that it’s on your to-do-list or that you shouldn’t forget:

Will you remember to buy potatoes on your way home?

I’m so sorry, I didn’t remember your birthday!

As you can see in the above examples, remember is never followed by ‘someone’ so the structure ‘to remember someone to do something’ would be incorrect in English. Instead, you should use ‘remind’ in this case.

TO REMIND SOMEONE SO THEY WON’T FORGET

1) If you remind someone to do something, you make sure they will remember to do something that they have to do:

Don’t worry, I’ll remind Dad to pick you up from school. >> I’ll make sure he’ll remember he needs to pick you up.

2) If you remind someone ABOUT something, you want to make sure they won’t forget about it:

I’d like to remind you about tomorrow’s meeting, please come ready. >> I’d like to make sure you haven’t forgotten about tomorrow’s meeting

TO REMIND SOMEONE OF SOMETHING/SOMEONE ELSE BECAUSE OF SOME SIMILARITY

1) If someone reminds you OF someone else, it means that you think these people are somehow similar. Have a look at this example:

Lucy reminds me of my cousin Mary. They are both very friendly and chatty.

2) The same can be said if something reminds you OF something else:

This place reminds me of my home town. It’s just dead and boring. >> My home town is also dead and boring

TO REMIND SOMEONE OF SOMETHING/SOMEONE ELSE >> TO BRING BACK MEMORIES FROM THE PAST

If something reminds you OF someone/something it means that this thing (a place, food, a song etc) brings back some memories from the past like in the following sentences:

This food reminds me of my mum. She used to cook a delicious fish pie.

This song reminds me of our holiday in Cuba.

Hope this helps! 🙂
Talk soon,
Deb

You can’t be bothered to read this blog post and would rather listen to someone reading it?

Then click here to listen to my first podcast!

Confusing prepositions: to shout at or to someone?

Prepositions are always tricky for students to get their head around. Especially when the same verb can be followed by either of two prepositions like in the case of ‘shout’. So which is the right preposition to use after ‘shout’, is it ‘at’ or ‘to’?

Well, you could use either and both would be correct but the meaning of ‘shout’ would change.

TO SHOUT AT SOMEONE

If you shout at someone, you’re angry. So in the middle of an argument between two people, you might hear one of them say:

“It wasn’t my fault, why are you shouting at me?”

or

“Why do you always shout at me for no reason?”

TO SHOUT TO SOMEONE

If you shout to someone, you want to attract their attention maybe because they’re far or can’t see you. For instance, you might be walking and suddenly see a friend of yours across the street and to attract their attention you shout to them.

“I was on my way to the library when I saw Mark across the street, I tried shouting to him but he didn’t hear me”.

Another verb that behaves like ‘shout’ is ‘throw’. Have a look at these examples:

“Mark threw the ball to me” >> in this instance, Mark just passed me the ball for me to catch it.

“Mark threw the ball at me (and hurt my eye)” >> in this case Mark was mean and wanted to hit me!

So when deciding which preposition to use, first understand what the intention is.
Hope the choice of which prepositions to use after ‘shout’ or ‘throw’ won’t bug you any more!
Talk soon,
Deb 🙂

Medical English: English for pregnancy

As one of my students has recently found out she’s pregnant – and, consequently, came to me with a lot of vocabulary-related questions- I’ve decided to write a post about it!

I suppose this could fall into Medical English if you like!

I didn’t want to write a mere list of terms and definitions because I believe that, in order to learn new words, you should try to study them in context. In this way, it’s more likely that they’ll stick with you (=you’ll remember them).

First of all, to find out you’re pregnant you have to do a pregnancy test that can easily be bought at a local pharmacy. Next, you want to see your GP (General Practitioner) who is going to refer you to a hospital for your first antenatal appointment. At the appointment you’ll meet your midwife who will take care of you during your pregnancy, have a blood test and hand in your urine sample so that they can check you’re healthy and not lacking any vitamins, for instance.

The first trimester can be quite exhausting for some expectant mothers, a lot of them experience morning sickness and an ongoing metallic taste in their mouth which is quite annoying. If you live in London like I do, this is also a good time to request a ‘baby on board’ badge to wear when taking the tube (you just need to write an email to Transport for London and within a few days you get it delivered by mail!). Indeed you won’t have a bump yet but you want people to be more cautious, especially during rush hour.

