“Do you have any idea how much the 2016 presidential campaign cost? I’m going to tell you. When everything was all said and done the two campaigns combined spent over one billion dollars”!
when all is said and done
idiom: said when you are about to tell someone the most important fact they should remember in a situation:
When all was said and done it was only a game, not real life.
It won’t be easy, but when all is said and done, we’ll be glad we did it.
The candidates claim to have different views but, when all is said and done, they’re very much alike.
when all is set and done
Alternative for “when all is said and done:”
Whenall is set and done, 2 to 5 inches of snow will cause slippery travel into and out of New York City.
The comma is perhaps the most puzzling mark of punctuation. The rules for using commas are numerous and can seem so arbitrary. Look at the sentences below:
Historically the comma is derived from the diagonal slash which was used to indicate a pause. [incorrect]
Historically, the comma is derived from the diagonal slash, which was used to indicate a pause. [correct]
It seems, that the comma can be removed in the first example. However, its presence becomes justified if we read the sentence aloud — we make a short pause after the word historically and slash, precisely the place where the comma should be. A useful rule of thumb is to place commas where one makes a pause in speech.
Rule of thumb: a comma indicates a pause in speech.
When in doubt, read the sentence aloud. If you pause at some place, insert a comma to mark the pause.
Still, commas are more than simple pause-markers; they help the reader understand the structure of the sentence and resolve ambiguity. Compare the two sentences:
The students who passed the exam went on a fieldwork trip.
The students, who passed the exam, went on a fieldwork trip.
The sentence without comma means that only those students who passed the exam went on a trip. The sentence with commas means that all students went on a fieldwork trip, and they all, by the way, passed the exam.
Below are a few rules about how to use commas correctly.
1. Use commas to separate items in a series of two or more things.
That last comma, known as the serial comma, Oxford comma, or Harvard comma, is not obligatory, and causes serious controversy. For example, while U.S. and Canadian English often use of a serial comma, U.K. and Australian English do not. Although many consider it unnecessary, others insist on its use to reduce ambiguity.
There’s an Internet meme that demonstrates its necessity perfectly. The sentence, “We invited the strippers, JFK, and Stalin,” means the speaker sent three separate invitations: one to some strippers, one to JFK, and one to Stalin. The version without the Oxford comma, however, takes on an entirely different meaning, potentially suggesting that only one invitation was sent — to two strippers named JFK and Stalin.
2.Use a comma between two adjectives that modify the same noun.
Only coordinate adjectives require a comma between them. Two adjectives are coordinate if you can answer yes to both of these questions: 1. Does the sentence still make sense if you reverse the order of the words? 2. Does the sentence still make sense if you insert “and” between the words?
Since “I saw the mean, big duck “ and “I saw the big and mean duck” both sound fine, you need the comma.
Sentences with non-coordinate adjectives, however, don’t require a comma. For example, “I lay under the powerful summer sun.” “Powerful” describes “summer sun” as a whole phrase. This often occurs with adjunct nouns, a phrase where a noun acts as an adjective describing another noun — like “chicken soup” or “dance club.”
3. Use a comma to separate independent clauses (complete thoughts) when they are joined by the following conjunctions: and, but, for, or, nor, so, yet.
An independent clause is a complete thought, i.e, a unit of grammatical organization that includes both a subject and verb and can stand on its own as a sentence. In the previous example, “I went running” and “I saw a duck” are both independent clauses, and “and” is the coordinating conjunction that connects them. Consequently, we insert a comma.
If we eliminate the second “I” from that example, the second clause lacks a subject, making it not a clause at all. In that case, it no longer needs a comma: “I went running and saw a duck.”
4. Use a comma to separate a dependent clause (incomplete thought) from an independent clause (complete thought) after a dependent clause that starts a sentence.
A dependent clause is an incomplete thought, i.e, a grammatical unit that contains both subject and verb but cannot stand on its own, like “When I went running …”
The dependent clause can provide the time, the condition, the reason, etc., for the event in the main clause. Commonly, dependent clauses begin with if, whether, because, although, since, when, while, unless, even though, whenever, etc.
