English Idiom of the Day – Bite the Bullet

Bite the Bullet

To bite the bullet is to make yourself do something or accept something difficult or unpleasant.

Example Usage: They decided to bite the bullet and pay the extra for the house they really wanted;  Car drivers are biting the bullet after another rise in petrol prices.

Did you know…?   It is thought that this phrase originated from the practice, during war, of having a patient bite on a bullet to help them cope with the pain of surgery, if anesthetic were not available. 

ESL Word of the Day – Schedule

Schedule

(Noun) – A plan of what someone is going to do and when they are going to do it; A list that shows the times that buses, trains etc leave or arrive at a particular place.

Example Usage: The majority of holiday flights depart and arrive on schedule;

Could you please check the train schedule for tomorrow?

Did you know…?  The word ‘schedule’ was the Oxford Dictionary’s 173rd most-viewed word last year.

Top 25 Nouns and Their Meaning

Top 25 Nouns

A noun is a word used to name a person, animal, place, thing or concept.   Over half the words in the English language are nouns.  Here is a list of the top 25 nouns from the Oxford English Dictionary.

Top 25 Adjectives and Their Meaning

Top 25 Adjectives

Adjectives describe an attribute of a noun, for example, long hair, new car, old house.  There are estimated to be more than 100,000 adjectives in the English language – far too many to learn of course, but here is a good list to get you started…

Idiom of the Day – Have a Ball

Have a Ball

To have a ball means to have a great time or to enjoy oneself greatly.

Example usage: We are going to have a ball at the party tonight.

We had a ball last night and didn’t come home until 2.00am.

Word of the Day – Begin

Begin

To take the first step in performing an action; to start.

Similar words (synonyms): commence, initiate, start

Example usage: Today we begin a new year; this year I will begin something new; the celebrations begin tonight.

Christmas Adjectives and How to Use Them

It is not too late to learn some last minute Christmas adjectives.  You may hear them being used during your Christmas celebrations or you may see them on Christmas greeting cards.  Here is a list of some commonly used English word adjectives which describe Christmas, and a guide on how you might wish to use them.

The most annoying English word of the year

For all of you English students out there wondering which English words you need to spend time on learning, here is small break for you… a few words that you don’t need to learn!

More than 1 million English words…so where should you start?

A new study conducted by researchers at Harvard University and Google found that the English language was expanding at a rate of 8,500 new words per year and now stands at 1,022,000 words.  So with more than 1 million words in English, where should an ESL student start?