Blog Archives

What’s the Difference Between Shade and Shadow?

Posted on November 27, 2018

Do you like going somewhere hot on holiday? Above all you want to enjoy a bit of sun. And then after a while you say… “It’s so hot in the sun! Let’s find some…” which? The difference between shade and shadow is interesting because many languages don’t differentiate between the two concepts. Spanish is an example of this. You will certainly be understood if you use these words wrong but it will sound unnatural to native English speakers.

So what’s the difference between shade and shadow? Furthermore, can we say that shade and shadow have the same meaning?

The difference: Shadow

Firstly, shadow is a particular shadow. We have our own shadows in the shape of ourselves, as do buildings and trees.

The difference: Shade

Secondly, shade is a more general word. When we look for shade we don’t care what makes the shade. We are just looking for a place out of the sun.

Most importantly, as is often the case in English, one is a countable  noun (shadow) and the other is uncountable (shade).

Consider that in the United States, sunglasses are called “shades”. And what do “shades” do? They create a general shade for everything that you see.

Beware of this typical mistake

Something we hear a lot in the summer is non-native English speakers saying “let’s find some shadow”. However, this sounds unnatural because it sounds like the person is looking for one particular shadow. It’s much more natural to say “let’s find some shade“.

To use both together, you could say “Let’s find some shade. How about the shadow of that tree?”

Mini quiz

Which one in these pairs of sentences are correct?

1a. Why does shadow disappear in shade?

1b. Why does shade disappear in shadow?

 

2a What object does not have shade?

2b. What object does not have a shadow?

 

3a. Can your shadow disappear?

3b. Can your shade disappear?

Answers

1a. Shadow disappears in shade because shade covers a larger area.

2b. Transparent objects don’t have a shadow.

3a. Yes your shadow can disappear! However, it only happens twice a year and you have to be on a particular latitude, when the sun is directly overhead.

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Typical Mistake by Spanish and Italian Students: Double Subjects

Posted on November 22, 2018

By Emily Stallard, Owner at Orchid English

 

This is a post for adults learning English whose first language is a Latin one. In our company English classes around London we teach lots of Latin students who work here.

 

Additionally, about 15 years ago I taught English in the pretty Italian city of Naples. I’m learning Spanish at the moment so I have some Spanish friends as well as Spanish students of English. This is a typical mistake by Spanish and Italian students that we teachers hear on a regular basis:

 

• Does your teacher correct the same mistakes over and over again?
• Yes, my teacher she always corrects my grammar.

 

Hold on! What’s the mistake here? Let’s look at the reply.

 

Native speakers only use constructions like “my teacher… she” if they get distracted and there is a long pause after the subject. Then it turns out we have to start a new sentence.

 

This is the kind of thing a native speaker might say:

 

• My teacher… oh, yes, could we have two medium lattes, please? …She explains complicated grammar in a really simple way.

 

So what should you say in the first example sentence? You have to choose a noun or a pronoun, but not both together:

 

• My teacher always corrects my grammar
• She always corrects my grammar

 

There is a useful quiz here to test your knowledge and ingrain the habit of using only one subject.

 

Read more about typical mistakes made by Latin students here in our previous posts: How to recognise and avoid using double negatives, and how to say you will pay for someone else.

 

10 Popular Email Abbreviations

Posted on November 15, 2018

Do you send emails in English? Do you receive emails from native English speakers and wonder what some of the email abbreviations mean? Hundreds of modern email abbreviations and acronyms go in and out of fashion constantly and while researching this post I was surprised how many I didn’t know.

The following are 10 popular email abbreviations that we often use in work emails, instant messenger and text messages.

Top of the email abbreviations:

ASAP

As soon as possible

Americans tend to pronounce this as “aisap”, British people tend to pronounce all the letters individually. In the email abbreviations below in this list, all letters are pronounced individually.

BRB

Be right back

This is really good when messaging colleagues or friends. When you’re having a conversation on instant messenger and need to break off suddenly, for a delivery or a phone call, BRB tells the person all they need to know in a second.

BTW

By the way

It means, as an aside, to start a new topic. Quite informal and good for messenger.

ETA

Estimated time of arrival

• When are you arriving?
• It should be about a 40 minute drive so our ETA is 3pm.

FYI

For your information

Often this is used sarcastically so this can seem a bit rude if used incorrectly. In my opinion, FYI is almost a filler and doesn’t really add more to your message. If in doubt, it’s best to avoid this because it can seem abrupt.

IMO

In my opinion

On Facebook native speakers will often use IMHO which can stand for “in my honest opinion” or “in my humble opinion”.

Best of the email abbreviations for WhatsApp:

LOL

Laughing out loud

Super casual! If it’s really funny this can be LOOOOOL.

