Lexis

⇐ There are many ways of laughing… ←

 …many kinds of laughter ⇐

*   *    *

¤→Shiny shiny⇐(a challenge for translators)⇒

Φ  ‘Una lección para guiris’:

⇒ attitudinal idiomatic expressions ⇐

*   *    *

Survivors of several foreign invasions ↓ they’re also called STRONG verbs

 ⇐

 4 tests: ⇒[01]⇔[02]⇔[03]⇔[04]⇐ 

⇒ Present vs Past ⇐

⊗→ Wheel quiz ←⊗

• Past Simple …⇒[quiz#1]⇔[quiz#2]⇐

• Past Participle …⇒[quiz#1]⇔[quiz#2]⇐

⇔

    ⇐    Click for examples of use  ⇒

∴

Φ   Describing changes & transformations:

 

‘become’ – ‘get’ – ‘go’ – ‘grow’ – ‘turn’… ⇒ [01] ⇔ [02]⇐

•→Always singular  vs  Sometimes plural ⇐[nouns]

                    •→ Plural Noun Forms⇐

∞  Countable & Uncountable Nouns  ⇓

                                                    

•→Sound & Senses⇐ (David Crystal)

A collocation is a pair or group of words that are often used together. These combinations sound natural to native speakers, but students of English have to make a special effort to learn them because they are often difficult to guess.

♦  ◊  The lazy man’s verb :  ⇒ ‘GET’… ⇐

«Get» is one of the top 3 words you must learn if you want to master English. «Get» has over 50 meanings in English

→  ‘MAKE’ & ‘DO’  ⇐    [→Explanation←]

•  Make & Do quizzes . . .  →[01]← / →[02]← / →[03]← / →[04]← 

• →LET me tell you something … ⇐ 

•⇒  WAIT – HOPE – EXPECT – LOOK FORWARD TO ⇐

⇒ BEAT – EARN – GAIN – WIN ←   //   ⇒ FAIL – LOSE – MISS ←

⊗  ‘refuse’, ‘reject’, ‘decline’ & ‘deny’ … ⇒[vid]⇐

♦→  Collocations with the word «WAY»  ⇓

•→Advantages & disadvantages …⇐ [Emma]

♣  6 words whose meanings will surprise you ↓  (advanced)

⇓   WORD BUILDING  

¤ Word formation … ⇒[01] ⇔ [02] ⇔ [03] ⇔ [04] ⇔ [05]⇐ [quizzes]

¤ F.C.E._Word formation… →[01]← / →[02]← / →[03]← /  →[04]← /  →[05]←  / →[06]← / →[07]← 

¤ C.A.E._Word formation…⇒[01] ⇔ [02] ⇔ [03]  ⇔ [04] ⇔ [05] ⇔ [06] ⇐

•  Prefixes. Click on →SELF-compounds←; you might avoid misunderstandings.

• →Prefix «-UN-« ← is perhaps the most productive for building opposites. Click on the prefix for some advanced practice.

•→Negative prefixes ⇐[quiz]

•  Suffixes. Spot the badly-built word. Click on →NOUN suffixes ←

Much the same as Spanish “tiquis-miquis”, reduplicatives are compounds with two or more elements which are either identical or only slightly different: chop-chop, goody-goody, braindrain, crisscross, walkie-talkie… A favourite brand of words, mostly informal or familiar, often deriving from the nursery: teeter-totter, seesaw, creepy-crawly, bow-wow…

 • Click on → REDUPLICATIVES ← for a selection of such words with their meanings.

 • For a still better understanding, you might like to see Francisco Javier Martin Real’s compilation of reduplicatives, with their Spanish translations. Click cartoon ↓

•→ http://www.usingenglish.com/files/pdf/affixes-meanings.pdf←

¤  A list of common prefixes with their meanings and some examples.

anti- (= against) — antibodies, anti-social

auto- (self) — autonomous, autobiography, automobile

bi- (= two)  — bicycle

co- (= with)  —  cooperate, coordinate

contra- (= against)  —  contradict, contravene

de- (= remove)  —  deregulate, deselect

dis- (= not)  —  disappear

il- (= not)  —  illegal

im- (= not)  —  immaterial, immature

inter- (= between)  —  international

mis- (= badly/wrongly)  —  misinform, misbehave, misunderstand

multi- (= many)  —  multinational

non- (= opposite)  —  non-profit

out- (= more than)  —  outperform, outdone

over- (= too much)  —  oversleep, overwork

post- (= after)  —  postpone, postnatal

pre- (= before)  —  predict

re- (= again)  —  rewrite, relive

sub- (= under)  —  submarine

super- (= higher/improved)  —  supermarket

trans- (= across)  —  transatlantic

uni- (= one)  —  uniform

under- (= not enough)  —  underpaid, underfed

··· Word Endings

You can also make new words from the words you already know by using different endings. For example, «The person who employs me has a fast car». You can make this sentence simpler, by replacing «the person who employs me» with «my employer». This gives you «My employer has a fast car.»

In English you can make nouns from verbs (to employ gives employer and employee). You can also make verbs from nouns or adjectives: government gives to govern, modern gives to modernise and so on. Learning what endings you can put on words means you can expand your vocabulary and say what you mean more easily.

•  Here are some common suffixes:

–er /- or  (=a person who does something): adviser / advisor, teacher, learner

–ian:   optician, mathematician

–ment  (=result of action):  improvement, advancement

–ism   (=name of system or belief):  realism, optimism

–ist   (=the person who believes in the system):  realist, optimist

–ion:   confusion, apparition

–ness:   happiness

–ship:   leadership

–ence / -ance :   permanence, appearance –

-acy:    lunacy

–age:    marriage

–ity:   annuity

–y:    photography

–cy:   fluency

∞  Verbs

–ify  . . .  falsify, modify –ise  . . .  modernise

∞  Adjectives

–ic  …  idiotic, periodic

–ful  …  awful, wonderful –

-able / ible  …  comfortable, terrible

–proof / resistant  …  waterproof, childproof, fireproof

–free  …  alcohol free beer, nuclear free zone

–less (= without) … hopeless, childless

→  . . .  -ish  ←[suffix]