Ex. Fill in the gaps with one word. The same word in the same form is needed in each of the three sentences.
I'm a Reader (Assistant Professor) in the Institute of English and American Studies at the University of Gdańsk, Poland. I hold a PhD in Linguistics, and I specialise in sociolinguistics, normative linguistics and English for Academic Purposes. This blog contains exercises for my students and other advanced English learners.
Tuesday, 28 September 2021
Trios 2
Friday, 27 August 2021
Trios 1
In this series of exercises, inspired by a use of English task in Cambridge CPE examinations in the 2000's, you will need the same word to fill in the gaps in three sentences. The trick is that the word in question is usually used in different ways: it has multiple meanings, it is used in metaphorical expressions, phrasal verbs and idioms, it is converted from a noun to a verb or adjective etc. The word should be used in the same form in all three sentences: if the verb do is the answer, the sentences should not require does, doing, done, did etc.
Ex. Fill in the gaps with one word. The same word in the same form is needed in each of the three sentences.
It's Chris's stag night. Let's go out and paint the town ___.
The thief left a false clue; it was a ___ herring.
Thursday, 26 August 2021
Odd one out: adjectives
I took some of the words from dictionary.com.
Ex. Each of the following sets of adjectives consists of three words which are synonyms or near-synonyms and one word whose meaning is different. Choose the word which is different.
1. gaudy; garish; perky; chintzy
2. impressionable; gullible; naive; impregnable
3. mauve; bland; dull; insipid
4. antediluvian; prehistoric; primordial; precarious
5. bubbly; flabby; sparkling; effervescent
6. vitriolic; harsh; scathing; meretricious
7. apt; irrespective; pertinent; germane
8. bereft; deprived; pernicious; lacking
9. inclement; tempestuous; stormy; feigned
10. imperial; royal; regal; infernal
11. immodest; boastful; bragging; indecent
12. incandescent; loquacious; luminous; radiant
13. bemused; perused; perplexed; befuddled
In the following examples the items are idioms and other phrases used as adjectives.
14. off colour; under the weather; right as rain; below par
15. on cloud nine; as happy as Larry; over the moon; over the hill
1. perky, 2. impregnable, 3. mauve, 4. precarious, 5. flabby, 6. meretricious, 7. irrespective, 8. pernicious, 9. feigned, 10. infernal, 11. indecent, 12. loquacious, 13. perused, 14. right as rain, 15. over the hill
Monday, 3 May 2021
Word stress: The '-able' suffix
Sunday, 25 April 2021
Linking sounds: /j/, /w/ and /r/
In February 2019 I wrote a post about linking and intrusive /r/ in connected speech. Linking /j/ and /w/ work in a similar way:
b. linking /w/ connects /uː/ or a diphthong ending in /-ʊ/ to the next word which begins with a vowel,
c. /r/ is used after the remaining vowel sounds: /ɑː/, /ɜː/, /ɔː/, /ɪə/, /eə/, /ʊə/, /ə/.
Ex. Read the following sentences and find the places where you should use a linking /j/ or /w/.
2. Did you see Alan's car yesterday? It's blue and green.
3. Sue and Ray have a cow and five chickens.
4. Ray always says he is fed up with the hard work.
5. Joe isn't fond of coffee or tea; he drinks water instead.
6. Germany is larger than Austria and Switzerland.
7. 'How about a day at the beach?' 'But it's windy outside. I don't want the wind to blow in my face.'
Are there any places where we use a linking or intrusive /r/?
KEY
1. you /w/ and, 2. see /j/ Alan's; blue /w/ and, 3. Sue /w/ and; cow /w/ and, 4. Ray /j/ always; he /j/ is, 5. Joe /w/ isn't; coffee /j/ or, 6. Germany /j/ is, 7. How /w/ about; day /j/ at; windy /j/ outside; blow /w/ in
/r/: 5. water /r/ instead; 6. Austria /r/ or
Thursday, 25 March 2021
Devoicing of voiced consonants
Voice and voicelessness in English consonants can be a complicated topic. Describing the phonology of English has never been an objective of this blog, which is why in today's post I describe the basics which can be confusing to Polish students of English in particular and may also be similarly difficult to speakers of other languages where the devoicing of consonants works in a comparable way, e.g. other Slavic languages, German or Finnish.
Tuesday, 27 October 2020
2020 Halloween Special
I used Tophonetics.com to transcribe some of the answers.
Ex. Match the trivia about Gothic and horror literature with the phonemic transcription of the answers. Then write the answers using ordinary English spelling.
Key. 1b Dracula, 2f Pennywise, 3g Robert Bloch, 4c Rosemary, 5a nevermore, 6e Mister Hyde, 7h The Shining, 8d Cthulhu