Vocabulary

What word, if any, goes in each space? We’re meeting up __ 5:00 __ Tuesday, so don’t be late! ___ next week, I’m flying to Australia.  I can’t wait to see a kangaroo! My sister called me __ Saturday morning, and woke me up! I graduated college __ 2005, and started working __ New York […]

This idiom is often used in situations where things aren’t going too well, and you need to prioritize what the most urgent matters are. If someone mentions a problem that can be dealt with or solved later, you use this expression to tell them that. This is especially true if the problem may never arise.

In romantic relationships, there are different names for the people in them depending on how close they are:

Boyfriend and girlfriend are those whose relationships are still shiny and new. Once people recognize them as “going out”, the two become a couple, and stay that way until they break up.

Then, if the relationship grows closer, but they don’t have a formal ceremony, they become partners, and usually refer to the other person as “my partner” or “my significant other”.

“A lot of” or “lots of” can be used to substitute “much” or “many”. It marks a large, unidentified amount.

She has many/a lot of ‘friends’, but only a few close friends.
I don’t have much/lots of money on me—I’d better go to the bank.

“A lot” or “lots” can also be an adverb, but without the ‘of’!

These two words may seem like they have similar meanings, but they are not actually synonyms.

“To be” is one of the most common words in English. It has two main functions.

“To Stay”, on the other hand, means “to remain in one place” or “to temporarily reside”:

This is a common expression, both on its own and as a part of a larger sentence.

Be careful with it, because neither “you” nor “tell” means what you might think at first.

“You” here is the generic you; it doesn’t mean the speaker is actually talking to someone. Spanish often uses either “tú” or the reflexive in these cases.

This expression is used when you allow someone to ride in your car and you take them where they need to go.

“Could you please give me a lift to the airport tomorrow? I don’t want to pay for a taxi.”

This is a great expression to tell someone to not wait or expect something to happen. Literally, to hold one’s breath means that one fills up the lungs and doesn’t breathe in or out. Figuratively, it means that whatever you’re waiting for will take so long that you’ll need to breathe before it will ever happen.

This expression is a piece of advice on how to get revenge. Normally, one gets revenge while extremely angry. This piece of wisdom instead suggests that instead of being mean or rude, we should be extremely and genuinely nice and polite to the wrongdoer.

– “I can’t believe how incompetent you are! Even a 5-year-old could do this better than you! You’re useless!!!”

These words are confusing because “sensible” is a false friend.

– Sensitive means that a thing or person notices every little thing; it can also mean a person is emotionally fragile, and starts crying very easily.
– Sensible describes something that is reasonable and logical.