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IN THE SUN vs UNDER THE SUN We "Stand, Lie, Walk, or Sit IN the sun" Not "UNDER the sun" ❌ RATIONALE?1. IN the sun = Ph...
07/08/2026

IN THE SUN vs UNDER THE SUN

We "Stand, Lie, Walk, or Sit IN the sun"


Not "UNDER the sun" ❌

RATIONALE?

1. IN the sun = Physical Position

We use IN when you are physically inside a place, light, or weather condition.

The sun is a source of light and heat that surrounds you. You are IN it.

Correct Examples:

- Don’t stand in the sun for too long. You’ll get sunburnt.

- The children were playing in the sun.

- I love sitting in the sun on a cold morning.

- We walked in the sun all the way to school.

Think of it like 'in the rain, in the snow, in the wind'. Same rule.

UNDER the sun = Idiomatic Expression

"Under the sun" is a fixed idiom. It does NOT mean physically standing beneath sunlight.

It means ''in the world" / "that exists anywhere"


Examples:

- There is nothing new under the sun. = There is nothing new in the world.

- She’s the best teacher under the sun. = The best teacher in the world.

- Every problem under the sun has a solution.

So if you say "I am standing under the sun", to a native speaker, it sounds like you are making a philosophical statement about the entire world, not that you are just outside.

TIPS
- IN the sun = Your body is receiving sunlight. Physical.

- UNDER the sun = In existence. Idiomatic. Philosophical.

Because in many Nigerian languages we translate literally as "under the sun", we carry it into English. But English doesn’t work that way here.

Drop one correct sentence using "IN the sun" in the comments 👇

Let’s see who’s been paying attention to the lesson.

Share this to save a friend from this common mistake.


07/08/2026

Take note:

Diaper - American English

Nappy - British English

We’ve all heard this expression many times in Nigeria: “It’s not over until it is over.”❌By standard English idiom, th...
27/07/2026

We’ve all heard this expression many times in Nigeria:

“It’s not over until it is over.”❌

By standard English idiom, that’s not the idiom. It’s a _Nigerianized_ version of the actual idiom.

And so one wonders..."Where did Nigerians get that expression from".And

The expression is even a form of tautology: “it’s not over until it’s over” says nothing.

The standard idiom is,
“It’s not over until the fat lady sings.” ✅

This phrase was popularized in the 1970s by American sports commentator, Dan Cook.

The idea comes from Opera. In traditional European Opera, the performance usually ends with a big, dramatic solo by a large soprano — the "fat lady." So audiences knew: _the show isn’t finished until she takes the stage and sings the final note.

Cook used it during a basketball game to mean: don’t count your team out yet. The game isn’t finished until the very last moment.

From sports, it entered everyday English to mean: "Don’t give up or celebrate too early. The final result isn’t decided until the very end."

How to use it correctly:

1. We were down 3-0, but we came back to draw. It’s not over until the fat lady sings._

2. Don’t give up on your dreams yet. It’s not over until the fat lady sings._

There are hundreds of other idioms that have been Nigerianized, but that doesn't negate or invalidate what is standard.

For a more global and formal use of language, identifying and deploying standard expressions is important.


GRADUATES or GRADUANDS? It's graduation ceremony season, and the argument yet thrives: *nursery/primary/secondary school...
26/07/2026

GRADUATES or GRADUANDS?

It's graduation ceremony season, and the argument yet thrives: *nursery/primary/secondary school graduands or graduates?*

Note that students who have completed their course of study but have not yet officially received their certificate/diploma at a graduation ceremony are referred to as GRADUANDS.

On the flip side, people who have already graduated are called GRADUATES. They’ve gone through the ceremony and received their certificate.


How it applies to primary/secondary schools?

In universities, the distinction is used strictly. During convocation week, final year students are called graduands. After they collect certificates, they become graduates and later, alumni.

For *primary and secondary schools* in Nigeria, before the graduation ceremony, the correct term is graduands. E.g. "Our 2026 graduands"


After the ceremony, they become graduates of that primary/secondary school.

In everyday Nigerian English, everyone just says "graduates" for anyone leaving school — even primary 6 pupils. It’s not wrong in casual speech, but technically, a primary 6 pupil doing "graduation" in August for instance is a *graduand* until the day of the ceremony

*Example for an invitation*

"I am inviting all parents of our graduating ceremony to celebrate with our graduates." ❌

"I am iviting all parents of our graduation ceremony to celebrate with our graduands."✔️


After ceremony...

"Congratulations to our 2026 graduates"✔️

*Hope you got the difference!*

©OralAmos English Institute

English 101: Standard Grammar
21/07/2026

English 101: Standard Grammar

5 WAYS TO IMPROVE YOUR ENGLISH IN 6 MONTHSFluency in 6 months is possible if you’re deliberate. Here’s a practical break...
21/07/2026

5 WAYS TO IMPROVE YOUR ENGLISH IN 6 MONTHS

Fluency in 6 months is possible if you’re deliberate. Here’s a practical breakdown with real-life scenarios:

1. Work With A Good Diction Coach To Master Pronunciation Features

A diction coach helps you go beyond "speaking" to speaking correctly. They train you on sounds, stress, intonation, and rhythm of English — the things YouTube can’t correct in real-time.

