Archive for the ‘Words’ Category

Effective and Efficient; Especially and Specially

August 4th, 2011 in Words

If you are efficient you work well without wasting time or energy.

As he was efficient he was promoted.

If something is effective, it has the desired result.

Using else

July 20th, 2011 in Words

Else can mean ‘other’ or ‘more’ after words like somebody / someone / something / somewhere / anybody / anyone / anything / anywhere / everybody / everyone / everything / everywhere / nobody / no one / nothing /nowhere etc.

North, northern, east, eastern etc

July 16th, 2011 in Words

The words eastern, western, northern and southern are used to talk about rather indefinite areas. The words east, west, north and south are used to talk about more clearly defined places.

Common expressions with go

July 14th, 2011 in Expressions, Words

Go is used before a number of adjectives to talk about changes. This is common in an informal style.
Go, for example, is used to talk about changes of color. This usage is common in British English.
Examples are: go brown, go green, go white, go black, go blue etc.

Take, put and bring

July 11th, 2011 in Words

Take can be used as the opposite of give. It means ‘gain possession of’, ‘receive’, ‘obtain’ and ‘remove’.

Too and too much

July 2nd, 2011 in Words

Too is an adverb. It can modify verbs, adjectives and other adverbs.

Too has a negative meaning. It means ‘more than is necessary or desirable’.

Commonly confused adverbs

June 19th, 2011 in Words

Dead and deadly

Dead is an adverb used in expressions like dead right, dead certain, dead slow, dead straight, dead sure etc. It means ‘exactly’, ‘completely’ or ‘very’.