Car parts from weeds

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Name the game!

Name the games for which clues are provided:

1)  A game played on a lawn, with balls, mallets, hoops and a peg.
2)  There are 28 pieces, split into two sections, either blank or marked with numbers from 1 to 6.
3)  Played with pawns, knights and bishops.
4)  Played with shuttlecocks.
5)  Played with a ball and racquets and terms like love, deuce and advantage.
6)  A game played with a set of clubs, on a manicured piece of land, trying to get a ball into a small 
      hole. 
7)  Played with nine a side, with a bat and a ball.

Answers  tomorrow on the Facebook page

That dashed word!

Complete the following, and explain the meaning:

1. Jug- 
2. Shilly-
3. Pooh-
4. Willy-
5. Helter-
6. Namby-
7. Hogen-
8. Nulla-
9. Mumbo-
10. Hodge-

Answers  tomorrow on the Facebook page

Ssh! Find the Silent letters in these words!

1. Often.
2. Psychiatry.
3. Hour.
4. Gnostic.
5. Knock.
6. Pneumatic.
7. Rhyme.
8. Psalm.
9. Almond.
10. Cupboard.

Answers  tomorrow on the Facebook page

Collocations

What is a collocation?
This is a relatively new grammatical term. What I mean by that is that it wasn't taught to me when I was learning English in School 👴😊! This is partly because we were just a decade or so after the British Raj! So, for the most part, we just got used to using some words together!
Which is what a collocation is; "words that are used together by native English speakers". Some common collocations are :
1) A person with hair that appears yellow, is called a person with 'blond/blonde" hair depending on whether it is a male or a female. We do not call them yellow-haired!!
2) We say that people make mistakes not do mistakes.

These are just a  few of the various types of collocations. Will do more blogs on them later.

Words that end in -ment

I am giving you clues to words that end in -ment below:

1.  A program/show that gives pleasure to its audience:  _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ment.
2.  Peaceful and happy: _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ment.
3.  Shelling by artillery cannons: _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ment.
4.  Making a deal or a contract with someone: _ _ _ _ _ment.
5.  Changing for the better: _ _ _ _ _ _ _ment.
6.  Mourn:_ _ ment.
7.  An institution that makes laws in a democracy: _ _ _ _ _ _ment.
8.  Something that you use to do something useful: _ _ _ __ment.
9.  A solemn declaration while writing a will: _ _ _ _ _ment.
10.  Something that you play to make music: _ _ _ _ _ _ment.
11.  Placing of money for a profit: _ _ _ _ __ _ment.
12.  These are often given in a Court of law: _ _ _ _ _ment.

Answers  tomorrow on the Facebook page.

Find the word that means

1. Able to use both hands with equal ease.
2. A bent missile invented by Australian aborigines.
3. A group of ten years.
4. Consisting of several types.
5. A sea abounding in islands.
6. Views or principles spread around deliberately.
7. Several letters are interwoven into one.
8. A Mosque tower from which the call to prayer is given.

Answers tomorrow on the Facebook page.

Words beginning in "Can-"

1. A cute yellow bird
2. Card game
3. Sign of the Zodiac
4. Walking stick
5. Primitive boat.
6. Frank
7. White heat
8. Box for holding tea, cigarettes.
9. Famous French dance.

Answers  tomorrow on the Facebook page

Contemporary phobias

What is the fear of opening an email called? Aperpiphobia
What is the fear of bills called? Versurphobia
What is the fear of brands called? Nomenophobia
What is the fear of growing old called? Senecophobia
Just some of the new words one comes across these days!

Speaking English

You can learn to speak English just like you learn anything else, learn the rules and then PRACTISE!
Getting mastery over the grammar and vocabulary is unnecessary, just the bare essentials to get your ideas are enough; then take the plunge and speak. 
Now, it would help to speak with friendly people who are willing to correct you without looking down on you, as you would learn in a 'user-friendly' environment, which is perfect for learning fast!
Do that with the English Learning Channel where our friendly Conversation Specialists will help you to learn in a pleasant friendly atmosphere over Skype. They are native English speakers who will help you develop the right accent too!