During your 12^th week, you should get your first scan which is quite exciting as you get to see the baby for the first time and hear their heartbeat! The ultrasound specialist will also be able to tell you your due date (= when you’ll give birth). At this point, you might want to tell your employer about your pregnancy and discuss when going on maternity leave.

Twenty weeks into your pregnancy (by then, apparently, you should have a little bump, make sure you use a cream to avoid stretch marks..), you’ll get your second scan and, should you want to, find out the sex*of your baby.

Depending how far in your pregnancy you are, you might want to go and check the delivery room where you’ll be admitted to once your water breaks and you go into labour . Should you not like it, you can self-refer yourself to another hospital.

To get ready for the delivery, mums and dads-to-be usually go to antenatal classes.

These are some of the questions you might want to ask a pregnant woman:

How far in your pregnancy are you?**

When are you due?

And this is how you answer (should you be the expectant mother):
I’m + number + weeks (pregnant) i.e. I’m 15 weeks pregnant
I’m due on + date / in + month

That’s it for now, I hope you’ve learned some new terms there!
Talk soon,
Deb

*what’s the difference between the words ‘gender’ and ‘sex’? This seems to be a question which often bugs people. To put it in a nutshell, when you talk about biology you should use the word ‘sex’ while when referring to the ‘social aspect’ you should use ‘gender’. So, for instance, if you do Gender Studies at university, you’ll learn about the role of men and women in different cultures, you’ll study politics, feminism etc.

** This is a useful structure to learn, look at this other example:
How far in the book are you? I’ve read 200 pages and I’m loving it!

Natural English: the suffix -ish

‘-ish‘ is definitively my favourite English suffix. I know what you’re thinking: ‘she must be a real grammar geek to have a favourite suffix’. You’re not wrong, I am indeed passionate about grammar 🙂

Anyway, I think that if you start getting into the habit of using ‘ish’ every now and then, your English will sound more natural. Here are some situations where you could use this suffix:

1- ish and numbers

What time shall we meet?

Seven-ish.

Used with numbers, -ish means ‘around‘. So not quite seven but around seven. The same is true when you talk about someone’s age: I think she’s fortyish but I’m not sure.

This is a good one if you don’t want to commit yourself too much and if you show up 20 minutes late, you could always say: ‘I said seven-ish not seven sharp!‘ and if you don’t want to say an exact time you can go for ‘I’ll be home soonish‘.

2- ish and adjectives

What does she look like?

She’s blondish.

Used with adjectives, -ish means ‘fairly’ or ‘slightly’. So she’s not super blond but she still falls into the category of blond. The same happens with colours: What colour is your dress? Bluish.

2- ish and nouns

What’s he like?

He’s childish and boring.

Meaning that he behaves like a child. So if someone has got a girlish face, their face looks like that of a young girl.

Bear in mind that in a formal context the use of the suffix ‘ish’ could sound too colloquial.

Talk soon!
Deb 🙂

Useful English: how to succeed in a job interview

If you have a job interview in English lined up, you might want to give this post a read. I’m going to present some language that you can use to answer the most common questions interviewers usually ask.

As an interviewee, you’re likely to be asked the four following questions:

 

What are your strengths?

Here are some expressions/words that you might want to use to address this question:

• I’m good at + doing something: I’m good at planning / dealing with people;
• I’m good with + something: I’m good with numbers;
• People say I’m..: people say I’m very hard-working;
• I’ve often been praised for + skills / doing something: I’ve often been praised for my organisational skills / being always on time;
• My time management is excellent;
• I’m reliable;
• to cope with something: I can cope with stressful situations;
• to strive + to do something: I always strive to meet deadlines / achieve my goals;
• I’m particularly proud of + skills: I’m particularly proud of my ability to deal with multiple tasks;

What are your weaknesses?

• I find it difficult + to-infinitive: I find it difficult to say ‘no’;
• I struggle with + someone/ something / doing something: I sometimes struggle with people who don’t work hard / prioritising;
• I have trouble + doing something: I occasionally have trouble prioritising tasks;
• I used to + infinitive but now: I used to have difficulties in prioritising* but I have now learnt ..;

>>> I’d suggest that you use adverbs like ‘sometimes’ or ‘occasionally’ in your response to make your answer sound ‘less negative’. Also by using ‘I used to + infinitive‘ you’re underlining that you’ve worked on your weakness and finally overcome it.

