Abbreviations in English

Here is a list of some of the most used abbreviations in English.

FYI – For Your Information

IMO – In My Opinion

IMHO – In My Humble Opinion

IMNSHO – In My Not So Humble Opinion

ROFL – Roll On Floor Laughing

ROFLMAO – Roll On Floor Laughing My Bum Off (Not really Bum, but you can guess what it is.)

LMAO – Laugh my Bum off (Same as above)

DH – Dear Husband

DW – Dear Wife

DD – Dear Daughter

DS – Dear Son

TTFN – Ta Ta For Now (Just a way to say good-bye)

VIP – Very Important Person

BRB – Be Right Back

BTW – By The Way

w/ – with

w/o – without

FAQ – Frequently Asked Questions

LOL – Laugh Out Loud

OMG – Oh My God

TTYL – Talk To You Later

BTDT – Been there Done That

EOB – End of Business (the end of the work day)

EOD – End of Day

HTH – Hope This Helps

MPH – Mile Per Hour

WTF – What the *beep*

ASAP – As Soon As Possible

JK – Just Kidding

JJ – Just Joking

TGIF – Thank God It’s Friday

Ex . – Example

Etc. – Et cetera (Latin) (It means: and so on or and other things)

i.e. – id est (Latin) (It means: that is or in other words)

e.g. – exempli gratia (Latin) (It means: for the sake of example or simply for example)

A Little Slang for the Soul

Time for a wee bit of slang! I know some teachers don’t like to teach slang, but the fact is a lot of English speakers use slang, so it’s important to learn some. And I think it’s fun to learn.

kick back – relax
After a hard day at work, I like to kick back and enjoy a cup of hot chocolate.

rock – to be great
You rock! (This is an expression a lot of people use. It means they are happy with what you just did or something you are about to do.)

goofed up – to mess up/make a mistake
I goofed up when I wrote a tweet today; I spelled a word wrong.

John – toliet
Hey, where’s the John?

catch some rays – to lay out in the sun and try to get a sun tan
After lunch, I’m going to the pool to catch some rays!

nuts – crazy
That guy just went swimming and it’s freezing outside. He’s nuts!

peeps – people/friends
I’m going to call up my peeps and see if they want to go to the movies.

umpteen – many
I asked my son umpteen times to please clean his room. (This is true!)

gut – stomach
Oh man, that guy just hit me in my gut!

Oh man – to be surprised about something
Oh man, I can’t believe I just lost that game.

English Riddles

I’m in a silly mood today, so I thought I’d post a few English riddles to get you thinking…perhaps you have similar ones in your country?

Q – What has 2 hands, a face but it doesn’t have arms or legs?
A – A clock.

(Explanation – The front of the clock is called the face. The 2 arrowed lines that show the time are called hands in English.)

Q – What are the most 3 important rings in a person’s life?
A – Engagement ring, Wedding ring, and suffering.

(Explanation – Suffering has ‘ring’ at the end of it. This is a play on words. Also, note that in the United States, the man gives the woman an engagement ring when he proposes and then a wedding ring at the wedding ceremony. Men only receive a wedding ring at the wedding ceremony. Lucky girls – we get 2!)

Q – Why are baseball stadiums so cold?
A – There is a fan in every seat.

(Explanation – Fan is a word for someone who cheers on a sports team and also it is a word for an eletric device that cools down a room.)

Q – Which word in English has 11-letters and everyone pronounces it incorrectly?
A – Incorrectly!

(Explanation – I think this one speaks for itself, since we all say ‘incorrectly’ as it is said.)

Q – Which room has no doors and no windows.
A – A mushroom.

Tongue Twisters!

Today, I wanted to have a little fun. I’m going to write out some English tongue twisters that will help you to practice your pronunciation, while having fun! Try to say each one between 5 and 10 times quickly. Be prepared to laugh, because it is funny.

Rubber baby buggy bumpers

She sells sea shells by the sea shore

How much wood could a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood?

Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers. How many peppers did Peter Piper pick?

Fuzzy Wuzzy was a bear. Fuzzy Wuzzy had no hair. Fuzzy Wuzzy wasn’t very fuzzy, was he?

How many cans can a canner can, if a canner can can cans? A canner can can as many cans as a canner can, if a canner can can cans.

Practicing the Alphabet

This first podcast is for beginner English students. It will help you practice the English alphabet.

http://yvonnecrawford.podbean.com/mf/web/cnqx64/podcast1.mp3

Enjoy! I hope to be making more podcasts soon. Feel free to leave me a comment if there is a particular topic you’d like me to discuss.

Below is a copy of the podcast script, in case you want to read it while listening to the podcast. However, it is probably best to listen to the podcast at least 1 time before reading the script.

Have a great weekend!

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Podcast #1

Hi, my name is Yvonne. This is The English Guru podcast #1 and today we are going to start at the beginning with the alphabet. Repeat the letters after me…A-B-C-D-E-F-G-H-I-J-K-L-M-N-O-P-Q-R-S-T-U-V-W-X-Y-Z

Learning how to say the letters properly is important for when someone asks you to spell your name or the street you live on. Let’s practice that.

My name is Yvonne. You spell it Y-V-O-N-N-E. Now you try with your name.

I live on smith Street. You spell it S-M-I-T-H. You can give it a try too.

Sometimes on the phone it’s hard to hear the letters of the alphabet and some letters like d and b sound the same. Because of this some people spell things like this:

I live on Branch Street. B as in boy, R as in Rat, A as in Apple, N as in Nancy, C as in Cat and H as in Hop

You can practic that and then come back for podcast #2 where I will talk about greetings.

Not sure where to start learning English????

If you have access to some international cable TV stations that is a great start to start listening to various accents and increase your vocabulary. While watching, you can soak up a lot of American (or British) culture.

If you don’t have access to international television, then you can go out on the web and find some great stuff to watch as well. Youtube.com is a wonderful site you can go to to view old or new videos. Just type in what you want to watch and search for it. You can search for old American shows like Dallas or 90210 or you can search for more recent shows like Desperate Housewives or Ugly Betty.