In this weekly post, we bring more useful content from the Macmillan Dictionary to English language learners. These tips are based on areas of English which learners find difficult, e.g. spelling, grammar, collocation, synonyms, etc.

This week’s language tip gives useful advice on the adjective excited:

Adjectives for describing things that make someone feel excited:
exciting making you feel excited and enthusiastic:
This is the most exciting project I’ve ever worked on. ♦ an exciting opportunity ♦ Most people find New York very exciting.
thrilling extremely exciting, often used about sporting events:
France lost to Wales 34–33 in a thrilling match in Paris.
exhilarating making you feel happy, excited, and full of energy:
I spent an exhilarating day cruising the river.
♦ an exhausting but exhilarating climb
gripping very exciting and interesting, used especially about books, films, sporting events etc that are so exciting that you can’t stop reading or watching them:
A crowd of 8000 witnessed the gripping final chapter of a remarkable contest.
♦ a gripping account of the disaster
dramatic exciting and interesting, often used about sporting events that are very exciting, especially at the end:
His side lost 6–1 in a remarkable game with a dramatic finale.

Frequent collocations
Nouns frequently used with thrilling:

battle, climax, contest, end, ending, final, finish, game, match, victory

Nouns frequently used with gripping:

account, drama, episode, story, tale

Nouns frequently used with dramatic:

end, ending, final, finale, finish, victory

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In this weekly post, we bring more useful content from the Macmillan Dictionary to English language learners. These tips are based on areas of English which learners find difficult, e.g. spelling, grammar, collocation, synonyms, etc.

This week’s language tip gives advice on the number thousand:

After a number, or after several or a few, use the singular form thousand:
✗ There are about fourteen thousands airports all over the world.
✓ There are about fourteen thousand airports all over the world.
✗ Several thousands residents have to be moved to allow the construction to proceed.
✓ Several thousand residents have to be moved to allow the construction to proceed.

When you are not giving an exact number, you can use the plural form thousands with the preposition of:
Every day, thousands of tons of waste were sent to landfills.

The words hundred and million work in the same way.

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In this weekly post, we bring more useful content from the Macmillan Dictionary to English language learners. These tips are based on areas of English which learners find difficult, e.g. spelling, grammar, collocation, synonyms, etc.

This week’s language tip gives advice on the noun news:

Although the word news has an -s on the end, it is an uncountable noun, so:
▪  it is never used in the plural
▪  it does not follow a
✗ She now lives in exile, but the good news are that her words are heard over the world.
✓ She now lives in exile, but the good news is that her words are heard over the world.
✗ For too long we have ignored these news.
✓ For too long we have ignored this news.
✗ In 2007 Hong Kong banned smoking in restaurants. This was a good news for non-smokers.
✓ In 2007 Hong Kong banned smoking in restaurants. This was good news for non-smokers.

Q: How can I refer to a single item of news?
A: You can use news on its own, or say some news or, less frequently, a piece of news.
He was in a meeting when he heard news of the crash.
I’ve got some news that may cheer you up.
I’ve had a surprising piece of news.

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In this weekly post, we bring more useful content from the Macmillan Dictionary to English language learners. These tips are based on areas of English which learners find difficult, e.g. spelling, grammar, collocation, synonyms, etc.

This week’s language tip gives advice on the verb stop:

When you want to say that someone is no longer doing what they were doing before, use the pattern stop doing something, not ‘stop to do something’:
✗ People have practically stopped to write letters to each other.
✓ People have practically stopped writing letters to each other.

Compare:
The pattern stop to do something means that someone stops what they are doing in order to do something else. It tells you the reason why someone has stopped.
He stopped to light a cigarette.
(= he stopped talking, walking, working etc, in order to light a cigarette)
He has stopped smoking.
(=he used to smoke, but he doesn’t smoke now)

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In this weekly post, we bring more useful content from the Macmillan Dictionary to English language learners. These tips are based on areas of English which learners find difficult, e.g. spelling, grammar, collocation, synonyms, etc.

This week’s language tip includes common synonyms for the verb change:

alter: a more formal word for ‘change’
His election could alter the balance of power in the region.

adjust: to change something slightly so that it is exactly the way you want it
You adjust the volume using the remote control. ♦ Can you adjust the height of the seat?

adapt: to change something to deal with a specific situation
The recipes can be adapted for vegetarians. ♦ They need to adapt their military forces to the needs of the post-Cold War situation.

convert: to change something so that it can be used for a different purpose
We’re going to convert the spare room into a study.

modify: to make small changes, for example to a machine or system, in order to make something suitable for a different situation
The exhaust system has to be modified to meet new emission standards.

transform to change something completely so that it looks or works much better
Putting in a larger kitchen has completely transformed the house. ♦ new discoveries that could transform the way we treat cancer

vary: to make continuous or repeated changes to something
It’s important to vary your diet.

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In this weekly post, we bring more useful content from the Macmillan Dictionary to English language learners. These tips are usually based on areas of English which learners find difficult, e.g. spelling, grammar, collocation, synonyms, etc.