If Smith accepts our conditions, we will agree to the proposal.
Although Smith did not accept our conditions, we agreed to the proposal.
Note that a dependent clause should be separated from an independent clause by a commaonly when the dependent clause precedes the independent one. If a dependent clause ends the sentence, however, it no longer requires a comma.
Because Smith accepted our conditions, we agreed to the proposal. [correct]
We agreed to the proposal because Smith accepted our conditions. [correct]
5. Use commas before and after parts of the sentence that are not essential to its meaning.
Appositives act as synonyms for a juxtaposed word or phrase, but are not essential to its meaning. In the above example — “While running, I saw a mallard, a kind of duck” — “A kind of duck” is the appositive, which gives more information about “a mallard.” but are not essential to its meaning.
If the appositive occurs in the middle of the sentence, both sides of the phrase need a comma. As in:
“A mallard, a kind of duck, attacked me.”
Such non-essential parts can be words, phrases and entire clauses. An easy way to test whether a word, a phrase, or a clause is non-essential is to simply leave it out and see whether the message changes dramatically.
The audience, indifferent at the beginning, became more and more interested.
In 1888, when my great grandmother was born, there was only one hospital in the entire country.
There’s one exception to this rule. Do not use commas to separate essential parts of the sentence. For example, “The duck that attacked me scared my friend” doesn’t require any commas. Even though the phrase “that attacked me” describes “the duck,” it provides essential information to the sentence. Otherwise, no one would know why the duck scared your friend.
Clauses that begin with “that” are usually essential to the sentence and do not require commas.
People who live in glass houses should not throw stones. [correct]
People, who live in glass houses, should not throw stones. [incorrect]
The part who live in glass houses is essential to the meaning since the only the people to whom this applies should not throw stones. The first sentence above, implies that people generally live in glass houses.
6. Use a comma after introductory adverbs or an introductory element.
Another example: “Finally, I went running.”
Many adverbs end in “ly” and answer the question “how?” How did someone do something? How did something happen? Adverbs that don’t end in “ly,” such as “when” or “while”, usually introduce a dependent clause, which rule number two in this post already covered.
Also insert a comma when “however” starts a sentence. Phrases like “on the other hand” and “furthermore” also fall into this category.
7. Use a comma when the first word of the sentence is a freestanding “yes” or “no.”
Another example: “Yes, I saw a duck when I went running.”
8. Use a comma with direct quotations.
Another example: “I wouldn’t want to mess with that editor,” said one reader to another.
In American and Canadian English, the comma tends to come before the closing quotation mark, while in British English it is usually placed after the closing quotation mark.
9. Use a comma when directly addressing someone or something in a sentence.
10. Beware of putting a comma before “but” every single time. It should only be used when connecting two independent clauses (despite what middle school teachers tell the students).
As you may recall from above, an independent clause has a subject and a verb and can stand on its own as a sentence. Often, a coordinating conjunction will connect two independent clauses — like the word “but.”
But — and it’s a big but — middle school teachers tell students to always throw a comma before “but.” Don’t do that!
You should only put a comma before “but” when connecting two independent clauses.
For example, this usage of “but” does not take a comma:
“To quack but to have no one hear is a sad thing for a duck.”
11. Use a comma to separate each element in an address. Also use a comma to separate the name of a city from a country or state.
Another example: “Cleveland, Ohio, is a great city.”
12. Use a comma to separate the day of the week, the day of the month, and the year.
More examples:
Friday, March 15, 2013, was the day I saw the duck.
Friday, March 15, was the day I say the duck.
I saw the duck on Friday, 15 March 2013.
You don’t need to add a comma when the sentence mentions only the month and year:
March 2013 was a strange month.
13. Use commas before every sequence of three numbers when writing a number larger than 999. (Two exceptions are writing years and house numbers.)
Here is a video that complements the information given above and provides an opportunity for practice.
The 2020 United States presidential election was held on November 3, 2020. Voters selected presidential electors who, in turn, will vote on December 14, 2020, to either elect a new president and vice president or reelect Donald Trump and Mike Pence, respectively.