*Notice the structure: to have difficulties in + doing something.

Tell me about your experience/ your current job.

• to be in charge of: as a Sales Director, I’m in charge of strategic planning;
• to be responsible for: as a Sales Director, I’m responsible for strategic planning;
• to lead a team: I lead a team of five people;
• my main duties include + (doing) something: my main duties include strategic planning and setting targets etc;
• my field is + sector/ science / industry: my field is human resource / psychology ..;

What made you apply for this job?

• I think this job is a perfect match for my skills
• I think this job would suit me because…
• I want to bring my career to the next level
• I think it would be both challenging and rewarding
• My aim is to become XXXX in five years time;
• I’d like to move on in my career as a Sales Director and this looks like an excellent opportunity;

Grammar you need to revise

Make sure you revise the following grammar before your interview:

• Present Perfect: I have worked in my current job for 12 years / since 2002*;
• Past Simple: I worked for 5 years in marketing before starting working for XXX;
• Present Perfect Continuous: (lately) I have been working on a very important project..;
• 2nd Conditional: If I was offered the job, I’d be able to start in a month (using the 2nd conditional makes you sound less pretentious 🙂

*for+ period of time (two days, three months, five hours)
since+ point in time (2010, April, Tuesday, five o’clock)

Hope this helps and good luck 🙂
Deb

Learning new words methodically

With some of my students I’ve recently started to work on broadening their vocabulary. I’ve tried to come up with something that would help them remember new words and how to use them. In my experience, most of the students tend to write down lists of words and try to learn them by heart. I wanted to provide them with a more methodical way of expanding their vocabulary.

This is what I came up with:

Click on the picture to see it bigger

At the end of each lesson (not necessarily focused on vocabulary), I ask my student what new words they’ve learnt. I then take a few pieces of paper (I’ve always keep them at hand) like the one in the picture and ask the student to write down each new word on a separate slip. I then ask them to think about the following aspects of each new word:

1. Part of speech: is the word a noun / adjective / verb etc?
2. Pronunciation: how do you pronounce it? Can you spot any pronunciation rules we’ve talked about?
3. Register: is it formal or informal English?
4. Opposites / synonyms: can you think of its opposite / a synonym?
5. Collocations: what words usually follow / come before this word?
6. Structure (especially if the word is a verb): is it transitive or intransitive? what preposition usually follows?
7. Example: can you think of an example sentence containing this word?

The student writes all this information for each new word on the corresponding slip of paper (so make sure your pieces are not too small!). I then suggest that whenever they have some time to kill (for example, when waiting for the bus, when commuting to work etc) they should take out their set of cards and revise them.

Potentially, you could even make the student write derivatives on the back.

When the students has started using these words in their everyday life and feel quite comfortable using them, they can chuck them away and start learning new ones!

What do you think? Could this work for you?
Talk soon 🙂

Deb

Pronunciation: what’s the difference between want and won’t?

Pronunciation is one of the tricky aspects of learning English. There are few rules and lots of exceptions, this is way listening to podcasts and watching movies/series is so important. The more you’re exposed to the language, the easier it’ll be to learn the right pronunciation.

Today I’d like to point out the differences between words that sometimes students perceive as having the same pronunciation. This often happens with ‘minimal pairs‘: words that differ in their pronunciation only for one sound, like ‘want’ and ‘won’t’.
Other times it’s the spelling of a word that misleads the reader into pronouncing it as a different word, some students have a hard time distinguishing between ‘heart’ and ‘earth’ (and what about ‘hurt’?!).

Also, people in the UK pronounce some words differently from people in the U.S. One of the striking features of British pronunciation is that the ‘r’ is often silent. For instance, to say ‘nurse’ an American would say nɜːrs while a British would drop the ‘r’ and say nɜːs. 

