Roast beef, baked potatoes or boiled egss???

When cooking we generally use different verbs depending on the food we want to cook and how we want to cook it. The most frequent verbs that we may find are:

* ROAST: to cook large pieces of meat, potatoes, etc in an oven or over or in front of a fire. Examples: roast beef, roast chicken, roast potatoes...

*GRILL: to cook small or flat pieces of meat, fish using a gridiron and placing it under direct heat or fire (in American English BROIL)

* FRY: to cook meat, fish, vegetables, eggs, chips, etc in shallow oil using a frying-pan

* BAKE: to cook bread, cakes, potatoes, beans, etc in an oven by means of dry heat.

* BOIL: to cover vegetables, eggs, rice, etc with water and heat them.

* STEAM: to place fish, pudding above boiling water.

* SAUTÉ: (French word) to fry vegetables very quickly in a small amount of oil.

Barry White and Lucciano Pavarotti

If Barry White is the King of kings... what about Lucciano Pavarotti??? I could never imagine them singing together in their own languages. For those of you who love them, here we've got the celestial beauty of both their voices. Are they "Our first, our last, our everything"?

While My Guitar Gently Weeps

Isn't it funny how Elton John introduces George Harrison and Ringo Starr? Wonderful speech!!! and... isn't it amazing "the dialogue" between George Harrison's guitar and Eric Clapton's guitar towards the end of the song?????

The Nature of Crime

Most people (students included) say that English language has a large, active vocabulary and that there are a lot of different words referring to the same (or almost the same) concept or idea. One of the reasons for this large vocabulary might be due to the fact that England was invaded several times by other countries and during these invasions a considerable number of words was transferred from the other languages to the English language.

Another subjective reason could be related to the whimsical feature of some languages, English among them. Did I say "whimsical"? Of course. Did you know that English has four different words to refer to the person who steals? Depending on the Nature of the Crime, we will use BURGLAR, SHOPLIFTER, PICKPOCKET or ROBBER. However, if we do not know which word should be used in the appropriate context, THIEF is the most common word that students and people in general employ to refer to the person who steals. Today's issue 'defines crime in terms of who commits it'.

* BURGLAR: a person who breaks into a house or building with the intention to steal from inside. The verb is TO BURGLE and the action is known as BURGLARY.

* SHOPLIFTER: someone who steals goods from a shop while pretending to be a customer. The verb is TO SHOPLIFT and the action is known as SHOPLIFTING.

* PICKPOCKET: a person who steals money, wallets, etc, from the pockets of people usually in public places. There is no verb for this word as it is a compound of two items: pick (verb) + pocket.

* ROBBER: a person who steals something from somebody or from a place by using force or violence. Examples: to rob a bank, a train, a jewellery shop, etc. The verb is TO ROB and the action is known as ROBBERY.

Spanish in Manchester

Not only English is taught and learned as a foreign language, Spanish is also advertised in the same way. Look at this ad that I saw in Manchester.

More about Scotland

Scotland wouldn't be so without pipes and pipers

Did you know that...?

This picture belongs to a castle (Dunnotar Castle) in the North-East of Scotland, near a town called Stonehaven. A famous film (starring Mel Gibson) was filmed there. Do you know the title of this film?

Look at this picture

Look at this picture and talk about it. Feel free to express yourself

That's English exams

13th March, Friday: Module 1 (from 17.00 to 18.00)
Module 7 (from 18.30 to 20.00)

20th March, Friday: Module 2 (from 17.00 18.00)
Module 8 (from 18.30 to 20.00)

Welcome to the world of English

I have just created my blog, it's Tuesday, March the 3rd, 2009. Today my little English Universe is different and from now on, it will be different. Let's enjoy the English Universe, my English Universe, our English Universe.