Let’s start by learning some useful vocabulary and phrases that you need to know to be able to talk about elections. Get your notebook, listen carefully, and write down the new words. Firstly, an introductory lesson.
Next, another lesson that teaches a few more words and a useful expression.
Here are the words and phrases from the lesson.
1) apolitical – not connected to a political party
2) two-party-system – when two parties dominate politics
3) independent – a voter who is not registered with a political party
4) moderate – someone who does not have extreme views
5) primary – when voters chose who will be the candidate for that party
6) cast (one’s) ballot – to vote
7) popular vote – the total number of votes a candidate receives
8) Electoral College – a group of people, electors, who cast votes for the election of president
9) winner-take-all – all the votes from one state will go to the candidate who wins
10) partisan – strongly supporting a person or party without considering the matter carefully
11) amend – to change or alter something
12) red state – state that strongly supports Republicans
13) blue state – state that strongly supports Democrats
14) purple state – state with a mix of Democrat and Republican support
15) swing state – state whose votes could go to either the Democrats or Republicans
16) battleground state – means the same as swing state
17) lean left – state that is more likely to vote for the Democrats
18) lean right – state that is more likely to vote for the Republicans
19) fundraise – to collect money for a particular purpose
20) campaign – an organized political group trying to achieve a particular aim
21) PAC / Super PAC – an organization that raises money privately to influence elections
22) civic duty – the responsibilities of citizens of a country
24) head to the polls – to go vote at a polling location
25) absentee ballot – when someone requests a ballot from election officials and votes by mail
26) mail-in-voting – when election ballots are sent to all registered voters in the state
27) rigged – to dishonestly arrange something to achieve a desired outcome
28) voter suppression – when people are not allowed to vote or discouraged from voting
29) concede – to admit, often unwillingly, that something is true
30) contest an election – when the validity of the results is challenged by the losing candidate
Okay! Now we have the essential vocabulary to join in a discussionabout the US election, which is an international event and always draws intense worldwide interest.
Trump won the 2016 election even though Hillary Clinton got 3 million more votes. Watch this video to understand how the US election process works and try to answer the questions below.
QUESTIONS
1. How is the next US president elected in the presidential election? a: by popular vote b. by the electoral college c. by each state
2. How many electoral votes do you need to become president? a. 270 or more b. none c. all 538
3. How many times in the last five US elections has the president won despite getting fewer overall popular votes? a. once b. twice c. five times
4. What does it mean ‘to rubber stamp’ the presidential candidate in the US presidential election? a. to put a stamp on your postal vote envelope b. to change your mind about who to vote for c. to officially endorse the presidential candidate by voting for them without questioning your decision
ANSWERS
1.b; 2.a; 3.b; 4.c
What do you think about this system? How would you compare it to our Brazilian system?
Este será um feriadão, ou um feriado prolongado para você?
A palavra mais comum para dizermos “feriado” em inglês é holiday. Existe a expressão day off, cujo significado é “dia de folga”, mas, dependendo do contexto (sempre ele!), pode também ser usada com o sentido de “feriado”.
Se quiser falar “fim de semana prolongado” ou “feriadão”, você pode usar as expressões long weekend ou three-day weekend quando o feriado é na sexta ou na segunda, e four-day-weekend quando o feriado é na quinta, com recesso na sexta, ou na terça, com recesso na segunda. O termo bank holiday weekend é usado no inglês britânico.
E as perguntas mais comuns antes e depois de um feriado prolongado são a respeito de seus planos para ele:
What are you going to do this long weekend? or What did you do this long weekend?
How is your long weekend going to be? or How was your long weekend?
How are you going to spend your three-day weekend? or How did you spend your three-day weekend?
Where are you going to spend your long weekend? or Where did you spend your long weekend?
Agora pratique, completando as frases com as palavras ou expressões que faltam:
1- Monday is a _____________________.
(Segunda-feira é feriado.)
2- It’ll be ____________________________________.
(Será um feriado de três dias.)
3- There are many ____________________in Brazil.
