Daria the ESL Teacher

coffee grounds vs. coffee grinds ☕️

While I was preparing coffee-making vocabulary for one of my students, I noticed once again that native speakers don’t always agree on which word is correct either 🤷🏼‍♀️

The standard term is ‘coffee grounds’. It refers to either coffee grounds left after brewing or ground coffee in general.
The verb is ‘grind’, and its past tense is ‘ground’. To refer to the coffee particles themselves, we use the plural noun ‘grounds’.

What’s interesting is that many native speakers use ‘grinds’ instead of ‘grounds’. To make things even more confusing, some dictionaries define ‘coffee grounds’ as the leftover coffee after brewing, while native speakers often use the term for freshly ground coffee as well.

I make a scrub for my skin with coffee grounds.

Add two tablespoons of coffee grounds to your French press.

To avoid confusion and make it clear that you’re talking about coffee that has just been ground (not used coffee leftovers) it’s best to say freshly ground coffee

Check out my new article on Substack 🖋️

https://open.substack.com/pub/dariatasdemir/p/will-ai-replace-teachers?r=7bd37t&utm_medium=ios

Summer is coming, and it’s time to engage with our houseplants. I prepared a houseplants mind map: I chose some of the most common houseplants, and vocabulary that can be very useful for talking about plants and gardening 🪴

I’ve noticed that the houseplants boom was around 2020 in North America. However, in Russia it has just started. Or maybe I’m just getting old…

Let’s have a look closer at some words:

succulent
How did they get this name? ‘Succulent’ means full of juice – just like succulents’ leaves. They store water in their tissues.

drain
To empty of fluid. Here we have ‘drainage’, ‘drainage holes’, ‘drainpipe’. Also, it can be used as a verb – to make weak. For example:
That meeting emotionally drained me.
There’s an example of it in a Marilyn Manson’s song:
“You drained my heart and made a spade” (‘spade’ refers to the card suit ♠️– upside down drained heart).
By the way, ‘spade’ is also a garden tool. But I don’t think Manson referred to this…😅

propagate
Is not only to spread opinions or beliefs among a lot of people. To propagate is also to produce a new plant using a parentplant.

cactus
I’d like to emphasize its plural forms – it can be both ‘cacti’ (the exception to the rule for nouns’ plural forms like deer-deer, ox-oxen, child-children) or ‘cactuses’.

Click on the links and learn the vocabulary 😊

• Mind map https://view.genially.com/69d38642dde74e2f9dcba4e0

• Exercise 1 https://wordwall.net/resource/110922184/english/house-plants

• Exercise 2 https://wordwall.net/resource/110922991/english/house-plants-1

Houseplants | Genially grow - расти/выращивать plant - сажать propagate - размножать repot - пересаживать soak - замочить/пропитать water - поливать underwater - полить недостаточно overwater - перелить

I've prepared word webs that can help you talk about your favorite movies, TV shows, and books. The topic is pretty easy and trivial; however, it is important to improve your English and have a diverse vocabulary🎞️

I've also prepared a few exercises (see the last picture). You can work with the vocabulary on your own!

I gathered the words into four groups for simple and efficient memorizing:

Story elements – what you're watching/reading and its components;

Style & atmosphere – mood, style, and aesthetic qualities;

Engaging – words for when something captures your attention;

Complexity & depth – how well-developed or predictable something is.