Vocabulary: onus
Tutoring English, there’s always another word to mention. About 35 years ago I was in a debating club, where I would sometimes hear the statement, The onus of persuasion lies with the affirmative side. What that means is that the …
Category: english
English: good vs well
Tutoring English, you can get schooled. The tutor mentions good vs well. Technically, if a car performs well, we say it “runs well.” However, having looked over many car ads in my life, I can’t recall seeing “runs well” – …
Vocabulary: endogenous
Tutoring English, vocabulary is always interesting. The tutor mentions endogenous. endogenous: caused from within, typically by an inherent part of the entity. Source: Mish, Frederick C (editor). Merriam-Webster Dictionary. Springfield: Merriam-Webster, 2004.
English: homonyms: burro and burrow
Tutoring English, homonyms are a favourite topic. The tutor mentions a couple more. burro: a small donkey. burrow: a dug-out space under ground where an animal dwells. Source: Mish, Frederick C (editor). Merriam-Webster Dictionary. Springfield: Merriam-Webster, 2004. Barber, Katherine et …
Vocabulary: collocation
Tutoring English, there’s always more to learn. The tutor mentions a word he’s seen lately. In my view, collocation can be understood from pretending it’s co-location. It refers to the idea of items being found together, often not by accident. …
Vocabulary: regicide: a person
Self-tutoring about English: the tutor mentions a meaning of regicide he didn’t know. Regicide can be the murder of a king, but it can also mean the murderer of a king. If Caesar had been a king, Brutus, Cassius, and …
English: homonyms: defuse and diffuse
Tutoring English, homonyms have been a favourite topic of mine since second grade. The tutor mentions defuse and diffuse. defuse:to remove the ignition device of a bomb. More generally, to quell tension by dulling the meaning, or the context, of …
English: collective nouns, part 1
Tutoring English, common questions can be interesting. The tutor continues about collective nouns. In my last post I begin about collective nouns, such as group. A natural question about them: do you refer to them as singular, or plural? The …
English: collective nouns, part 0
Tutoring English, there can be old ideas whose names might escape you. The tutor mentions collective nouns. We’re all familiar with the idea that some nouns seem singular but refer to plural, such as “a group”. Yet, what are such …
English: so, part 0
Self-tutoring about English: the tutor discusses use of the word so. The word so is a conjunction, but can also be an adverb. “I so often diet” might be an example. Another use case for so: (example 1:) Her advice …