In London it gets even ‘worse’ as some people tend to drop even the ‘t’. For instance, ‘a bottle of water’ becomes ‘ˈbɒʔl əv ˈwɔːʔə’ >> Click here to listen to a Londoner saying this sentence but don’t panic! Remember that you can always remind these Brits that you’re not from here and it’d be nice if they could make an effort to pronounce words properly 🙂

This symbol ‘ʔ’ is called ‘glottal stop‘ and replaces the ‘t’ in the sentence above. If you are passionate about languages you can read more about the ‘glottal stop’ here.

If you’re not familiar with the International Phonetic Alphabet that I use in this post, the British Council website has very useful chart that you can find here. The phonetic transcriptions that you find below refer to BrE and not AmE (that’s why the ‘r’ is not there!).

Below you find a list of the most common words students find confusing. Try to read them aloud and then check your pronunciation by clicking here and listen to a Londoner saying these words.

WANT & WON’T

/wɒnt/          /wəʊnt/

COURSE & CAUSE

/kɔːs/                 /kɔːz/

WORK & WALK

/wɜːk/              /wɔːk/

WORD & WORLD

/wɜːd/             /wɜːld/

LOW & LAW

/ləʊ/           /lɔː/

HAIR & HER (and EAR!)

/heə/          /hə/          /ɪə/

EARTH & HEART (and HURT!)

/ɜːθ/      /hɑːt/     / hɜːt/

BAG & BEG (and BUG!)

/bæɡ/      /beg/      /bʌɡ/

TEETH & THIEF

/tiːθ/    /θiːf/

SHIT & SHEET  – this one is a classic 🙂

/ʃɪt/        /ʃɪ:t/

Hope you’ve found this post useful,

/tɔːk   su:n/ ! 🙂

Deb

Informal English: How to Invite Someone Out

Students often complain that the way people speak in the street isn’t the same as the way they learn to do in class. So in this post I just tried to think what words and expressions I’d use to invite someone out. In the most natural/informal way possible..

HOW TO INVITE SOMEONE OUT

Obviously you could go for the standard question ‘Would you like to go to the cinema tonight?’. Nothing wrong with it, but how about trying one of these alternatives which sound a bit more ‘informal’?

• FANCY+ING: do you fancy going to the cinema tonight?
• FANCY + NOUN: (do you) fancy a movie tonight?
• FEEL LIKE + ING: do you feel like going to the cinema tonight?
• FEEL LIKE+ NOUN: do you feel like a movie tonight?
• TO BE UP FOR + ING: are you up for going to the cinema tonight?
• TO BE UP FOR + NOUN: are you up for a movie tonight?
• WANNA + INFINITIVE (WITHOUT TO): wanna go the the cinema tonight?

HOW TO REFUSE

A good way to start is always “I’d love to but..” what could come after this ‘but’? Well, what are your reasons?

1. if you’re tired you could say “I’d love to but I’m shattered / knackered / dead (these are all synonyms of being exhausted), work was quite full-on (=intense) today“.
2. if you’re busy you could say “I’d love to but I’m already booked (=use this if you want to sound snobby) / I can’t make it / it’s not going to happen as I’m meeting up with this other guy tonight “
3. if you’re sad you could say “I’d love to but I’m not in the mood / I don’t feel like it / I’m not really up for it”
4. if you feel ill you could say “I’d love to but I’m feeling a bit under the weather “

HOW TO TAKE YOUR TIME

• “I’m not sure, I’ll give you a ring / bell later” >> to give someone a ring or bell = to phone someone
• “Sorry I’m out and about now, can I call you back?” >> to be out and about = to be out of the house busy doing stuff
• “Sorry I’m tied up now, can you ring me back?” >> to be tied up = to be busy doing something
• “Not sure, I’ll text you later”

HOW TO SHOW ENTHUSIASM

• “Yeah, I’m up for it!” or even “Yeah, I’m 100% up for it!”
• “That’s a plan!”
• “I was going to suggest the same thing!”

HOW NOT TO SHOW ENTHUSIASM

• “Yeah..whatever..I’ll come along”
• “I’m not really into cinema but I don’t mind coming if you wanna go” >> not to mind (doing) something = something doesn’t get me excited but I’m not totally against it.
• “That sounds like the most terrible idea ever” >> superlative + ever = ‘ever’ makes the superlative sounds even stronger: “the most terrible idea I’ve ever heard in my life or that anyone has ever heard“

Enjoy your night out! 😉

New Year’s Resolutions and Revision of Future Tenses

Back To The Future

Like the beginning of every new year, here I am thinking about my resolutions for 2014. So I  thought I’d write a post on how to talk about your new year’s resolutions and, while we’re at  it, why not revise the full range of future tenses in the English language?