This week’s language tip helps with key vocabulary used for talking about likes and dislikes.

Other ways of saying like
love: to like something very much. Love is also used for saying that you really care about someone: I love Italian food. ♦ When did you realize you loved her?
adore: to like and admire someone. Adore is also used in an informal way for saying that you like something very much: I just adore their children. ♦ I simply adore smoked salmon.
enjoy: to like doing a particular activity: I enjoy going to the opera when I get the chance.
have a liking for: to like something specific such as an activity or a type of food or drink: I’ve developed a liking for red wine.
be keen on: to be enthusiastic about a particular person, thing, or activity: I was always pretty keen on sport at school.
be fond of: to like someone or something with a gentle, steady emotion that is not as strong as love: I’ve always been extremely fond of Mike, but I’d never marry him.
prefer: to like one thing more than another: I’d prefer a house with a bigger garden.
be crazy / mad about (informal): to like someone or something so much that you spend all your time thinking about them: She’s completely mad about basketball.
have a weakness for: to particularly like someone or something that you know is not good for you: He’s got a weakness for anything with chocolate in it.
have a soft spot for someone: to particularly like someone, even if they do not deserve it: I’ve got a real soft spot for James, even if he is annoying sometimes.

Other ways of saying dislike
not like: to not have very positive feelings about someone or something. This is the most usual way of saying you dislike someone or something: I don’t really like coffee. ♦ I don’t like him – he’s too indecisive.
not be crazy about / not be keen on (informal): used for saying that you do not like something much, especially in situations where you do not want to sound rude: I’m not crazy about that wallpaper. ♦ ‘Would you like some more?’ ‘No thanks, I’m not very keen on desserts.’
hate: to dislike someone or something in a strong emotional way: I hate that man – he’s always criticizing people. ♦ It’s a small right-wing party that hates the idea of a multicultural society.
Sometimes also used in spoken English, as an emphatic way of saying you dislike something because it annoys you: I was just going out when the phone rang – I hate it when that happens.
can’t stand / can’t bear: to dislike someone or something so strongly that it makes you feel angry or upset: I can’t stand all this noise! ♦ I really can’t bear the patronizing way he talks to her.
detest / loathe: used for emphasizing that you strongly dislike someone or something, especially when you have no respect for them or regard them as morally bad: George was a man who detested all journalists. ♦ She loathed all the insincerity and evasions of her fellow politicians.

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In this weekly post, we bring more useful content from the Macmillan Dictionary to English language learners. These tips are usually based on areas of English which learners find difficult, e.g. spelling, grammar, collocation, synonyms, etc.

This week, we look at some Easter vocabulary.

Easter is a movable feast. The term itself describes a Sunday in March or April when Christians celebrate the time when Jesus Christ died then returned to life according to the Bible. It also refers to the holiday period that includes Easter day. Here are some more useful terms to know:

Easter egg (noun)
1 a chocolate egg that you give to someone as a present at Easter
2 an egg that children decorate in celebration of Easter

Cultural note: Children often go on Easter egg hunts to find eggs that have been hidden around their home by the Easter bunny.

Easter Sunday (noun)
the Sunday in March or April that Easter is celebrated on

Lent (noun)
the period of 40 days before Easter, starting on Ash Wednesday, when some Christians stop eating or doing something that they enjoy

Holy Week (noun)
in the Christian religion, the week before Easter Sunday

Palm Sunday (noun)
the Sunday before Easter, when Christians remember Christ’s journey to Jerusalem before he died

Maundy Thursday (noun)
the Thursday before Easter when Christians celebrate the last supper of Jesus Christ

Good Friday (noun)
the Friday before Easter, which Christians remember as the day that Jesus Christ died

Passion play (noun)
a play about the death of Jesus Christ according to the Bible, often performed at Easter

hot cross bun (noun)
a sweet cake for one person, marked with a small cross on the top and traditionally eaten at Easter

simnel cake (noun) (British)
a type of cake containing dried fruit, traditionally eaten at Easter

Check out the Macmillan Dictionary & Thesaurus for more terms relating to important days in the Christian calendar.

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Spring has sprung, and if the UK weather has any respect for seasonal averages, it will soon improve: temperatures will climb, the sun will shine. There will be fewer extreme events (as the weather people say), like blizzards and heavy snowfalls. March is typically a windy month, but wind speeds will drop in April and there will be frequent showers with sunny intervals. Surely.

A comparison of corpus lines* reveals that March is often described as cold, chilly, and blustery, while April tends to be warm, sunny, and showery. Of course, ‘weather’ adjectives are not absolute: the same temperature may be considered mild in March and chilly in mid-summer. When mild is used of the spring months, the sub-text is usually that it is surprisingly warm ‘for the time of year’.

March winds are depicted in the corpus as bitter, cold or bitterly cold, biting, chilly, wintry, snow-laden; they are blustery, gusty, strong, high, fierce. They blow and howl and roar; they sweep round corners and lash the window frames as they whip through the city streets. April showers are light or heavy, and the overall picture is wetter but more pleasant.