You learn vowel and consonant sounds, word stress, sentence stress, linking, and intonation. All L2 speakers naturally struggle to pronounce one or more English sounds, thus will usually mispronounce 2-3 words out of every five words. A good phonetician will help you develop English sound consciousness in the pronunciation of English words.

2. Listen + Shadow Native Speakers

Shadowing means listening to a native speaker and immediately repeating what they said, copying their tone and speed. Pick 1-2 minutes of a BBC podcast, TED Talk, or movie scene daily. Listen once, then speak along with it. Your mouth and ears get trained to the melody of English, and you begin to notice a flavour change in how you speak.

3. Be Intentional About Speaking With A "Foreign/Posh" Accent Without Fear Of Judgment

This is about mindset + practice. Choose a target accent — British RP, American, etc. — and intentionally model it. Don’t be afraid of sounding "posh" or "oyinbo". People who improve fast are the ones who commit fully. Pick one accent. Watch content in that accent only. Mimic it when ordering food, in meetings, on calls.


Fear kills fluency. Confidence + consistency in one accent builds muscle memory.

4. Think in English:
Stop translating from your first language in your head. Start narrating your life in English.

As you cook, walk, or drive, describe what you’re doing in English. “I’m cutting onions. The water is boiling.” When you think in English, speaking becomes automatic, not a translation exercise.

Comment "Share" for point 5.

When people say, "You don't need grammar to speak English," I think they're often talking about grammar rules, not gramm...
17/07/2026

When people say, "You don't need grammar to speak English," I think they're often talking about grammar rules, not grammar.

Those aren't the same thing.

When children learn their first language, they don't learn grammar rules. They don't know what the passive or the present perfect is.

But they do learn grammar.

They learn that we say “went”, not “goed” or “wented”.

They learn that “I swam yesterday” sounds natural but “I yesterday swam” doesn't.

Native speakers use thousands of grammar patterns every day without being able to explain them. Most of them can use the third conditional perfectly but couldn't tell you what a third conditional is!

The same thing can happen when you're learning a second language. I once taught a student from Sweden who had excellent English but knew very few grammar terms or rules. He'd absorbed a lot of the language simply through years of exposure.

But as an adult learner, I think studying some grammar rules can be really helpful because this speeds up the learning process.

So don't confuse knowing the rules with knowing the language.

➡️ Knowing grammar means knowing how to put words together naturally. You know when something sounds right.

➡️ Knowing grammar rules means understanding the patterns of the language and being able to apply them consciously.

❓Do you think an adult can learn English like a child learns their first language or not?

Mastering a language takes time.Many learners expect their progress to be faster and feel frustrated when it takes longe...
13/07/2026

Mastering a language takes time.

Many learners expect their progress to be faster and feel frustrated when it takes longer than they expected.

It doesn’t help when social media posts and adverts promise fluency in three months.

But language learning isn't a quick process.

You probably won't notice huge improvements from one day to the next.

But if you look back six months or a year, you'll often realise just how much you've learnt and improved.

So be patient.

Relax and take your time. Don’t put so much pressure on yourself.

And enjoy the learning process.

I am an ESL tutor, and your progress in improved speaking is my foremost objective.

We can start the journey together!

WhatsApp: 08080538089

10/07/2026

What are the plural forms of FOOD, FISH, and MONEY?

Some English nouns don’t play by the regular "+s" rule. Such nouns are usually categorized as uncountable. However, contexts is a peculiar variable to some of such nouns.

Regarding the nouns above, we also classify them as uncountable nouns generally, but contexts could admit the 's' suffixation in forming a plural case

So...

Use FOOD when talking about food in general.

Examples:
I love food.✔️
We don’t have enough food.✔️

Use FOODS when talking about types/kinds of food.


Examples:
Asian foods are spicy.✔️ There were many foods at the party.✔️
The foods we bought were, rice, pounded yam and moi-moi.✔️

Use FISH when talking about 1 or many of the same kind of fish🐟.

Examples:

I caught 5 fish 🐟 🐟 🐟 🐟 🐟 today.✔️

There's a lot of fish 🐟 in the soup.✔️

Use FISHES when talking about different kinds/species of fish.

Examples:
The ocean has many fishes.✔️🐟 🐠

There are different kinds of fishes in the ocean.✔️

MONEY, generally, has no plural form — it is an uncountable noun.

However, in LAW and even business, different money put together can be referred to as MONIES or even MONEYS.

Which other noun do you want me to explain its plural form, whether it has one or not?






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