Archive for the ‘Vocabulary’ Category

What is a best boy? And key grip for that matter.
Did you ever notice those terms in the credits at the end of movies? Best Boy. What on earth is a best boy? (more…)

Here are two more words that sound exactly the same but have different meanings. (more…)

These two words sound exactly the same but have different meanings (more…)

Several sources claim that Shakespeare used nearly 30,000 different words in his works. However, we need to ask what we mean by “different words”. Is it reasonable to count go and going and gone as three different words? If we count go and going and gone as one word (GO), then Shakespeare used fewer than 20,000 “different words”.

What’s the most times you can repeat the same word consecutively in a sentence and still retain meaning? Here’s a sentence with 7 words in a row. (more…)

So how much is a billion?

Answer: 1,000,000,000 (one thousand million)

Sub-plot: In American English a billion is 1,000,000,000. In British English a billion used to be, and technically still may be, 1,000,000,000,000 (one million million); but in practical usage British English now treats a billion the same as American English does: 1,000,000,000.

Nevertheless, a British billionaire is still worth more than an American billionaire (slightly more than twice as much at today’s rate of exchange).

These two words are often confused. They both have several meanings, but today we will look at their basic meaning of change.

Affect is a verb, basically meaning: cause to change; make a difference to

• The cold weather affected my health.
• If you don’t study it will affect your exam results badly.
• How you dress affects the way people think of you.

Effect is a noun, meaning: a change that is the result of something else

• The cold weather had an effect on my health.
• Hard drugs can have deadly effects.
• Her love letters had no effect on him.

As mentioned above, both words can have other meanings as well, and effect can also be a verb (with a different meaning). Just remember that in the sense of “change” as shown above the noun is effect and the verb is affect.

Here are some words we use in English that are also “international words” - you see and hear them almost everywhere. So even if you are starting to learn English, you already speak it!

hello

football

telephone, phone

hotel

taxi

toilet

museum

TV

pizza

sandwich

restaurant

city

hamburger

video

Can you put each of these collective nouns in the right sentence below? You must use each noun once only.

pack | herd | fleet | suite | audience | crowd

1. The farmer moved his __________ of cows to higher ground to avoid the flood.

2. The President and his staff had a __________ of rooms on the top floor.

3. After the concert the __________ clapped loudly.

4. It was difficult to move because there were so many people in the __________.

5. Which navy has the biggest __________ in the world?

6. The casino uses a new __________ of cards for each game.

See Comments for answers.