Helping English language learners
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)...
We use “erroneous” to mean “mistaken”, “false” or “containing errors”. It’s an adjective related to the noun “error”. We often use it with “information” (“erroneous information”) but can be used with many other nouns...
Christmas is celebrated in many countries around the world. Different countries have different traditions. Here are some British traditions.
In the United Kingdom, ‘Christmas Day’ is celebrated on 25th December. Traditionally families gather together to exchange presents, to eat and to drink.
We use collective nouns to refer to a collection of individual people, creatures or objects. Examples: In British English, we can treat a collective noun as either singular or plural, depending on the context....
When you say “my foot!” you are telling someone that you don’t believe – or strongly disagree with – what someone has told you. It is an idiom used to express disbelief or incredulity....
You would normally say “I crave an apple pie”, and not “I crave for an apple pie”. One definition of the verb “to crave” is “to have a great desire for”. If you were...
“To cherish” is a verb meaning to value greatly or to hold in great affection. We can use it in the present, past and future tenses. Here are some examples. Present tense: She was...