English proverbs

Proverbs are simple sayings that are based on common sense and are repeated often.  Here are a few of my favorite English proverbs.

The early bird catches the worm.

This means that success will come to people who are well prepared and put forth great effort.

A chain is only as strong as its weakest link.

This can refer to a team or a group of people and that they (as a unit) are only as strong as the weakest person on that team.

A penny saved is a penny earned.

This means that it is just as useful to save the money you have, as it is to earn more money.

All good things come to he who waits.

This is a proverb that is referring to patience.

Easter Traditions

Easter is very late this year.  This year it is on April 24th.  The stores are filled with chocolate bunnies and eggs, as well as little toys.  So many places have different Easter traditions, so I thought I’d write about my family’s Easter traditions.  During the week or two before Easter, I try to find some Easter egg hunts for my children.  Churches, schools, communities and other places organize Easter egg hunts for children.  It’s chaos, but fun.  The children all start at the same time and run, run, run gathering up as many eggs that will fit in their Easter baskets.  Some Easter eggs hunts have colorful plastic eggs filled with candy, some have real hard boiled eggs and other Easter egg hunts have chocolate eggs.  Since I’m from the South in the USA, most of the egg hunts I go to have plastic eggs filled with goodies.  One Easter egg hunt we went to last year had money in the eggs!!!  Last year I took my kids to four different huge Easter egg hunts.

I bet some of you are wondering about the Easter bunny and who he is… Well, on the night before Easter, my children put out their Easter baskets and in the morning they wake up to find many treats and small gifts that the Easter bunny left for them.  In a lot of ways he’s like Santa Claus, but he doesn’t bring as many presents as Santa.

Easter Sunday is a time spent with family, at church, or outside at a park. It’s a great time to relax as many schools have Spring break during Easter time.

Happy Easter to everyone!!  Now, let’s go find some eggs!!!

You win some and you lose some…

Have you ever felt like sometimes things go your way and sometimes they don’t? Read this story below and answer the questions to see if you can find out what is going Fred’s way and what is not going his way today.

April 11, 2011

Dear Diary,

Today has been a truly bizarre day. So many good things have happened to me and at the same time, so many bad things have happened. My day started out like any other day. I woke up, showered and got dressed. Then, I went downstairs to have breakfast. I opened up the fridge and a milk carton fell out and milk spilled everywhere. It took me a while to clean it up. After I cleaned it up, the door bell rang and on my door step was an envelope. I opened it up and it was a letter from the girl who lived next door. She wanted to meet me at the park. I was on cloud nine!!

After I ate my breakfast, I ran the whole way to the park and then I saw her. Her name was Nicole. She’s so pretty. I walked over to her and we started talking. We decided to have get some ice cream from the vendor and wouldn’t you know it, after I had only 2 licks, my ice cream fell on the ground. I would’ve gotten more, but I didn’t have any more money. Nicole smiled at me and handed me a present. Ahhh, she remembered that it was my birthday. I opened it up.  It was a beautiful scarf that she had knitted. I put on the scarf and we started to walk back home, unfortunately, I tripped on the scarf and fell. Nicole just smiled at me and offered me her hand. Luckily, she didn’t care that I was having a lot of back luck today.

Overall, I had a great day! Until tomorrow diary,

Fred

Questions –

1. What were the three bad things that happened to Fred?

2. What were the two good things that happened to Fred?

3. Why was today special for Fred?

4. What does ‘You win some and you lose some” mean?

Slang, slang, slang!

Here’s a little slang for you…

zit

This is slang for a pimple. Teens use it a lot, but really anyone can use this word.
Ugggghh, I can’t believe I got a zit -today of all days.

umpteen

This means many or a lot.
This is the umpteenth time I had told you to take out the trash. So, do it!

catch some rays

This means to go outside in the sun.
Wanna come to my house? We can hang out at my pool and catch some rays.

mellow out

This means to relax or calm down.
Dude, you so need to mellow out!!!

Holy what?

In English we tend to put the word holy in front of a lot of other words. It doesn’t mean that the word is religious, it is just an expression that we use to show surprise. It’s used much like the phrase Oh my gosh! Here are a few phrases that use the word holy.