The quotation in my title is from T.S Eliot’s poem The Waste Land, but I found myself muttering, more mundanely, the old adage “March winds and April showers bring forth May flowers”. And corpus evidence corroborates my feeling that this is a well-used bit of weather lore: March collocates strongly with winds, and April with showers, as predicted. There were very few matches for March showers or April winds.

I began to notice that hundreds of the concordance lines contain allusions to other sources – an entire wet spring’s worth of quotes, misquotes, and creative variations. Shakespeare and Chaucer come up, but most noticeable is a generous peppering of pithy adages and rhymes, usually with idiosyncratic variations. It seems that anyone who mentions April and showers in the same breath is never more than a gnat’s whisker away from referencing one old saying or another. This phenomenon is called intertextuality – a cumbersome word that means, simply, that everything we have read or heard in the past influences what we write and say today.

March winds and April showers etc is by far the most-quoted adage, though the March winds are often quietly dropped, and the words altered to fit the situation. Here it features in the discourse of hay fever and garden pests, respectively:

… Allergy season approaching … If April showers and May flowers bring itching, tearing, red and swollen eyes, you are not alone.
… but for many, April showers and May flowers also signal the onset of a busy season battling the Red Imported Fire Ant …

The next example is from an article written in February 1940, as World War II escalated in Europe; the curtailed adage forms part of an extended metaphor:

March winds and April showers will bring forth not flowers, but a grim harvest of slaughter …

Occasionally two snippets of weather wisdom co-occur – intentionally or otherwise. This advertisement (for flat shoes) illustrates intertextuality at its vaguest – it mixes the adage with a brief echo of another old saying declaring that if March comes in like a lion it goes out like a lamb:

… the mercurial weather of March lions and April showers makes for cold toes, but Bernardo´s blizzard flats offer a brilliant solution …

As March draws to a close, it shows no sign of going out like a lamb, unless it is a fierce and frisky lamb, its woolly coat streaked with dark grey. Snow, strong winds, blizzards, and ‘Arctic conditions’ are affecting large parts of Britain. Not exactly April showers yet, then …

Statistics reflect the weather – they do not dictate it. Long-range forecasts are less accurate than we would like, but we know that the climate is gradually changing, and global warming means that both the averages and the extremes will probably shift. Will this coming April usurp April 2012 as ‘the wettest April on record’ across the UK? Or maybe, just maybe, it will be the warmest, driest, and sunniest April ‘since records began’. So beware: grammatical superlatives may apply.

*The corpora used were enTenTen08 (via Sketch Engine) and ukWaC (via Skylight).

In this weekly post, we bring more useful content from the Macmillan Dictionary to English language learners. These tips are based on areas of English which learners often find difficult, e.g. spelling, grammar, collocation, synonyms, etc.

This week we focus on American English, and today’s post highlights some key differences between American and British English terms:

college / university
In the U.S., a college refers to a place where people study for their bachelor’s degree (=first degree), whether the institution is a college, which offers only bachelor’s degrees, or a university, which offers both bachelor’s degrees and advanced degrees. When British speakers use the word college, they usually mean a place where students over 18 are trained in a particular subject or skill, earning a qualification that is not usually an academic degree. Students in the U.K. who are studying for an academic degree go to a university.

class / course / lesson
In both the U.S. and the U.K., a class is usually a group of students who are learning together: Jill and I were in the same class in fifth grade. In the U.S., you can also use class to mean a group of students who all finished high school or college in a particular year: Tim was in the class of 1998. In the U.S., class is also used to mean a course of instruction in a particular subject: a class in business administration. The usual British word for this is course: a course in business administration. Class can also mean one of the periods in the school day when a group of students are taught: What time is your next class? British speakers usually use lesson in this meaning, but American speakers do not.

student / pupil / graduate / postgraduate
In the U.S., a student is anyone who is studying at an elementary school, secondary school, or college. In the U.K., student means someone who is studying at a college or university. A child in elementary school in the U.K. is usually called a pupil. American speakers often use graduate student to refer to someone who has finished their bacherlor’s degree (=first degree) and is studying for an advanced degree. In the U.K., you would call this person a postgraduate.

+ the ‘trickiest word in American’: quite
When American speakers say quite, they usually mean “very”: We’ve examined the figures quite thoroughly. In British English quite usually means “fairly”: The movie was quite enjoyable, although some of the acting was weak. Speakers of British English sometimes use quite to mean “very,” but only before words with an extreme meaning: The whole experience was quite amazing.

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In this weekly post, we bring more useful content from the Macmillan Dictionary to English language learners. These tips are based on areas of English which learners often find difficult, e.g. spelling, grammar, collocation, synonyms, etc.

This week some advice about the adjective related:

After the adjective related, use the preposition to (not ‘with’):
✗ Many health problems are related with passive smoking.
✓ Many health problems are related to passive smoking.
✗ Love, in this play, is related with money and social conventions.
✓ Love, in this play, is related to money and social conventions.

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