SarahRTW

I admit, "lighted" sounds awkward to me, too. I tend to say "lit", as most of you do. However, now we all know both are acceptable. Go ahead and use whichever you prefer; no grammar police will arrest you for incorrect word usage. Also, thanks for correcting my error. You are quite right, I did mean adjective. As to the confusion about if its different, the word in a way acts or sounds like an adjective, even though it's a verb. This is a different topic, I'll try to get something together on it soon, if it will help.

I've done a combination of both. I studied Spanish by correspondence, then used Rosetta Stone. WHen I went to SPain, I studied in a class with other students. The Correspondence course would have been OK, but without audio there was no way to know if our pronunciation was proper or not. Rosetta Stone is great because it encompasses all aspects of langauge, and has sessions with tutors to further improve. The class would have been great, but it was a beginner class and I was intermediate (There was only beginner and advanced) so it was too easy for me. Also, students who didn't really try held the class up. Grrr!

Great quotes, everyone. I especially love Linguaholic's . Here a famous, and true, one from Pygmalion (which became the musical My Fair Lady" An Englishman's way of speaking absolutely classifies him The moment he talks he makes some other Englishman despise him The dialect are becoming less pronounced, but at the time and until recently this was quite true. (My dad is British, and this is one of his favourite quotes)

A Thesaurus is certainly a great resource to have. However, don't go for the longest or fanciest word you can find. Even when you use a thesaurus, your language should sound natural - like you already knew the word. Teachers won't be impressed if your paper is peppered with overlong, rarely used synonyms that scream "I used a thesaurus".

Congrats, Wowtgp. You used two items of figurative speech in your short post. 1. "down the line": a metaphor whose origins likely refer to rail lines. As you are not on a train, plane or automobile, this is figurative language for "Later on". 2. "Stick to" You mean "keep on going" or "remain at this level". You are not actually stuck to something with an adhesive. At least, I don't think you are. See how its easy to use them all the time, without even knowing you are?

Someone asked about this word pair and its usage I admit, I wasn't sure myself. So I looked it up. Here's what I Found: Both words are acceptable past tense/past participle terms for "To light" Neither word is associated with one regional variation such as UK or US english, but one sources did say "lit" is the prefered version outside of USA Lighted is often used as a verb (" a lighted candle") while lit is often used as a verb ("the candle was lit") So, either way, your usage will be correct. Go ahead and use which one you think sounds best. References: http://www.grammarphobia.com/blog/2006/08/lighted-vs-lit-and-dived-vs-dove.html http://grammarist.com/usage/lighted-lit/

Linguaholic and I were actually saying much the same thing. And she is (guessing "she based on your avatar) quite correct in her statement. As I said, each word lends its own meaning or feel to a sentence. Synonyms may mean roughly the same thing, but rarely are they identical in meaning. Glad and Happy are different degrees of emotion Doctor and Physician are both medical professionals, but saying physician gives it a sense of greater importance or dignity. Drunk means you've had too much alcohol while intoxicated implies a greater degree of drunkenness. (you can then go into slang and informal words, such as sloughed and hammered)

Aloud, Allowed Aloud mean to say something verbally. To say something "out loud" rather than thinking it "Oops. Did I say that aloud?" Allowed means something is permitted. "Seeing-eye dogs are allowed on the bus."

Yup. That definitely qualifies and is an excellent example! Love and hate are often used in a paradoxical manner, similar to that expression. They are similar in how they make people act, so make excellent paradoxes.

I love reading, its a great way of picking up vocabulary, even in your own language. The disadvantage, however, is that you don't get the proper pronunciation and intonation with it. Some languages this isn't so bad, such as Spanish, where words are almost always phonetic. But in English...no way! Consider: "She threw the ball through the window" Threw and through are both pronounced the same way! You'd never know that from reading, unless you were at an advanced enough stage to figure it out.

Hanged vs. Hung: Ariel Castro HANGED (not hung) himself. Even the media uses words improperly sometimes. I don't know how well the distinction between these two words is known. I admit, I get them mixed up sometimes, too. HANGED refers to to any kind of death by rope: execution, murder or suicide. Lighted vs Lit: Good question. My initial reaction is to say it's a regional difference, say, between UK and US English. I don't know for sure, so I'll check and get back on that one.

One of my classmates was in Peru, and spoke some Spanish. SHe was trying to be friendly with a waitress so was talking Spanish. She wanted to say she's 21, but mispronounced the word for age, and said she is/has 21 anuses. OOOPS When she figured out why the waitress was laughing she was so embarrassed and wouldn't try speaking Spanish to anyone after that.

I find the challenge of 'figuring it out' fun, and it's rewarding when I really begin to understand and be understood. I also enjoy the way you can learn about a culture by studying it's language and linguistic profile. Mostly though, I just love to learn anything, and that includes different languages.

I love learning old words, too. I have a couple of books with such terms in them. Here are a few random examples: pumpkinification: exaggerated praise or acting in a pompous manner. Trantles: articles of little value Foofing: A dog howling or crying in a pathetic or sad manner.

