A spoilsport is the person who stops a dangerous or silly activity. Also called a “wet blanket” or “the fun police.”
Alexis: Stop being a spoilsport, Vanessa. Dancing in the middle of the road is fun!
Tag Archives: Vocab
Listening Skills and Podcasts
The best way to get better at listening is by… listening. Many students use movies or music to practice, but what about podcasts? They usually have natural, spoken English, and they can help with vocabulary as well. The presenters can be anywhere in the world, and that means different accents and slang.
Some of my favourites are This American Life, Stuff You Should Know, Planet Money, and Radiolab. BBC Documentaries is a great source of world news stories in more detail than you will find on TV or the radio.
Happy listening!
Test your knowledge of English
At the University of Gent, in Belgium, researchers are trying to learn more about reading. They’ve developed a test which is supposed to give you an estimate of the number of English words you know. It takes 4 minutes and can be found here.
If you find that you are not happy with your score, might I suggest starting with some vocabulary-building exercises from my class!
Here we go…?
A student asked me “Dave, what is the difference between ‘here you go,’ ‘there you are,’ there you go,’ ‘way to go,’ and ‘here we go?’” We ended up having a good discussion about these common phrases and when to use them. Here’s how you can use these expressions in your life.
Here you go/Here you are: We use these to announce that something we want is here. They mean the same thing.
Customer: “Medium coffee, please.”
Barista: “Here you go. Careful, it’s hot.”
Customer: “Could you pass the sugar?”
Barista: “Sure, here you are.”
There you go: This is mostly used in arguments, and means something like “I told you so!”
Student A: I think Vancouver is the largest city in Canada.”
Student B: “No, Toronto is larger.”
Student A: “I’m going to ask Google.”
Student B: “You’ll find that I am right…”
Student A: “Oh, Toronto is the biggest! I was wrong.”
Student B: “There you go.”
Here we go: This shows that we are starting an activity.
Driver: “Are you ready?”
Passenger: “Yes!”
Driver: “Ok, here we go!”
Way to go: This means “Congratulations!”
Student: “I got 89% in English class!”
Parent: “Good job! I knew you would pass your test! Way to go!”
Canadian Expressions
I just read this article about words that are more popular in Canada than in other places. Some of then have come up in my vocabulary classes, like “bachelor suite,” “toque,” and “parkade.” The author includes examples and pictures to help you learn the new words, so check out 55 Canadian Words!
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