English Grammar and Pronunciation Class

You saw a trendy pair of sneakers on TikTok, and wanted to buy it on Temu. You opened the app to see that virtually everyone seemed to be selling similarly fashionable sneakers at prices rather lower than what you'd expected. An apt description for that situation is 'buyer's market'.

The idiom 'buyer's market' is a situation in which there is a lot of a particular item for sale, so that prices are low and people buying have a choice.

Example: It was a buyer's market for shoppers looking to get really trendy sneakers.

The opposite of buyer's market is 'seller's market'. In this instance, only few sellers of a particular item are available. For that reason, prices are high, and buyers nearly don't the liberty of choice.

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The word EVIDENCE does not have a plural written as 'evidences'. It's an uncountable noun, just like water and information.

Although we may have facts or pieces of information to prove that an allegation is true, it is grammatically incorrect to call them 'evidences'.

We can refer to what we have as 'evidence', 'some evidence', 'tonnes of evidence', 'pieces of evidence', etc but not 'evidences'.

A NOTE ON THREE PAIRS OF EASILY CONFUSED ENGLISH WORDS

Let me quickly disambiguate three pairs of words I've often seen people confuse in writing.

1. BOTHER/BORDER

You should say, 'His actions these days border on obsession', not 'His actions these days bother on obsession'.

To 'bother' means to worry. We can 'bother about' something; I'm not sure there's such a phrasal verb as 'bother on'.

Conversely, to 'border on something' means to come close to being that thing or to share boundaries/border with that thing.

2. WORKOUT/WALKOUT

'Workout' refers to a period or kind of physical exercise to keep fit. For instance, if I run for 40 minutes every day, I can say that I have a 40-minute workout routine.

A walkout on the other hand means a sudden strike by workers or a sudden decision to leave a meeting as a form of protest. Example: The lecturers may stage a walkout if the minister won't accept their new proposal.

3. BULGE/BUDGE

To bulge is to get full or swell up, whereas to budge means to shift or move slightly. Therefore, when we're talking about someone's refusal to change their stance on a particular matter, we should use BUDGE, not BULGE. Example: The president isn't going to budge on the budget.

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To 'crank something out' means to produce that item quickly in a very large quantity often without attention to quality.

It's a handy phrasal verb you can readily deploy when you don't want to use 'churn out' in your speech or writing.

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Here is a word I'd like you to add to your vocabulary today: HYPERGAMMY.

Hypergamy is the practice of marrying or forming a relationship with someone of a higher socioeconomic or social class than oneself, often referred to as 'marrying up' or 'dating up'.

When you walk into a tailor's shop, and ask them to make you a pair of trousers with its hip pockets just above the knee, and you state that the shirt to match it up with should have a star-shaped pocket and collars like an elephant ears, you're asking for a BESPOKE outfit, an outfit made specifically for you according to your taste (which could be quirky as in this case).

It could be a piece of furniture that you want from your favourite carpenter, say a swivelling wooden chair with 12 legs and a relief sculpture of a lion's head in front. This piece of furniture is described as BESPOKE.

BESPOKE simply means custom-made, specifically according to a client's requirements. The near-opposite of it in Nigerian Pidgin English is 'bend-down select', an item (often cheap) which you can buy off the roadside while returning from work.

Just like many other words, BESPOKE has evolved. There are now many new creative ways of using it. For instance, I can create a BESPOKE birthday party for my friends during which the only drink is palm wine drvnk with a gourd, and the meat to be had is crocodile tail.

The idea here is to reintroduce the word BESPOKE to you in a quite memorable way, and empower you to use it with greater confidence and creativity.

As we step into this exciting new year, let's take a moment to celebrate all the progress we've made together in our journey of learning English! 🌟

2024 is a blank canvas, and it’s filled with endless possibilities for growth, connection, and discovery. Whether you’ve mastered new vocabulary, improved your speaking skills, or made friends from around the world, every achievement counts!

Wishing you all joy, success, and countless opportunities to practice and enjoy the beauty of the English language. Here’s to a fantastic year ahead filled with learning and laughter

In the olden days when the tree branches were still the squirrel's highway, if a man determined that he could no longer bear the sh@me and ag0ny of penury or the arụ that he committed, he would get a strong rope and make a n00se for his own neck.

He would then fasten the rope to a strong tree branch in his backyard, stand on an upended bucket, slip his head through the noose, and make it slightly taut.

After he would have done all this and said a prayer to repose his soul, he would then kick the bucket away from under him to achieve his aim.

This is the act that inspired Shakespeare to coin the idiomatic phrase 'kick the bucket', a hackneyed euphemism for the event of d3@th.

Subsequently, some other person came up with yet another bucket-referencing phrase, 'bucket list' - the things we hope to do before we kick the bucket.

Another way to say 'from head to foot.' 👇

Good morning!

ARE YOU A GOOD CHEF? MEET ME IN THE KITCHEN!

Although the word CHEF is spelt with initial CH-, this part of the word sounds like the SH- in SHAME, SHAPE and not like CH- in CHAIR. Word is pronounced like ‘shef’ and phonetically transcribed as /ʃef/.

So, Chef is Shef