Category: Hear it, Say it, Write it !

Posted in Notes on English Cross Cultural Comments Hear it, Say it, Write it ! Keywords Online Language Resources for English

the opposite of thoughtful?

… how about … thought… less. “Thoughtless.” “Inconsiderate.”

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Posted in Notes on English Fluency Audio Hear it, Say it, Write it ! Keywords homonyms

pronunciation : why? = y

Why ??? Why ??? = Why not? 

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Posted in Cross Cultural Comments Hear it, Say it, Write it !

Reassuring …

(an imaginary dialogue)

I think this is what Nicolas Sarkozy was saying to Angela Merkel about Greece …

[audio:http://test.paris-savannah.com/wp-content/uploads/EX17078A.mp3|titles=Everything’s going to be all right]

and she replied …

[audio:http://test.paris-savannah.com/wp-content/uploads/ex18078a1.mp3|titles=I beg your pardon…]

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Posted in Notes on English Hear it, Say it, Write it ! Online Language Resources for English homonyms

pronunciation & spelling: way … weigh

Just a few sound clips … to show you how easy it is to pronounce and spell these homonyms!

We all know “one way street …” ((sens unique dans tous ses sens)) [audio:http://test.paris-savannah.com/wp-content/uploads/ex18171d1.mp3|titles=one way street] and we know that there’s more than “one way” : Which way? Oh dear … No way! ((impossible!))[audio:http://test.paris-savannah.com/wp-content/uploads/ex18064a1.mp3|titles=no way]

Talking pounds and kilos … How much does it weigh?

weigh <pronunciation> way [audio:http://test.paris-savannah.com/wp-content/uploads/mf18171.mp3|titles=way]

Oh dear I just realized … the noun form of weigh is … weight. Which is pronounced just like wait.  “Heaven can wait” wasn’t that the name of a movie?

weight <pronunciation> wait [audio:http://test.paris-savannah.com/wp-content/uploads/mf18165.mp3|titles=wait/weight]

surely there are others … any suggestions?

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Posted in Notes on English Hear it, Say it, Write it ! Online Language Resources for English

“Excuse me!”

Now let’s be polite … preferably sincerely … !

1. Excuse me. [audio:http://test.paris-savannah.com/wp-content/uploads/ex17079e1.mp3|titles=Excuse me.]

2. Will you excuse us, please? [audio:http://test.paris-savannah.com/wp-content/uploads/ex17079c1.mp3|titles=Will you excuse us please?]

3. Would you excuse me?  [audio:http://test.paris-savannah.com/wp-content/uploads/ex17079d1.mp3|titles=Would you excuse me?]

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Posted in About Learning a Foreign Language Notes on English Fluency Hear it, Say it, Write it ! Popular sayings, proverbs & quotes

sense – common sense – sensible … & sensitive

Sense and Sensible :  something dear to the Cartesian mind: reason.

Not to be confused with Sensitive: Feeling.

Use your sense : Use your brain. Use reason – not passion! In this … sense … (meaning) sense means taking the various factors of a situation into consideration … BEFORE acting … My grandmother’s expression for this was … Use your noggin (contrary = that’s meshuganah!)

[audio:http://test.paris-savannah.com/wp-content/uploads/MF55069.mp3|titles=sense]

“Common sense isn’t so common,” she used to say. Common sense. What we all (should) know by now!

What are the contraries to “sense” ? How about these two?

[audio:http://test.paris-savannah.com/wp-content/uploads/mf42039.mp3|titles=senseless]

and doesn’t senseless lead us to the idea of something … crazy … mad … insane … > a real absence of reason?

and what about this one … which is a little more fun, isn’t it?

[audio:http://test.paris-savannah.com/wp-content/uploads/MF53128.mp3|titles=nonsense!]

Now who hasn’t been guilty of these … at some point?

Be sensible! Do what reason tells you … you ought to do … (even if it is emotional intelligence …)

Not to be confused with sensitive

[audio:http://test.paris-savannah.com/wp-content/uploads/MF42041.mp3|titles=sensitive]

[audio:http://test.paris-savannah.com/wp-content/uploads/ex420411.mp3|titles=Actors are very sensitive to criticism … ]

as in “touchy” “high strung” or people very easily hurt or offended,

often unintentionally.

I say: If being “sensible” is reasonable, then being “sensitive” is feeling.

Be both! Sensitive and Sensible. Of course, it’s taken me quite a few years to come to that conclusion …

Next week, I promise you something on the plural of this: senses. As in 5 … or maybe , in fact, 6 or more …

PS/ (My thanks to François and Fred L.  for this subject … as well as dinner chez Matsuri and an artistic evening the other night!)

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Posted in Notes on English Cross Cultural Comments Hear it, Say it, Write it ! Idiomatic Expressions Online Language Resources for English

“I can’t help it…”

Now if this were … “I can’t help you” or “I can’t help him” or “I can’t help them”… it would be easily translatable.

In French, for example, we’d say literally: “Désolé, je ne peux pas vous aider” ou “Je ne peux pas t’aider … dans le sens de “Je ne peux pas te donner un coup de main” , “Je ne peux pas te dépanner … ” “Je ne peux pas vous être utile…” ou même “Mon cher ami, si vous saviez …” … etcetera.

But the “it” … changes everything! Unless you’re talking about Minerva,  your pet cat, or Tolleston, your pet dog …  for example …,

“I can’t help it” is what someone says when they’re doing something compulsively. Indulging in something. Having an uncontrolled reaction. Cleptomania, for example … just picking up something that doesn’t belong to them.  Maybe having … one more drink.

Just listen: 

[audio:http://test.paris-savannah.com/wp-content/uploads/ex17041a1.mp3|titles=can’t help it]

In French, we might now translate this as:

“Je n’y peux rien…” ou “Je ne peux pas m’empêcher …” ou “C’est plus fort que moi …”

Apparently, it’s said on both sides of the Atlantic. As much by women as by men?

Why did I put this little thing in here today?

[audio:http://test.paris-savannah.com/wp-content/uploads/just-couldnt-help-it1.mp3|titles=just couldn’t help it!]

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Posted in Notes on English Cross Cultural Comments Hear it, Say it, Write it ! homonyms

I’ll = isle = aisle

three words with the same pronunciation … so if you can pronounce one … you can pronounce all 3, can’t you?

[audio:http://test.paris-savannah.com/wp-content/uploads/MF58195.mp3|titles=I’ll]

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