Check out today’s Teatime Titbit: Wonderful Wednesday Words. Synonyms!
English is easy and difficult at the same time, I’m sure you’ll agree. On the one hand, we only hand ‘the’, which makes things a hell of a lot easier – ask any learner of German.
On the other hand there’s the huge volume of vocabulary that you could learn. Then there’s the formality of the word – formal/informal/slang etc. The list goes on! I think, phrasal verbs are the trickiest of all.
E.G. – all the following mean approx the same – ’we need/expect’ & ‘we trust’ you to send the goods a.s.a.p.
- We rely on you shipping the goods a.s.a.p.
- We depend on you shipping the goods a.s.a.p.
- We count on you shipping the goods a.s.a.p.
- We bank on you shipping the goods a.s.a.p.
Phrasal verbs are generally used as a more informal alternative. In a formal mail you could paraphrase with “We trust/are confident you will send the goods a.s.a.p.” as an example.
For more help synonyms, you could turn to:
www.collinsdictionary.com
QOTD- What do you find the most difficult about English?
huge (riesig), phrasal verb (Verb plus Partikel), paraphrase (umschreiben)
Hm, the classics I’d say: prepositions and tenses.
However, the huge volume of vocabulary as well as phrasal verbs are quite easy to learn and to remember as long as you get in touch with English on a regular basis and are eager to learn something new. Well, and teatime titbits helps a lot 🙂