Adjectives

• Adjectives are words that describe nouns and pronouns.
• Possessive adjectives don't need apostrophes.
• Use the comparative form when comparing two things.
• Use the superlative when comparing three or more things.
• When numbers are used as adjectives write it as a word, not a numeral.
• Never use a pronoun in place of an adjective:

    eg. Look at them flowers. 👎  "them" = pronoun
          Look at those flowers. 👍  "those"= adjective.

Me or I

How do you know whether to use 'me' or 'I'.
Consider this sentence:
My mother and I talked about my sister and me.
I'll tell you a trick about this 
Take the first part of the sentence - My Mother and I , drop the words 'My Mother' and then use it with the verb 'talked' 
Which sounds correct 'me talked' or 'I talked' ? Obviously 'I talked'  so you go for 'My Mother and I'. Then let's look at the second part of the sentence- 'about my sister and me' . Now drop the words 'my sister and' and look at the sentence
'My Mother and I talked about me',
now check it out with 'I'  
'My Mother and I talked about I'
'I' sounds distinctively out of place here.
That's how you can decide and you will never go wrong.

Accents

This word is defined as a distinctive way of pronouncing a language , especially one associated with a particular country , area or social class. When you learn a language , the muscles of your tongue learn to say the words of that particular language.
When they learn another language, the muscles of your tongue do not completely erase this 'muscle memory' and that is where an accent develops.

Generally, when one uses this new language often it also has an effect on the language that you learnt earlier, but that is to a lesser extent.

Accents have both positive and negative reactions; on the one hand they make it difficult for a listener to immediately understand what you are saying, but on the other hand it is useful for the listener to recognise the place from where you originated.

Usually, a listener can understand you when you speak repeatedly with them but till the time that they get used to your accent  you can achieve concept communication by speaking slowly and clearly as possible . 

Funny childhood thoughts

This is from an actual compilation:
" I was three when my mother taught me the song  'Silent Night', with the line 'Sleep in heavenly peace'. I thought that when you went to heaven, you slept on a bed of peas, and if you got hungry, you could eat them. Peas were my favourite vegetable, so heaven sounded really good - Gigi" 

Proper Adjectives

Okay, so what is this ? Does it mean that there are improper adjectives also? Of course, there are a multitude of them! Every abuse is one! In this case, we are referring to something quite different- we are referring to adjectives that refer to:-

•  a person's name, 
• a specific place or countries, 
• company names, 
• brands, 
• titles of books , movies, songs or other creative works, 
• names of religions,
• nationalities,
• months,
• days of the week and holidays.

e.g. Their Malaysian neighbour owned an Alfa-Romeo Sports car .

Borborygmus

Relative of a Gorilla? No, it's the rumble in your abdomen. So when you hear your stomach grumble what you are hearing are boborygmi! ( The plural). Children love this word, when they are introduced to it, because of the onomatopoeic nature of this word!.

Mnemonics for 'h' , 'i' and 'j'.

Handkerchief: Hand the chief a handkerchief.
Hoarse: When you are hoarse, you feel as if you have oars in your throat.
Indispensable: That sable coat is indispensable.
Irate: I was rated so low that I was irate.
Jalopy: Lop off those bushes and load them in the jalopy 
Jesuit: Can you imagine Jesus in a suit? 

Aphilophrenia

WHAT'S THAT??? Aphilophrenia is a feeling of being unloved. It is usually a fleeting feeling that does not last, but that is the word that describes it. It has Greek origins, 'a-philo' meaning not loved, and 'phrenia' meaning mental disorder

Flizzen

This word describes a manner of laughter, where the person laughs using every facial muscle. Frankly, I can't say that I have seen this happening because I don't even know how many facial muscles are there to check and tick off the boxes about how many muscles are being used! I know that I have laughed heartily at many a joke and even at the movies, where a particular scene is hilarious - remembering Mr Bean (Mr Rowan Atkinson)!

Shoeflower

Have you ever wondered why a Shoeflower is called so? It does not look like a shoe, nor does it have the colour of a shoe. I did and so researched this, and this is what I found: The shoe flower was used to polish shoes at one time. That is why it is called a Shoeflower.