NSFW

Not safe for work

Do you have a friend who likes to send funny emails? NSFW means you shouldn’t open it at work, the content is inappropriate.

Re.

Regarding

This is a nice one – often used at the top of an email or letter.

Most used of the email abbreviations from across the channel:

RSVP

Répondez s’il vous plaît

Parlez–vous français? If you don’t speak French this may be totally different in your language. It just means “please reply”. Don’t just ignore the invitation and assume the sender knows whether you’re coming or not!

TBH

To be honest

Like the two below, this is very casual and well suited to instant messenger although you could use it with colleagues.

TTYL

Talk to you later

A friendly and casual sign-off to a messenger conversation.

Shortest way to express gratitude with email abbreviations:

TX

Thanks

For the mega-busy, who have to conserve all their writing energy…

Are you hungry to learn even more email abbreviations? There are even more in this article aimed at sales and applicable to general business English here.

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5 Common Grammar Mistakes in English You Can Fix Easily

Posted on November 9, 2018

By Emily Stallard, Owner at Orchid English

 

Over the last month I have been listening to several adult students of English to put together a list of five really common grammar mistakes. We hear people from all over the world make these mistakes too. Below is what I heard over and over again, even from students who are upper-intermediate going on advanced. Often, when corrected, the students reply “Oh! I always say that!”

 

Here we go:

 

My manager she said yes

To be honest, most native speakers will hear this without making a correction because it’s very easy for us to understand, it just doesn’t sound natural. What’s wrong with this? You shouldn’t use two subjects. So you need to choose either “My manager said yes” or “She said yes“.

 

We are five

Well, maybe this is OK. Are you all five years old? If you are, well done for reading this; I was reading books about talking animals at your age! But you probably mean “there are five of us“. Adults learning English often say “we were twenty in the negotiations workshop” and what they mean is “there were twenty of us in the negotiations workshop“.

 

Ask to a colleague

We often hear sentences like this:

“It’s not my department, but let me ask to a colleague.”

The meaning is clear but the preposition “to” shouldn’t be used here. I say to students that the verb “ask” already includes the idea of “to”. If you use “to” after “ask”, it means for permission or a request. Correctly, you should say “Ask a colleague” “I asked Daniel to email me the figures” but not “I asked to Daniel to email me the figures“.

 

Married with

Aha! Well sometimes “married with” can be OK. But it’s misused by learners of English 90% of the time.

• Is John at the other branch?
• No, he’s on his honeymoon.
• Honeymoon?
• Yes! He got married to his girlfriend Raquel last week.

“Married with” is usually followed by the number of children. Perhaps John and Raquel plan on being “married with three children“.

 

Call to

“Call” is a funny verb. What’s the difference between these?

1. I called his supervisor
2. I called to his supervisor

Number 1 is what we would usually use in business, it means “I phoned his supervisor”.

Number 2 sounds similar, right? But it actually means “I shouted from a distance at his supervisor”. You “call to” someone from across the road.

“Call” doesn’t take a preposition if you mean “phone”. It’s rather like the verb “ask”, it includes the idea of movement towards the object.

 

So, that was a roundup of five really common grammar mistakes in English and I hope it was useful. Had you been saying any of these? Do you hear other people say them?

How to help your colleagues learn English

Posted on October 30, 2018

By Emily Stallard, Owner at Orchid English

 

Normally our blog posts are aimed at professionals learning English who work at companies in London. This post comes from a different perspective – for native or fluent English speakers who want to help their colleagues on their path to learning English.

 

Believe your colleagues when they say they want you to correct their English. Especially when it comes to grammar, it won’t help your colleagues learn English efficiently if you listen without correcting their mistakes. They will only ingrain bad habits. If they say “I have worked here since 5 years” they will not realise this is incorrect unless you say so, or unless they have English classes.

 

Be patient. Don’t interrupt or finish their sentences for them! It is very distracting and they may not have wanted to say what you thought.

 

When you speak to a colleague who has not yet reached an advanced level in English, take care to enunciate and separate your words more than you might when speaking to a native English speaker. It can be difficult for people learning languages to know where one word ends and another begins.

 

Offer corrections at a quiet and positive moment in private. People are generally more receptive to learning in a calm environment and this will really help your colleagues learn English.

 

Keep a mental note of English mistakes that your colleagues keep making. When you can spot a trend, like a grammatical tense that they misuse, this is a valuable point to correct.

 

• “Hey, when you use the present continuous tense it’s for something happening right now. So you can’t say “I’m drinking coffee every day”. It’s a habit so you say “I drink coffee every day”.
• “By the way, the “p” in “receipt” is silent”.
• “I noticed you called a woman “lady” before. A lady is a respectful way to describe a woman, but you can’t address a female customer as “Lady”.

 

If you’ve never heard this particular mistake, rest assured they mean “Madam”! It could even lead to an interesting conversation about the diverse origins of English words.

