Meter and metre. Isn’t it the same thing just spelt differently in American and British English? Well, yes and no.
Metre… Image by ElisaRiva from Pixabay
Yes, meter is the American spelling of metre, a unit of length that equals 100 centimetres.
The fence is about a metre and a half high. (Note the British English spelling!)
In British English, however, a meter is a machine that measures something, be it the amount of gas/water/electricity you’ve used or the amount of money you must pay.
… and meter. Image by analogicus from Pixabay
A few times a year Thames Water sends their engineers round to check water meter readings.
As the taxi was moving slowly through the traffic jam, she looked nervously at the meter wondering if she had enough money to pay for the trip.
This is a Pay and Display car park, but as the parking meter is broken you can park free of charge.
The adjectives electric and electrical are easy to confuse as they are very close in meaning. Close but not identical. So what’s the difference between them?
Image by Comfreak from Pixabay
We use electric to talk about things that need electricity to work, e.g. we say an electric guitar, anelectric kettle, an electric car.
We bought a new electric cooker.
Electric is also used in an electric atmosphere (=full of excitement).
The atmosphere in the exam room was electric.
On the other hand, electrical is used to refer to electricity-powered things in general as well as people whose job is to make or repair them.
This supermarket sells not only food but also clothes and small electrical appliances such as kettles, coffee machines and toasters.
We need a certified electrical engineer to rewire the house.
Hopefully, next time you need to choose between electric and electrical, you’ll have no trouble picking the right one.
Why is it OK to say This house is very big but not This house is very enormous?
Well, there are two types of adjectives – gradable and non-gradable.
Image by Wynn Pointaux from Pixabay
Gradable adjectives refer to qualities that have different degrees. For example, big, cold, tasty, tall, boring and pretty are all gradable adjectives because something can be a bit / rather / slightly / extremely big etc.
Non-gradable adjectives describe qualities of extreme or absolute nature. As enormous already means ‘very big’, why would you use another very to emphasise it?
Now, with gradable adjectives we use grading adverbs such as a bit, slightly, hugely, extremely and very.
I’m a bit tired.
This film is hugely popular.
It’s extremely cold in Antarctica.
She’s very angry.
With non-gradable adjectives we use non-grading adverbs such as absolutely, completely, perfectly, simply, almost and mainly.
I’m completely exhausted.
His plan is simply unthinkable.
It’s absolutely freezing today!
She was absolutely furious.
Now, there’s one particular phrase which is perfectly grammatical but annoys me a lot when I hear people say it. It’s very beautiful. The problem here is, I guess, a simultaneous use of two extremely overused words. With so many synonyms and near-synonyms available, it’s really easy to add variety to your speech. Please pick and choose!
For starters, what is an uncountable noun? It’s a noun that cannot be made plural and cannot be used with a or an.
Image by Pexels from Pixabay
Problems often arise when an English
learner comes across a noun that is countable in his or her native
language, but is uncountable in English. Here are some of such words:
advice
homework
luggage
furniture
information
knowledge
research
accommodation (as a
place to stay; in this meaning it’s often used as a plural noun in
American English)
evidence
What to do if you need to talk about
a particular amount of something that is expressed with an
uncountable or a mass noun? You can do so by using quantity
expressions before them, e.g.
Let me give you a piece ofadvice.
Let me give you an advice.
How many items offurniture
have been lost in the fire?
How many furnitures have been lost in the fire?
The police found a vital piece ofevidence.
The police found a vital evidence.
This brochure provides quite a few
useful bits ofinformation about the local area.
This brochure provides a few useful informations about the local area.
Of these four nouns the one that confuses English learners
most is definitely travel.
Travel is used to
refer to the activity of travelling in
general. In this meaning it’s always uncountable, i.e. takes no article and
is always singular.
His job involves a
great deal of travel.
Her interests are
history, art and travel.
Travel can be
plural when it means journeys, especially
abroad.
On their travels they met lots of interesting
people, many of whom became their lifelong friends.
In English, agreeing and disagreeing with negative
statements and questions is a bit confusing, if not counterintuitive.
Don’t you like apples?
No, I don’t.
Here you express agreement
with no – you agree that you don’t
like apples.
– It’s not cold.
– Yes, it is.
And here you contradict
the speaker with yes – unlike them,
you think it is cold.
The rule is to choose yes
or no depending on your answer (yes if it’s positive and no if it’s negative) and not what it communicates
(agreement or disagreement).
Didn’t you see the sign? No, I didn’t. (agreement but the answer is negative (I didn’t), therefore we use no)
You can’t afford this car. (Yes,) I can. (contradiction but the reply is positive (I can), therefore yes is used)
Hope you’ll never have trouble with this language point
again. Did you just say “I won’t”? Great! And if you think you will,
well maybe you should re-read this post.
In English, there are quite a few pairs of adjectives one of
which ends in -ed and the other in -ing, for example, excited/exciting, bored /boring, inspired/inspiring.
The adjectives in each pair are very different in meaning, and yet, as they
look so similar, English learners often find them confusing. If you too find it
difficult to use them correctly, then read on.
