Helping English language learners
Shopping precincts and retail parks are types of shopping centres. In a previous post we discussed the difference between department stores and shopping malls. We said that there were other sorts of shopping centres....
Department stores and shopping malls are places where we go shopping. A department store is usually a large shop where we can buy a wide variety of items such as clothing, luggage, make-up, lighting,...
What’s the difference between horrible and horrid? “Horrible” and “horrid” are synonyms. Both words are used to describe something that is unpleasant. They can also be used to say that something is bad. In...
Up is the opposite of down but show up is not the opposite of showdown. They are two different things entirely. First “show up”. Notice that this consists of two separate words. It is...
“Approve” can mean something different from “approve of”. “Approve” changes its meaning depending on whether or not we follow it with “of”. We use approve without “of” to show that someone agrees to –...
In English there is quite a big difference between “comfortable” and “convenient”, but in some other languages, the difference might not be quite so clear. In Russian, for example, the word “Удобный” (udobnyy) can...
To understand the difference between unperturbed and imperturbable, let’s start with the meaning of “perturbed”, which is something like upset or troubled. We say that someone is “unperturbed” when they are not perturbed –...
“Conscience” is pronounced something like “konshuns” ( /ˈkɑn·ʃəns/ ). If you would like to hear it pronounced by a speaker of British English, click here. We use it to mean knowing what is right...
As a noun, “a joke” is something that is said to make people laugh. And as a verb, “to joke” is to say something to make people laugh. Some examples: (In English there is...
We mostly use “namesake” when two people have both the same first name and the same last name. The idea really originates from the custom (not as common now as it used to be)...