 

Finally, if you want your colleage to improve their English and you speak their language, try not to use it unless you really have to. It’s more useful when learning a language to have an explanation in the target language rather than a translation.

 

Are you in the opposite position? Do you want your people to help you with your English but find they are reluctant to do so? Read how to get them to do it here.

When do we use “so” and “such”?

Posted on September 13, 2018

So and such. You’re so busy, we know. But you’re not such a busy person that you don’t have time to read this.

How do we use these words in English? This is a mistake that we hear even at high levels of English but it can be “cured” easily.

We hear people say things like “I work with so nice man”. While this is understandable, it’s incorrect.

Here are the rules for so and such:

So + adjective

So + adverb

Such + adjective + noun

 

Some examples in sentences:

So + adjective

Emily, you love drinking tea, you are so British

So + adverb

He asked me so nicely that I didn’t mind doing the extra work

Such + adjective + noun

I landed on my feet in this job; I have such a good manager

Try this great quiz for so and such here. 

Confident of the rules now? Not so confident? Post some examples in the comments and we will tell you if you’re right!

To get great English classes at your company in London with a teacher in the top 2%, get in touch today! 

 

5 Football Phrases in English

Posted on July 6, 2018

By Emily Stallard, Owner at Orchid English

 

Have you been enjoying the football this summer? I’m not usually much of a football fan but I do like watching the World Cup. We’ve put together 5 football phrases in English to improve your conversations about football. The best thing? All of these phrases could also be used at work as business English idioms.

 

To be on the ball
Football English: To focus on the ball without getting distracted.
Business English: To keep yourself informed about what’s happening in your industry, your colleagues and competitors.
Usage: TV reporters need to be really on the ball because the stories could change at any time.

 

To move the goalposts
Football English: To change the rules to suit one team or player.
Business English: To change the rules to suit particular people, or an industry.
Usage: The sales target for the other team was 100 cars but we have to sell 150. That’s really moving the goalposts!

 

To score an own goal
Football English: To score a goal in your own team’s goal.
Business English: To do something that really damages yourself and benefits your competitors.
Usage: Why on earth did you recommend our competitor? That was an own goal.

 

To take sides (negative nuance)
Football English: Of a referee, for example, to treat one team better than the other.
Business English: To unfairly favour one colleague or department over another in a dispute.
Usage: Look, I don’t want to take sides. I can see that both of you have a fair point.

 

Take your eye off the ball
Football English: To look away at a crucial point when you should have been concentrating on the ball.
Business English: To get distracted and miss an important event.
Usage: The regulation totally changed and I didn’t notice! I mustn’t take my eye off the ball next time.

 

Which of these football phrases in English do you like the best? Do you have some interesting football idioms in your language?

 

How to Get People to Correct Your English 

Posted on June 15, 2018

By Emily Stallard, Owner at Orchid English

 

Do you wish native English speakers would correct your English? As corrections are essential to learning a language, I will share some tips below. First, a story from my own language-learning experience.

 

I’ll never forget this particular conversation with my Japanese friend.  We were sitting and waiting for a bus one Saturday afternoon in Tokyo. We chatted about various things and made plans for the next week. When I wanted to say “about 3 o’clock” naturally, to my English brain, I said “goro (about) san (3) ji (o’clock)”.

 

My friend said “Oh, actually you should say “goro san ji” not “san ji goro”. You should put the word “about” first in Japanese.  Horrified, I insisted “But I always say that!” As my friend is a native Japanese speaker, I had to stop short of asking him whether he was sure.  I had used that structure wrong more times than I could count. No-one had corrected my broken Japanese, I suppose, because my meaning had been obvious.

 

The situation in which my friend corrected me was one in which we were alone and not really in the middle of anything. My friend had the time to correct me and he knew that I wouldn’t be embarrassed in front of anyone. He knew I was studying Japanese and would be grateful for his corrections.

 

When I asked Japanese people whether you could say a particular sentence in Japanese,  people often said yes. If I pressed, they said “Yes, everyone will understand your meaning.”

 

Reasons native English speakers have for not correcting your English could be

 

• Not wanting to hurt your feelings or embarrass you
• Not having studied English grammar so they can’t explain why something is wrong. I didn’t know what the present perfect was until I started teaching English!
• Believing that it’s xenophobic to correct a foreigner’s English
• Considering it tolerant to listen to English with mistakes without “complaining”. Like my experience in Japan, if you say “can I say this in English?”, people may interpret this as “is this understandable?”
• Not realising that you want people to correct your English

 

English as a People’s Language

 

Many native English speakers believe that we can speak English how we like. There is no official regulator for the English language like the Académie française for French, and others. I rather like the absence of a regulator because it allows us to be flexible and innovative with new words, and to drop what we don’t like. Even among native English speakers from the same region there is a variety of ways to say several words such as scone.

