Vocabulary: ambiguous, clear-cut

If something is ambiguous, it is not clear. Two people could understand it in different ways. An ambiguous statement could have two or three different meanings.

Here is an example:
"I am sure that no person would be better for the job."
This sentence could be recommending someone for a job - there is nobody better, this person is the best. Or, it could be saying someone is bad for a job - it's better to have *nobody* than hire this person!

Another example is a newspaper headline:
'Stolen Painting Found by Tree'.
Does this mean the painting was next to a tree? Or does it mean the tree found this painting?!

The opposite of ambiguous is unambiguous, or clear-cut. If something is clear-cut, it is well-defined, clear and easy to understand.

Vocabulary: way, far, much

I drank way too much.

I drank far too much.

I drank much too much.

These sentences all have the same meaning. You can use them with 'too ___' to make it stronger. It's not just a little too much, it's a *lot*.

Yesterday I wasted far too much time. I didn't finish enough of my assignments. So today, my job was way too busy. I had far too many tasks to finish.

You can also use this with comparatives.

He is way better than her.

I work far harder than they do.

It's much bigger than my last house.

'way' is slang and sounds way more casual than the other two. ^_^

Okay, so how about you? Is there something you're way better at than someone else? Is there something do far too much of? For me, I drink way too much coffee. I am addicted. ^^;

Language/vocabulary: 'exaggerate'

Back in this post, I gave an example of figurative (non-literal) speech. It's common to say 'I'm starving!' to mean 'I'm hungry!' Here, you are speaking figuratively to exaggerate.

The noun exaggeration, verb exaggerate, adjective exaggerated mean 'to make something sound more than it really is'.

Kids and teenagers do this a lot. 'He's the coolest guy in the world!' 'He was about ten feet tall!' 'This is the absolute worst day of my entire life.'

Sometimes mothers do it too. 'I've told you a thousand times, stop hitting your brother!'

How about you? Do you often exaggerate?

Language: onomatopoeia

What is 'onomatopoeia'? It's a long word...

Well, you don't really need to know this word itself. But onomatopoeia describes words that sound like what they mean.

For example, a cat says 'meow'. The word 'meow' sounds like the real sound the cat makes.

If you slam something on the table, it makes a bang. Bang! If you say the word 'bang', it sounds like the sound it makes.

Here are some more examples of onomatopoeia. Try saying them aloud. Try to make them sound like their meaning.
sizzle
buzz
zip
crack
moo
clatter

Onomatopoeia is also very common in comic books. They show the sounds objects make. If someone punches someone, it might say 'thud!' or 'bang!' or 'bam!'

How about in your language? Can you think of any examples of onomatopoeia? How would you say them in English?

As an example, onomatopoeia is very common in Japanese:
-'kira kira' shows the sound of sparkling light - in English we might say 'twinkle'
-'doki doki' shows the sound of a heart beating - in English we might say 'thump thump'

Idioms: come up

'Come up' has a few meanings.

a) First, it has a literal meaning. I could come up to your office on the third floor of a building. If I'm swimming, I need to come up to the surface to breathe.

b) Then, it can be another word for 'come', for example:

"Why don't you come up to my house this weekend?"

In this case, 'my house' might not be up a hill; the speaker just means 'come to my house'. 'Come up' can be used in a casual way, and in friendly invitations like this.

c) Then, you can use 'come up' to mean 'will happen soon':

Sorry, I have to stay home. I have exams coming up...

The deadline is coming up next week.

d) Another use of 'come up' is 'happen' - a problem or situation happens. Often it is sudden or unexpected.

Sorry, I have to go home now. Something's come up. (=A problem has suddenly happened, or your situation suddenly changed.)

The reason for this meeting is that a new problem has come up.

Actually, saying 'something's come up' can be a good excuse if you have to change plans. Perhaps you have a work problem, or a family problem, or a cute guy asked you out, or you feel too tired to go out. If you don't want to give any information, you can just say 'something's come up'. Hahaha...

e) As we saw in this post here, 'come up with' means 'think of an idea'.

Okay, so here's a quick quiz for you. Which meaning of 'come up' is used in each sentence? (Choose from: literal meaning, 'come', 'will happen soon', 'happen suddenly', 'think of'.)

1. I need to work on some errors that have come up.
2. I have to come up with a plan.
3. You should come up here some time; you could stay with me.
4. My wife's birthday is coming up on Tuesday.
5. He came up to my room.

(
Answers:
*
*
*
*
1. 'happen'
2. 'think of'
3. 'come'
4. 'will happen soon'
5. literal meaning (if your room is upstairs) or 'come'

Language/vocabulary: 'context'

The word context can be used for different situations. I will use it to talk about words.

If a word's meaning is understood from context, it means you understand the meaning because of the situation - who is speaking, what they are talking about, etc.

For example, look at this sentence:
"He's good."

What does 'good' mean here? What are they talking about? If we only see this sentence, we don't know. But if we look at it in context, we can understand the meaning.

"How's John?"
"He's good." (=He's fine.)

"Wow, look at him! He runs so fast!"
"Yeah. He's good." (=He's skilled.)

"Is John behaving well at school?"
"Yes. He's good. He's a good little boy." (He's well-behaved.)

Another example are expressions that can have different meanings. For example, 'work out' can mean 'solve' ('I worked out the answer') or 'exercise' ('I worked out at the gym'). Until we put that expression in context - in a sentence - we do not know the meaning.

I'll give you another example. See this post about being drunk? There are lots of words that mean 'drunk'. However, some of these words can also be used to mean 'affected by drugs'.

For example, 'he's wasted' could mean 'he really drank too much' OR 'he took strong drugs'. How do we know what 'wasted' means? We understand it from context. Where is he? What does he look like? What happened before we said 'he's wasted'?

If he's at a bar and had ten bottles of beer, it probably means 'drunk'. If he has symptoms of taking a particular drug, 'wasted' probably means 'affected by drugs'.

Vocabulary: travel

So, are you travelling around the world? Here are some useful words.

A hemisphere is the top or bottom half of the world. The northern hemisphere includes the USA, Europe, Canada, Japan, Russia, and so on. The southern hemisphere includes the south of Africa, Australia, and most of South America.

These hemispheres are divided by the imaginary line, the equator.

Speaking of imaginary lines, you might know the word time zone. When you travel abroad, you often cross more than one time zone, and have to change your clock. In my time zone now, it's almost midnight. ^_^

When you cross a lot of time zones, you often suffer jet lag. When you have jet lag, your body is confused by the change in time - it wants to sleep when it's light outside, or wake up in the middle of the night.

How about you? Which hemisphere do you live in? Have you ever crossed time zones? Have you ever had jet lag?

Idioms: to have had enough, be fed up

What does this mean: I've had enough?

Well, it could have a literal meaning:

No more drinks, please. I've had enough.

It can also be used in a more figurative sense. You can use this expression to show that you are angry, frustrated or tired - you will not accept any more! You want a situation to stop!

"Stop calling me! Stop talking to me! I've had enough!"

"I've had enough of these lies. I'm not listening any more."

"We've had enough of all the problems in our neighbourhood. So we've decided to move out."

If you are talking about the past, change it to 'had had enough'.

She'd had enough of her constant complaining, so she left the room and slammed the door.

A similar expression is to be 'fed up'. If you are fed up with something, you have no more patience. You want the situation to stop!

I was so fed up with my manager that I had to quit.

My kids are such monsters! I'm so fed up!!

How about you? Is there something you've had enough of? Is there a situation in your life that you're fed up with?