Word Transformation Drills & Idioms

Friday, 31^th of March 2017

Lingua e traduzione inglese I

(Monolingua inglese I)

Trips and Patterns for Word Transformation Drills

The third part of the Use of English paper in the First Certificate Examination is word formation where you have to use a root such as 'able' and create an appropriate word (disable, unable, ability) to fill the gap in a text. The transformation of a part of speech into another (in this from noun/adjective case into verb) needs some little changes:

• able agg. "abile" → enable vb. "abilitare"
• advice n. "consiglio" → advise vb. "consigliare"
• blood n. "sangue" → bleed vb. "sanguinare"
• choice n. "scelta" → choose vb. "scegliere"
• critic n. "critica" → criticise (UK) or criticize (US) vb. "criticare"
• danger n. "pericolo" → endanger vb. "mettere in pericolo"
• effect n. "effetto" → affect vb. "riguardare"
• fat n./adj. "grasso" →  fatten vb. "ingrassare" --> fattening adj. "che fa ingrassare"
• length n. "lunghezza" → leghten vb. "allungare"
• practice n. "pratica" →  practise vb. "praticare"
• sure agg. "sicuro" → ensure (UK) or insure (US) vb. "assicurare"
• wide adj. "largo" → widen vb. "allargare"

Differences between Britain and American English

We have already seen some differences between UK and US English about writing, but there are also some differences about pronunciation:

• schedule UK /ˈʃɛdjuːl/ US /ˈskɛdjuːl/
• privacy UK /ˈprɪvəsɪ/ US /ˈpraɪvəsɪ/

Money Idioms

• Be in the red: “be broken/penniless”
• Bet on the wrong horse: “base all your plans on a wrong guess”
• Bring home the bacon: “be main earner in a home”
• Cash in your chips: “die”
• Have the wolves at the door: “be in financial troubls”
• I bit my bottom dollar: “I’m sure something will happen”
• Money doesn't grow up in the threes!
• Not to break the bank: “not expensive”
• Where there’s muck, there’s brass: “there’s money to be made from dirty situations” 

For further idioms, click on the following link: https://www.learnenglish.de/vocabulary/moneyidioms.html