 

The idea of English being a language of the people is further complicated by the fact that English can be spoken along a scale of standard to non-standard according to situation and social class.  I would feel rude and rather ignorant correcting “I ain’t got time” to “I don’t have time”, even though I have never used “ain’t”. So if you pronounce it “I sink” rather than “I think” and everyone understands you, is correcting your English inappropriate?

 

My advice

 

• Remind everyone you’re learning English and want to get better. Talk about your English classes! Try to inspire people to correct your English and help you
• Keep asking native speakers how they would say things in English. Not “Is this OK?”
• If native speakers say they haven’t studied English grammar, assure them you just want to know how they would say it.
• Ask specific questions to friends and close colleagues in private when you both have time for them to correct your English

 

Good luck! What is your experience in getting people to correct your English? Do you have any more tips?

 

What is a double negative?

Posted on November 9, 2017

What is a double negative? Do you use them accidentally? Read on and find out!

What is a double negative?

A double negative is where you have two negative grammar markers in the same sentence. Consider the famous Pink Floyd song: “We don’t need no education“. The meaning of the title is “we don’t need any education”.

This double negative using “don’t” with “no” is part of what is called non-standard grammar in linguistics. You can hear this type of grammar in songs and casual situations.

Why do people use double negatives?

Double negatives are a feature of working class English. Additionally, you can hear double negatives all over the English-speaking world; in British English, American English, Australian English and so on.

Why did people start to use double negatives?

Social class was important historically, and expressing social class through language is an interesting part of English.

What is a double negative? Negatives in other languages

For several of our students it’s more intuitive to use a double negative than to use “any”. This is particularly true for students who speak a Latin language such as French or Spanish.

However, literally interpreting “I haven’t had no emails” in standard English is rather strange. It means the opposite of what it is intended to mean. It means “I haven’t had no emails, so I have some emails”.

When you can use a double negative in standard English (rarely!)

I listened to a very interesting podcast episode from The Economist some years ago. The interviewee was talking about the importance of cobalt, and said “you can’t have no cobalt at all“. He wasn’t speaking in non-standard English, and he meant that you needed at least a little bit of cobalt.

How do you make a negative in standard English?

In standard English, we use “any” with a negative to make the negative setence. So “We don’t need no education”, in standard grammar, would be “We don’t need any education”. In a professional situation, it’s more appropriate to use standard English.

Standard construction: Standard English

• I haven’t had any emails
• He doesn’t go on any business trips
• They won’t do a presentation

Double negative construction: Non-Standard English

• I haven’t had no emails
• He doesn’t go on no business trips
• They won’t do no presentation

Improve your English

Try this double negatives quiz so you will remember the rules next time you’re making a negative sentence.

For great English classes at your company in London get in touch today. We focus on what you want to work on, so if you’d like to brush up your grammar we can do that.

By Emily Stallard, Owner and Trainer at Orchid English

How to say you will pay for someone else in English

Posted on November 2, 2017

Suppose you’re in a restaurant, having a great time, and you want to pay for everyone’s meal. How do you offer to pay?

How do you offer to pay? Our top recommendations

You can say “this is on me” or “it’s on me”. That way, everyone will understand you want to pay for them too. “On me” in this context means “this is my responsibility”.

How do you offer to pay? Alternatives

You could also say “I’ll get it”, which is a bit more direct. Something that also sounds direct that we haven’t heard for a while is “It’s my treat”.

Don’t confuse the Brits!

Once I went for a lovely meal of fish and chips in an excellent London gastropub with my Spanish friend. At the end, he said he “I invite you”. I was confused. But we’re already in the restaurant! No, he explained, getting his wallet out and moving the bill to his side of the table, “I INVITE YOU”…

Common mistake: “I invite you”

Lots of English learners mistakenly use the word “invite” to mean they will pay for everyone. This is a false friend in English and Spanish. “Invite” doesn’t mean you will pay, just that you want someone to come. If I “invite” you to a restaurant it doesn’t necessarily mean I will pay for you. Maybe it’s my birthday and I want you to join my party so I “invite” you. My friend should have used one of the expressions at the top of this blog post.

British culture: When we offer to pay for someone else

In pubs or bars with a group of colleagues or friends, British people usually take turns to pay for drinks for everyone. We call each one a “round” of drinks. Then for the next drink another person pays. So how do you offer to pay? To volunteer to buy drinks for everyone you can say “it’s my round”.

Learn more about British restaurant and pub culture with our post on how to get good service in London.

Important tip: How to deal with someone who doesn’t want to pay their share!

If there is someone who is happy to accept drinks but doesn’t want to buy drinks for other people, just remind the person with a smile: “It’s your round!”

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