In the previous posts, I mentioned how every language has phrases and sentences that cannot be understood by just knowing the individual words. This sort of language is collectively known as ‘idiomatic’, and obviously is only language which higher speakers of any language (including English) can use appropriately and well. Let us continue to explore this issue. Here is a part from my Speaking Book [Tip 4, page 21].
- Nov 04 Wed 2020 09:06
Idiomatic Vocabulary for IELTS (3 of 25): "Personally, I think they just watch movies at home on Netflixs."
- Nov 02 Mon 2020 09:34
Idiomatic Vocabulary for IELTS (2 of 25): Let's think about the IELTS Speaking Test!
- Oct 30 Fri 2020 09:11
Idiomatic Vocabulary for IELTS (1 of 25): What a load of claptrap!
- Oct 28 Wed 2020 10:45
Compound Nouns: Final Post & Final Thoughts
- Oct 27 Tue 2020 09:08
Compound Nouns (10 of 10): "Do you want chicken or fish?"
One of the aspects of the Chinese language which I really like is the way it creates nouns by combining two simple nouns. These are called ‘compound nouns’. For example, in Chinese, a flight attendant [see the picture above] is called: ‘air-sister.’ (‘kong-jie’). Well, that woman who helps you on the plane is … sort of … a sister, and you are both in the air. So, the name, while not being perfectly logical, makes some sense.
- Oct 26 Mon 2020 08:46
Compound Nouns (9 of 10): Would you like to treat this animal?
One of the aspects of the Chinese language which I really like is the way it creates nouns by combining two simple nouns. These are called ‘compound nouns’. For example, in Chinese, a vet is called: ‘animal doctor’ (‘show-i’). It is indeed an animal doctor. That’s exactly what it is, so the name is perfectly logical (although the picture of the animal shown above is not quite logical, right!? - and it might be a little difficult to treat!).
- Oct 19 Mon 2020 09:13
Compound Nouns (8 of 10): You use this guy every day!
One of the aspects of the Chinese language which I really like is the way it creates nouns by combining simple nouns. These are called ‘compound nouns’. For example, in Chinese, a tap is called: ‘water-dragon-head’ (‘shwei-long-to’). Well, there’s a bit of imagination used there, but I do understand the logic. A tap looks a bit look a dragon's head. [See picture above]. Put these three nouns together, and it becomes a big noun. However, in English, it’s just called a ‘tap’ (although the Americans may use the word ‘faucet’).
- Oct 16 Fri 2020 09:05
Compound Nouns (7 of 10): Hey, I'm a compound noun!
One of the aspects of the Chinese language which I really like is the way it creates nouns by combining two simple nouns. These are called ‘compound nouns’. For example, in Chinese, the animal in the above picture is called a ‘long-neck-deer’ (‘chong-jin-lu’). Okay, 'long' is an adjective, but it makes the noun 'long-neck', which is added to 'deer'. Hence, a compound noun. But in English, it's just called a 'giraffe'.
- Oct 12 Mon 2020 09:20
Compound Nouns (6 of 10): A tale of two hairdressers.
One of the aspects of the Chinese language which I really like is the way it creates nouns by combining two simple nouns. These are called ‘compound nouns’. For example, look at the picture above. This crazy hairstyle was created by a 'hairdresser'. In Chinese, a ‘hairdresser’ is called a ‘hair-shape-design-master’ (‘fa-shing-sherji-sher’). Wow, that's four nouns in a row!
- Oct 09 Fri 2020 10:07
Compound Nouns (5 of 10): I hope that's not your house!