TO BE GOING TO

This is the tense you’d use to talk about your new year’s resolutions since ‘to be going to’ is used when expressing an intention:
es. This year I’m going to learn a new language.

‘to be going to’ is also used to make a prediction when there is evidence:
es. Look at those clouds! It’s going to rain (read below about making predictions not based on any evidence)

PRESENT CONTINUOUS

You should use this tense when talking about a fixed plan or arrangement:
es. I’m flying to London tomorrow. (= I bought the ticket so it’s a fixed plan, not a mere intention)

PRESENT SIMPLE

Use this tense when talking about something which is scheduled:
es. The train leaves at 4 o’clock.

WILL (FUTURE SIMPLE)

This can come as a surprise but ‘will’ is not used to talk about future plans or intentions. Instead we use ‘will’ for:

1. decisions on the spot: “Oh I’m late! I’ll take a taxi!”
2. predictions NOT based on any evidence (usually with verbs like think, believe etc) : “I think she won’t pass the exam” 
3. promises: “I’ll be there no matter what!”

FUTURE CONTINUOUS** (will/won’t+be+ -ing)

Use this tense when talking about an action that will be in progress at or around a time in the future:
es. This time next week, I’ll be lying on a beach.

FUTURE PERFECT (will/won’t+have+past participle)

When speaking about the completion of an action BY a specific time in the future, we use the ‘future perfect’ :
es. I’ll have finished this report by Friday afternoon.

FUTURE PERFECT CONTINUOUS (will/won’t+have+been+ -ing)

Also, like with the present perfect continuous, you should use the ‘future perfect continuous’ when talking about the duration of an action in the future. 
es. By the end of this year, I’ll have been working for this company for three years.

MIGHT

If you’re a person (like me) who finds it difficult to make plans because you’re never sure and you need time to think about it etc. Then you can use ‘might’ when talking about plans/intentions you are not sure about:
es. I might go to the party (or I might not go, I haven’t made up my mind yet!)

** You can also use the ‘present perfect continuous’ to talk about future plans if you want to add emphasis or sound more formal:
es. Sir, when will you be arriving at the hotel?

Here’s a short letter where a mix of future tenses are used:

I’m going to Thailand tomorrow, my bus leaves at six in the morning. So this time tomorrow I’ll be lying on a beach.  But love, I promise I’ll think about you a lot and I’m going to call you as soon as I get there. I might go and see Francisca while I’m there but haven’t decided yet. Anyway, I’m also going to work on my book while there (I checked the weather forecast and it’s going to rain on Saturday). I’ll have finished the first chapter by the end of my holiday. I can’t believe I’ll have been travelling in Asia for two months by then!

What’s the difference between “if” and “whether”?

Studio Album by Mindless Self Indulgence album

One of my students asked me this question recently so I thought I’d write a blog post about it because it looks like a question that often bugs English learners.

As usual, looking at some examples will make the rule clearer. So here you go:

Whether

1. I asked Jenny whether she is coming to the party.*
2. Whether you like it or not, you’ll have to tidy up your room!

In the first example it’s unsure whether Jenny is coming to the party or not. This is why you use whether instead of if: the outcome is not certain – she might come or she might not come.

In the second example, “whether you like it or not” is a set sentence that means “it doesn’t matter if/whether you like it or you don’t like it”. Being a set sentence, this time you can’t replace whether with if: if you like it or not –wrong!

* Note: it’s not uncommon to hear native speakers use if instead of whether in similar sentences.

If

If I had more money, I’d buy a house.
What if I quit my job?
If it rains, I won’t go out

If is usually found in conditional sentences like the ones above. In this case, you can’t use whether because you’re presenting only one option/possible scenario: that of you having more money, that of you quitting your job etc

TIP: when to use whether and when to use if

If you can add “or not” to a sentence and it still makes perfect sense, then you know you can use whether:

My decision to come depends on whether my wife wants me to (or not)

>> in this instance my decision on whether or not to come will depend on whether or not my wife wants me to.

In all other instances, just go for if!