Dear all
Thank you joining me in Hampstead last Saturday and making it such an enjoyable English conversation walk. Isn’t Hampstead lovely? I hope you all enjoyed it. Your research and participation in speaking English was very welcome … thank you.
Some of the vocabulary that we went over at the end is below.
Best Wishes
Gail
To rattle (something) (verb): To make a noise like hard things hitting each other. E.g. The windows were rattling all night in the wind. E.g. He rattled the money in the tin.
To get rattled (inf): To become a bit angry or worried. E.g. The news of his arrival really rattled her. E.g. When he opened his wallet and saw all the money gone, really rattled him.
To get tanked up (informal expression): To drink lots of alcohol. Get drunk.
A graveyard (noun): In English, it is more common to use the word ‘graveyard’ than cemetery. ‘Cemetary’ tends to be used more by other European countries.
Foul (adjective): a) When something smells or tastes disgusting E.g. this coffee tastes foul. E.g. Their kitchen smells foul!
b) We also use the word ‘foul’ to describe how we feel. E.g. He’s in a foul mood/temper. E.g. this weather is foul.
To drown (verb): To die in water because it is not possible to breath. E.g. Last year a woman drowned in one of the Hampstead ponds.
To grind (something down/up, something into something) (verb): To press and break something into very small pieces or into a powder between two hard surfaces. E.g. When there was a windmill in Hampstead, it ground the wheat into flour.
A grinder (noun): A machine for grinding. E.g. A coffee grinder.
Expressions using ‘grind’:
Life is a hard grind: difficult, hard work
To feel ground down by something/one: Exhausted. E.g. I worked for 12 hours a day for a month. By the end I felt ground down.
To sneak (into, out of, past etc) (verb): To go very quietly so that nobody can see or hear you. E.g. She sneaked out of the room before the meeting finished.
Sneaky (adjective): E.g. She had a sneaky cigarette (when no-one was looking).
Sneakily (adverb): E.g. They ate their sandwiches sneakily.
To sneak up (on someone) (phrasal verb): Go near somebody very quietly, especially so that you can surprise them.
To talk (something) over (phrasal verb): To get control of something or responsibility for something. e.g. The firm is being taken over by a large company. E.g. Can you find somebody to take over my English class next week, please?
To deceive (verb): To try to make somebody believe something that is not true. (see ‘to fall for something’ below)
To fall for somebody (phrasal verb) (inf): To be strongly attracted to somebody. To fall in love with somebody. E.g. Keats fell in love with Fanny Brown.
To fall for something (phrasal verb): To be tricked into believing something that is not true. E.g. Don’t fall for anything he says. He’s deceiving you!
An eyesore (noun): something that is ugly and unpleasant to look at. E.g. To some people, The Shard is an eyesore.
Cross your ‘t’s and dot your ‘i’s (idiom): Take care of all the details of what you are doing, even the smallest ones.
To take one day at a time (idiom): To deal with things as they happen, and not to make plans or to worry about the future. E.g. While he lived in London, he took one day at a time. He didn’t know when he’d return to his own country.
To riot (verb): A situation in which a group of people behave in a violent way in a public place, often as a protest. E.g. The riots in London in 2011 were mostly young people fed up with having no jobs.
To have a riot (inf): To enjoy yourself and have a good time. E.g. How was the party last night? Oh, it was a riot!
Glad rags (noun) (inf): Clothes for a special occasion.
To keep your eyes peeled (idiom): To watch carefully for someone or something. E.g. Keep your eyes peeled so we get of the bus at the right stop!
Thank you joining me in Hampstead last Saturday and making it such an enjoyable English conversation walk. Isn’t Hampstead lovely? I hope you all enjoyed it. Your research and participation in speaking English was very welcome … thank you.
Some of the vocabulary that we went over at the end is below.
Best Wishes
Gail
To rattle (something) (verb): To make a noise like hard things hitting each other. E.g. The windows were rattling all night in the wind. E.g. He rattled the money in the tin.
To get rattled (inf): To become a bit angry or worried. E.g. The news of his arrival really rattled her. E.g. When he opened his wallet and saw all the money gone, really rattled him.
To get tanked up (informal expression): To drink lots of alcohol. Get drunk.
A graveyard (noun): In English, it is more common to use the word ‘graveyard’ than cemetery. ‘Cemetary’ tends to be used more by other European countries.
Foul (adjective): a) When something smells or tastes disgusting E.g. this coffee tastes foul. E.g. Their kitchen smells foul!
b) We also use the word ‘foul’ to describe how we feel. E.g. He’s in a foul mood/temper. E.g. this weather is foul.
To drown (verb): To die in water because it is not possible to breath. E.g. Last year a woman drowned in one of the Hampstead ponds.
To grind (something down/up, something into something) (verb): To press and break something into very small pieces or into a powder between two hard surfaces. E.g. When there was a windmill in Hampstead, it ground the wheat into flour.
A grinder (noun): A machine for grinding. E.g. A coffee grinder.
Expressions using ‘grind’:
Life is a hard grind: difficult, hard work
To feel ground down by something/one: Exhausted. E.g. I worked for 12 hours a day for a month. By the end I felt ground down.
To sneak (into, out of, past etc) (verb): To go very quietly so that nobody can see or hear you. E.g. She sneaked out of the room before the meeting finished.
Sneaky (adjective): E.g. She had a sneaky cigarette (when no-one was looking).
Sneakily (adverb): E.g. They ate their sandwiches sneakily.
To sneak up (on someone) (phrasal verb): Go near somebody very quietly, especially so that you can surprise them.
To talk (something) over (phrasal verb): To get control of something or responsibility for something. e.g. The firm is being taken over by a large company. E.g. Can you find somebody to take over my English class next week, please?
To deceive (verb): To try to make somebody believe something that is not true. (see ‘to fall for something’ below)
To fall for somebody (phrasal verb) (inf): To be strongly attracted to somebody. To fall in love with somebody. E.g. Keats fell in love with Fanny Brown.
To fall for something (phrasal verb): To be tricked into believing something that is not true. E.g. Don’t fall for anything he says. He’s deceiving you!
An eyesore (noun): something that is ugly and unpleasant to look at. E.g. To some people, The Shard is an eyesore.
Cross your ‘t’s and dot your ‘i’s (idiom): Take care of all the details of what you are doing, even the smallest ones.
To take one day at a time (idiom): To deal with things as they happen, and not to make plans or to worry about the future. E.g. While he lived in London, he took one day at a time. He didn’t know when he’d return to his own country.
To riot (verb): A situation in which a group of people behave in a violent way in a public place, often as a protest. E.g. The riots in London in 2011 were mostly young people fed up with having no jobs.
To have a riot (inf): To enjoy yourself and have a good time. E.g. How was the party last night? Oh, it was a riot!
Glad rags (noun) (inf): Clothes for a special occasion.
To keep your eyes peeled (idiom): To watch carefully for someone or something. E.g. Keep your eyes peeled so we get of the bus at the right stop!
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