Holy cow!

Holy moly!

Holy guacamole!

Holy smoke!

Holy mackerel!

Holy Moses!

There are a few other phrases that I left out, but only because they were a bit vulgar.

8 ways to say food in English

Food – everyone loves it and everyone needs it.  Here are 8 different fun ways to say food in English.

grub

Where’s the grub? I’m ready to eat!

chow

You can use this as a noun or a verb.
Did you make the chow yet? I’m ready to chow down!!!

slop

This word is usually a little negative when used to talk about human food because it is the food you feed to pigs.
What slop is that? It tastes like something pigs should eat.

takeout (or take-out)

This refers to food that you take away from a restaurant and then eat at home.
Let’s go to that Chinese food restaurant down the street and get some take out.

home cooking

I can’t wait to go home to visit my mom tonight. I’m ready for some home cooking!!!

fast food

Let’s go to Micky D’s and grab some fast food.

provisions

This word means the supplies that are necessary (especially food).
Don’t worry everyone, I brought the provisions.

groceries

This is the food you buy from the supermarket.
I need to go to the supermarket and buy some groceries.

If you snooze, you lose!

Here are some fun sayings that you can learn.  I like them because they rhyme and because they are quite useful.


If you snooze, you lose!

This means that if you wait too long, you may miss an opportunity.

Tim – Hey, I was going to sit there!
Sally – Well, if you snooze, you lose!

See you later alligator.

This is a fun way to say bye.

In a while crocodile.

This is the response to See you later alligator.

What’s the plan, Stan?

Even though the person you are talking to is not named Stan, you still use the word Stan because it rhymes. This phrase is used to find out what someone has planned for that day.

Sorry, Charlie!

This is like above, even though the person you are talking to is not named Charlie, you still say Charlie to them. This is a sarcastic way to say sorry.
Little girl – I wanted the last corn chip.
Mother – Sorry, Charlie!

Wednesday’s Slang!

It’s Wednesday, as promised, I’m going to make a post about some useful slang words.

 

bazillion

This is a huge number of something.
My son dropped the bag of candy and a bazillion pieces fell all over the floor.

biggie

This is something that is important.
It’s no biggie that you couldn’t make it to my party.

party

This means to celebrate.
Let’s go party tonight and hit all of the clubs!

rugrat

This is a small child.
I’m sorry I can’t go out tonight. I have to watch my rugrats.

10 ways to say hello in English

There are oodles and oodles of various ways to say hello in English.  Here are my top 10 ways to say it.

1.  hi!

It’s plain, simple and to the point

2.  hey (or hey there)

I think I use this way to say hello more than any other way.  It’s very informal.

3.  what’s up? (or wazzup, or s’up)

You may have wondered how you answer this question. You can either say, ‘nothing much,” say what you are doing or just ask it right back without answering it.

4.  how’s it going?

I use this one quite often with my friends.

5.  yo!

I like using this too when I’m being silly.

6.  howdy!

Texan all the way. Yeehaw!!!

7.  what’s cookin’?

You can even take this further and say, “What’s cookin’, good lookin?”  I wouldn’t use this unless I was saying it to a close friend and trying to be funny.

8.  what’s shakin’?

I wouldn’t use this one either unless I said it to a friend and was trying to be funny.

9.  how are you doing today?

This is used a lot.  It’s nice, polite and very friendly.

10.  good morning or good evening

You could use either of these; however, I don’t hear people say good evening as much as good morning.

Clothes or Cloths

Do you know the difference between the words clothes and cloths?

Test yourself and see:

1.  I bought some new _______ for my daughter to wear today.

2.  I have been using new ______ to clean the kitchen counter, but now they are very dirty.

 

If your answers are: 1. clothes and 2. cloths, then you are correct.

 

clothes

These are things a person wears like shirts, pants, dresses, etc.

cloths

These are pieces of fabric. They can be used for cleaning or other similar tasks. There are many specific types of cloths. A tablecloth is the piece of fabric for the table. A washcloth is used to wash your body in the bathtub. A dishcloth is used to wash or dry dishes.

Here are a few examples: