New English Words

Language is alive and forever changing. English is, by far, the fastest-growing language in the world. Reports say that ten new words, expressions or acronyms are coined every day in English. Here are some I have compiled recently. If you know of a new term and want to contribute to this list, post a comment below.

shit storm =perverse consequence of cyber bullying.

staycation =a holiday spent in one's home country rather than abroad, or one spent at home and involving day trips to local attractions.

nomophobia =panic of not having your mobile phone near you.

mumager =when a young artist's mother acts as his/her manager.

FOMO =Fear Of Missing Out any information or development when part of a social network.

infomania =the compulsive desire to check or accumulate news and information, typically via mobile phone or computer.

infoxication =information overdose as a result of infomania.

unfriend =remove someone from a list of friends or contacts on a social networking site.

oversharing =disclosing too much personal information or too many details about oneself online.

e-quaintance =a person who you only "know" through online networking.

cyberchondriac =one who imagines he/she is ill, having just read about the symptoms on the Internet.

flash mob =a large public gathering at which people perform an unusual or seemingly random act and then disperse, typically organized by means of the internet or social media.

crowdsourcing =letting the public make decisions when organizing events.

photobomb =to intrude into the background of a photograph without the subject's knowledge.

Pollution vs. contamination

English makes a distinction between the words pollution and contamination. Pollution is the introduction of harmful substances or products into the environment. It is the act or process of polluting or the state of being polluted, especially the contamination of soil, water, or the atmosphere by the discharge of harmful substances. Something that pollutes; a pollutant or a polluting agent: Pollution in the air reduced the visibility near the airport.

Contamination is the presence of extraneous, especially infectious, material that renders a substance or preparation impure or harmful. Contamination does not necessarily have to be introduction of harmful substances or products into the environment. For example, you can say: The lab is contaminated with radioactive substance. But you wouldn't say: The lab is *polluted with radioactive substance.

Contamination is the condition of food and/or water made unfit for consumption by humans or animals because of the presence of environmental chemicals, radioactive elements, bacteria or organisms, the byproduct of the growth of bacteria or organisms, decomposing material (to include the food substance itself), or waste in the food or water: Contamination of the water supply. Also, a surgical suite could be contaminated simply because someone walks into it when they're not sterile.

B2 Compound Adjectives

Compound adjectives that express the idea of with or having often end in -ed. For example, a a guy with blue eyes is a blue-eyed guy. These -ed endings are often known as "false participles":

A baby with curly hair is a curly-haired baby.
A cat with one leg is a one-legged cat. (Here notice the pronunciation and spelling of "legged".)
A girl with black hair and green eyes = a black-haired, green-eyed girl.
A robber with one eye = a one-eyed robber.
A model with long legs = a long-legged model.

Compound adjectives with expressions of time, quantity, weight, distance or measurement do not use the plural s in the noun of the compound:

A journey that lasts 12 hours is a 12-hour journey. (Note that "hour" is singular.)
A baby that weighs seven pounds = a seven-pound baby.
A walk of 20 miles = a 20-mile walk.
A holiday that lasts 2 weeks = a 2-week holiday.

Sentence Transformation Exercise:

1. My bag was stolen by a teenager with green hair
A green-...

2. Bruce Springsteen gave a concert that lasted four hours.
Bruce Springsteen gave a four-...

3. A man who was dressed in smart clothes came to see you.
A well-...

4. The competition was won by a model with blue eyes and blonde hair.
A blue-...

5. That job pays well.
That's a well-...

'Post-truth' named word of the year by the Oxford Dictionary

US election and EU referendum drive popularity of adjective describing situation ‘in which objective facts are less influential than appeals to emotion’

In the era of Donald Trump and Brexit, Oxford Dictionaries has declared “post-truth” to be its international word of the year.

Defined by the dictionary as an adjective “relating to or denoting circumstances in which objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal belief”, editors said that use of the term “post-truth” had increased by around 2,000% in 2016 compared to last year. The spike in usage, it said, is “in the context of the EU referendum in the United Kingdom and the presidential election in the United States”.

Oxford Dictionaries’s word of the year is intended to “reflect the passing year in language”, with post-truth following the controversial choice last year of the “face with tears of joy” emoji. 

Contenders for the title had included the noun “alt-right”, shortened from the fuller form “alternative right” and defined as “an ideological grouping associated with extreme conservative or reactionary viewpoints, characterised by a rejection of mainstream politics and by the use of online media to disseminate deliberately controversial content”.

But the increase in usage of post-truth saw the term eventually emerge ahead of the pack. “We first saw the frequency really spike this year in June with buzz over the Brexit vote and Donald Trump securing the Republican presidential nomination. Given that usage of the term hasn’t shown any signs of slowing down, I wouldn’t be surprised if post-truth becomes one of the defining words of our time,” predicted Oxford Dictionaries president Casper Grathwohl. 
(The Guardian, November 15, 2016)

Vocabulary Bank Plus: Families

1. Rafael Ramos is a Mexican doctor from a little village in the north of the country. He’s married to María Sánchez. They got married in a Catholic church. They have two children. His wife is a nurse. She’s 35. They both speak English because they use it at work with their foreign patients.

2. Yasmina Kamal is an Egyptian girl from Cairo. She is an engineering student at Cairo University. She’s 19 and she’s single. She's a Muslim. She has one sister and two brothers. Her parents were born in Cairo, too. She wants to learn English because it’s an international language.

3. Angela, Anne´s mother, isn’t married; she is a single mother. They live in a lovely house on the beach. They love the sea. Angela has an exciting job; she’s a fashion model. She travels all over the world. She wants her daughter to learn English because she wants to give her a cosmopolitan education.

4. Kevin and Lucy married in 1985. Their marriage was very unhappy, so they divorced in 2000. In 2003, Kevin met Julia and remarried. They have twins, John and Peter. His first wife, Lucy, moved to a different city after their separation. She now works at the Town Hall. She’s a civil servant.

5. Alejandro met his boyfriend Juan at a friend’s party. They married last summer. All their friends and relatives were at the wedding. They are planning to adopt two children. Alejandro is a very famous film director and Juan is a doctor. They own one flat in Madrid and another in Seville. They both speak French and English fluently.

6. Emma and Virginia are another same-sex couple. They are businesswomen and they live together in Barcelona. They want to get married next year. Emma has two sons, Julian and Oscar, from her previous relationship. Her mother-in-law is called Susan. She’s 60 and she loves her grandchildren very much. She doesn’t speak English at all.

B2 make or do?

Circle or underline the right option.

Example: What’s the most exciting journey you’ve ever done/made?

1.    If you weren’t happy with the service, you should have done/made a complaint.

2.   What do you like the least? Doing/Making your homework or the housework?

3.   Sorry, I did/made a mistake.

4.   He doesn’t like to do/make favours. He is quite selfish.

5.   Excuse me a sec. I need to do/make a phone call.

6.   Do you do/make a lot of sport?

7.   Can I do/make a suggestion?

8.   Whose turn is it to do/make the washing up and do/make the beds today?

9.   Before you hand in an exam, do/make sure to revise it first.

10.  Who does/makes the shopping in your family?

11. Although he did/made a big effort, he didn’t succeed.

12.  Did you do/make well at the interview?

13.  Don’t do/make any noise; the children are already asleep.

14.  Make up your mind. You need to do/make a decision.

15.  I did/made a promise to help them out, and I will.

16.  Have you done/made any progress with your English after taking this course?

17.   She was granted a scholarship to do/make research at the MIT.

18.  He did/made such a feeble excuse that nobody believed him.

19.  Come on! Don’t do/make a scene again! You are overreacting.

20.  Are you hungry? I can do/make a proper meal for you in no time.

21.  Let’s get organized and do/make a plan.

22.  He is such an outgoing person that he has no difficulty doing/making friends.

23.  Whatever way you do it, try to do/make your best.

24.  After doing/making several experiments, he found the magic formula.

25.  Teachers do/make exams and students do/make them.

Rust

Downshifting

In the face of a dwindling economy, it has become extremely stressful for many individuals to keep up with the rat race known as society. The way of life of many people has been influenced by the ever-growing need to keep up with the competition, to acquire more wealth, and to live a more luxurious, supposedly happier life. This growing materialism engenders the problem of physical and psychological burnout and stress. Moreover, instead of gaining the contentment they seek, people begin to carve for more, and spend more money than the actually have to. 

With this, many people have come to realize that contentment and happiness living cannot be solely achieved by working more hours and spending more money on items of no logical value. Instead, they become enlightened that a better life can be achieved by doing something that is the complete opposite. Thus, many individuals have resorted to downshifting. With downshifting, they are able to live not only happier but healthier as well.

What is Downshifting and What Does It Have to Do with the Present Economy?

Downshifting is a process wherein people try to live a simpler, more frugal life. It is a way to make improvements on the lives of people who have fallen victim to materialistic living. With this process, people work towards a less stressful yet more rewarding way of life.

Basically, people may downshift because of the following reasons:

• They have become too tired of living competitively.
• They want to live a stress-free life.
• They want to free themselves from addictive consumerism.
• They are facing a crisis in their family or personal lives.
• They are facing life-changing experiences such as extreme problems with their health.
• They are suffering from financial crisis.
• They want to start living frugally because of the emerging threats from the present economy.
• They want to help conserve natural resources.

The present economy has led to higher rates of stress-related jobs. To avoid all the stress and burn out that has sprung from the competitive environment of workspaces, many people in certain countries such as the UK and the US have decided to start downshifting. 

What are Ways to Downshift and Live a Frugal Life?

People can live prudently on their own terms. However, for people who do not know how to start working to a better, thriftier lifestyle, they may try to do the following techniques:

• Work at home
  Working at home can significantly help cut down on travel expenses. It also helps cut down on other expenses spent while working in an office. Moreover, it helps people to avoid the stressful effects of office politicking and peer pressure.
  In addition, it helps individuals to spend more time with family while still earning a decent amount of income. Best of all, it may help people to reduce the stress they are feeling due to their jobs as working at home may provide individuals the opportunity to work around their own schedules.
  Finally, the cutdown on transportation use (especially for those who own their own cars) can also contribute to a healthier environment through less fossil fuel consumption
• Cut back on unnecessary material items. 
  Oftentimes, people tend to buy unneeded items. Cutting back on these unnecessary purchases can greatly, positively affect their lifestyle and may help them incur more savings without spending more time at the office.
• Avoid impulse buying.
  Buying only the things that you need for that particular day or week can significantly help people become more financially stable in the long run.
• Try green living.
  Learn to recycle and reuse materials. Instead of throwing away unwanted items, store them away for future use. Learn to conserve electricity, water, gasoline, and other natural resources. This way, pollution and damage to the environment is decreased – a much-needed result nowadays.
• Don’t hoard: throw away what is of no use.
  In a way, this can reduce whatever expenses are needed to maintain such objects.
• Avoid using credit cards when purchasing.
  This helps you gain control over expenses and avoid overspending.
• Aim to spend more time with family and loved ones. 
  
  There is no better way to live a more contented and happier life than to spend more time with the people we love.

Downshifting does not only mean leaving materialism behind and living frugally. It means more than just cutting back on expenses. It requires more than just determination.  To achieve this healthier kind of life, a firm and clear mindset is required. Learn to prioritize the most important things. In the long run, downshifting may be the key to the life we never knew we wanted, and bring about a different definition for success.

Rina Sinadjan-Magallanes is a freelance writer and editor.

False Friends

Do these English words mean the same in Spanish?

actually=
arena=
argument=
assist=
attend=
comprehensive=
conductor=
discussion=
fabrics=
figure=
idiom=
in front of= delante de (NOT *enfrente de!)
parcel=
preservative=
presume=
pretend=
realize=
remove=
sensible=
spectacles=
suburb=
support=
sympathetic=
terrific=
topic=

After you do the exercise, click here to check your answers.