Cooking analogies are very common "Roasting" and "Freezing" are two very common examples of this. "Half Baked" is an expression that means very foolish or crazy. Usually it's used when talking about a plan. "Your get rich quick scheme is half-baked, at best" If you "put something on the back burner" it means you put it on hold temporarily or no longer consider it a priority. If something is "put on ice" is similar to "the back burner" idiom, but means it's completely halted, rather than just slowed down or shuffled off the priority list.

Hanged and Hung are not interchangeable. I expect that native English speakers get this one mixed up frequently too. I know I have to pause and think about which one is which. HANGED: Is when a person died by being dangled by a rope, either as suicide, murder or capital punishment. "The thief was found guilty and sentenced to death by being hanged from a rope" HUNG: is what you do to a picture or decoration "The family picture hung over the large fireplace." So, now you know!

I'm a native speaker, and I tend to stumble over "probably" a lot. It's not hard, I just get tongue tied Words that tend to be hard to pronounce depend on the country of origin. PEople will have trouble pronouncing sounds that are not in their native language, or not used the same way. A lot of people say "ing" like "in" and omit the nasal sound. Others have trouble with "r" and make it an "l" etc. The same is true of English speakers, of course, when they are faced with sounds not part of english, or not used as we use them.

Last thread I posted about synonyms, which have the same (or very similar meaning) This time I am writing about antonyms. These are two words which have opposite meaning, such as: Hot and Cold Happy and Sad Good and Bad/Evil Like synonyms you can find antonyms in a thesaurus, but don't get too exotic in your word choice. Language, written or spoken, should sound natural.

I'm Canadian, and I agree its annoying that everyone is US-English-centric. I also find it annoying how Americans tend to call their English "American" (I worked at a call centre before, and people would say "it's nice to have someone who speaks American). Sorry, but American is a nationality, not a language. Most spell checkers have the option to set to different variations of English. The differences are only understood in writing, they don't sound different (though there are some words that are used differently in the various regions). UK English uses "u" in words "Colour", "Neighbour" etc US omits the added "u": Color, Neighbour Canadian English is mostly like UK English. It uses "u", but has a few US spellings such as "jail" instead of "gaol". Yet, our grammar is more US than UK. Confused yet? As to the why, most companies that make it are US-based, or if foreign use US because its more prominent than the other variations. Still. I agree, its irritating. (No offence to Americans, of course. )

Synonyms are words that sound different but mean the same thing. For example: Happy and Glad; Autumn is also called Fall; Stumble and Trip While synonyms have the same meaning, they often have different implications and affect the text. This is called implicit meaning, I'll write a separate post about it soon. For now, just know that the words you chose will make the text 'feel different. consider this: "I went to the physician about my stomach ache last night" "I went to the doctor about my stomach ache last night" "I went to the quack* about my stomach ache last night" * Quack is an insulting name for a doctor, it means the doctor is incompetent or doesn't know what he's doing When writing using synonyms, don't overdo it. Langauge should sound natural, not like you scoured the dictionary for the best sounding word availabile.

For a practical language, I'd like to learn German. It's close enough to English I'd probably not have too much trouble learning; it's also different enough to provide a good challenge. I've also been considering learning some less common languages, such as Swahili or Turkish, just for the fun of it. Overall, if it's a language, I'm at least a little interested in learning it. I find such things as language and linguistics extremely fascinating. Yes I'm a geek :-)..

Thanks for the warm welcome, everyone. This does seem like a very friendly place to hang out online I love helping others learn, and I'm a patient teacher, so if you have any questions, just ask! Glad you find my threads useful. I took a course in teaching ESL, so have some good resources on the learning English. I'm sure I'll benefit from the Spanish and French sections too, as I learn/refresh my knowledge of those language. Thanks again!

We use figurative langauge so much that we don't even realise we do it. Its like breathing (see, there's one - simile). figurative language adds emphasis and interest to speech. Without figurative speech, language would be boring and flat. However, many forms of figurative speech can also be cliché and detract from what you are saying. A cliché is an overused statement. "Avoid like the plague," "love at first sight," and "flat as a pancake" are examples of clichés. You should try to avoid them, and instead create original sayings (as long as it makes sense).

There are many variations of the game available too, different developers have created their own versions. Using it to expand vocabulary is a brilliant idea! Here's a hint, a general one: Sometimes the games "cheat" and use homonyms that are spelled the same but entire different words. Personally, I think this is cheating. But keep that in mind, and it might help. A few versions are also available on Facebook, too. One is good, just like the ap. There's another that I don't like because the pictures don't always accurately reflect the word.

In Africa, many products label ingredients with pictures rather than text, due to illiteracy etc. Well, Gerber baby food wanted to expand to Africa, and of course they have a wonder picture of a cute, healthy baby on the front. Well, you can see how THIS would be a problem in a country where ingredients are labelled pictorially. There's an urban myth that the NOVA car never sold in Mexico or Latin American countries because No Vas in Spanish means "won't go". It's a prominent myth, but a myth nonetheless. On the flip side, VISA is so-named because it's the only word that doesn't have any unfortunate meaning in another language.