(Há muitos feriados cristãos no Brasil.)
4- Next long weekend, Christmas, ________________ a Friday this year.
(O próximo feriado prolongado, Natal, cai em uma sexta-feira esse ano.)
I always suggestmy students that they go to TED, browse the library of talks, pick the one they like and listen to it, then work on the new vocabulary, and notice how words are combined.
So a student picked this moving and inspirational talk. Born with a rare genetic disorder called progeria, Sam Berns knew he’d be facing more obstacles in life than most. But this didn’t stop him from taking charge of his own happiness. Berns describes the three principles of the personal philosophy that allowed him to do so.
Before you watch it – watch and print the transcript here -, answer this question:
What is your idea of a happy life?
Can you list the three aspects to his philosophy? Do you agree with them?
Next, let’s look at some of the language we have been talking about in class, which we find in his talk.
“I’m Sam, and I just turned 17″.
turnverb (age/time) to become a particular age, or to reach a particular time
“So my family and I worked with an engineer to design a snare drum harness that would be lighter, and easier for me to carry”.
It is considered polite to mention oneself last in double subjects or objects.
Why don’t you and I go away for the weekend?
“I just want to give you some more information about Progeria”.
“When I can’t do something like run a long distance, or go on an intense roller coaster, I know what I’m missing out on“.
miss out phrasal verb 1 to not have the chance to do something that you enjoy and that would be good for you: Some children miss out because their parents can’t afford to pay for school trips. miss out on Prepare food in advance to ensure you don’t miss out on the fun!
“But instead, I choose to focus on the activities that I can do through things that I’m passionate about, like scouting, or music, or comic books, or any of my favorite Boston sports teams”.
help out phrasal verb to help someone because they are busy or have problems: Do you need anyone to help out in the shop?
“So the bottom line here, is that I hope you appreciate and love your family, love your friends, for you guys, love you Bro’s and acknowledge your mentors, and your community, because they are a very real aspect of everyday life, they can make a truly significant, positive impact.”
the bottom line used to tell someone what the most important part of a situation is, or what the most important thing to consider is: In radio you have to keep the listener listening. That’s the bottom line.
“It could be anything from looking forward to the next comic book to come out, or going on a large family vacation, or hanging out with my friends, to going to the next High School football game”.
come out phrasal verb if a book, record etc comes out, it becomes publicly available: When is the new edition coming out?
hang out phrasal verb informal to spend a lot of time in a particular place or with particular people hang out with I don’t really know who she hangs out with. Where do the children hang out?
“This is a friend of mine, who I look up to, Francis Collins, the director of the NIH, and this is us at TEDMED last year, chatting away“.
look up to somebody phrasal verb to admire or respect someone: I’ve always looked up to Bill for his courage anddetermination.
chat also chat away to talk in a friendly informal way, especially about things that are not important: John and I sat up until the early hours chatting.
“About four years ago, HBO began to film a documentary about my family and me called ‘Life According to Sam'”.
When the word in question is the object of a preposition and not the subject of a sentence or phrase, we should use the object pronoun.
“Oh, wait, hang on a second, one more piece of advice” –- (Laughter)
hang on used to ask or tell someone to wait [= hold on]: Hang on! I’ll be back in a minute.
“So, all in all, I don’t waste energy feeling bad for myself“.
all in all
used for showing that you are considering every aspect of something
All in all, getting insufficient sleep is bad news.
All in all, I think it has been a successful conference.
We both thought that all in all it might not be a bad idea.
feel bad to feel ashamed or sorry about something feel bad about (doing) something I felt bad about not being able to come last night. feel bad for I feel bad for Ann – she studied so hard for that test and she still didn’t pass.
Sam Berns died in 2014. He was a musician, Eagle Scout and junior at Foxboro High School in Massachusetts. Diagnosed at the age of two with a rare rapid-aging disease called Progeria, he spent much of his life raising awareness about the condition, eventually doing so on a national stage in the HBO documentary, “Life According to Sam.”
Okay…
So now, after having listened to this talk, has your idea of a happy life changed?
