Southern hemisphere winter officially began on Monday, June 21, and runs until September 22, 2021.
Brrr! The Cold weather lesson shows some vocabulary to describe these sometimes sunny days, sometimes rainy, or days when the winter temperatures dip low.
And the only thing I can think of, to tell people is:
“Make sure you keep warm!”
To keep/stay warm means to keep your body warm, meaning wear the right clothes or do the correct activity or thing to keep yourself warm (referring to body temperature).
Stay warm implies that the person is already warm. So, like, if a delivery guy comes to your house and complains about the cold while you are having a friendly conversation, as he leaves, you might say, “Keep warm today!”
So, they are often used as a closing, in place of or immediately following “goodbye.”
Stay is a less active verb than keep. Keep indicates more intentionality. They’re interchangeable.
Next, a few tips to deal with cold weather. Listen to them and look up the words you don’t know. Notice pronunciation and how words are combined. Take notes.
For other closing expressions related to the pandemic, check out Stay safe.
Hmmm, I wasn’t quite right about this particular combination of words. I’ve seen a lot in these at least 30 years dealing with the English language, and that’s not enough when we think of the number of possibilities we have to communicate something. There are certainly the more usual ways in which some words are often used together, but sometimes other combinations are possible. That’s when doing a bit of research comes in handy.
So should we say: take or get the vaccine?
First, check it out the lesson Get or take? to situate yourself regarding the usage of these two verbs because how to use them, is a question shared by many English learners.
Could you grasp the difference in usage between get and take? If your answer is yes, we can now go back to our question above: take or get the vaccine?
CDC – Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the national public health agency of the United States, mostly combines the word vaccine with the verbs get and receive.
To understand the getting COVID-19 above, check the Verbo “to get” lesson.
The Oxford Collocations Dictionary gives the verbs have and receive.
But yeah, to combine the word vaccine with the verb totake seems to be possible as this article from the World Economic Forum shows! And it makes sense if we think that we take medication.
So, although on the one hand the word vaccine is more commonly combined with the verb to get, on the other hand, we can assume that yes, it’s possible to say:
“My parents took the vaccine.”
So I want to thank my dear students for the insights you bring to class, things that might have never crossed my mind. This teaches me to be more careful and slow to jump to conclusions. I know it’s a lesson I’ll forget sometimes, but I’ll keep trying.
This is a question shared by many English learners.
The main difference between these two words concerns ‘who’ is performing the action.
Get is passive, and take is an active verb.
But I suggest you check the Verbo “to get” lesson first.
The following video shows a few main points to start with. Make sure to take notes! 😉
GET means to gain possession of something. Is a more casual (common) way of saying “obtain” or “receive”.
Get can be used when another person (or thing) gives you something. This is more passive.
I got a call from Gary this morning. (I received a call from Gary this morning. This is passive, I just received the call.)
Ellen got the new bike on her birthday.
TAKE means to move or carry something from one place to another.
Ellen takes her new bike everywhere she needs to go.
Take doesn’t always need another person (or thing). Something can be taken by a single person in the sentence.
I took the call in my office. (I accepted/received the call in my office. This is more active, I decided where to accept the call. I am also the only person in this sentence.)
Let’s look at another example:
There is a new Italian restaurant near my office. I got a flyer this morning. The restaurant looks good.
– This sentence is passive, we don’t know how I received the flyer, maybe someone gave it to me, or maybe it came in the mail. We only know that I have it, I received it.
Compare:
There is a new Italian restaurant near my office. I took a flyer this morning from the front door. The restaurant looks good.
– This sentence has an active feeling, we know how I received the flyer and we know what I did to receive it. I took it from the front door. The flyers were offered and I accepted one.
Take can sometimes have a negative feeling
You can take something that is offered to you, like a flyer, some food, etc. This is to accept something. But… If you remove something that is not offered to you we still use the verb take, but the meaning is negative. This can mean stealing:
Someone took my bicycle from the park. (Someone stole my bike.)
Or it can be a mistake:
I left the house in a rush this morning and I took my wife’s keys by accident. (I grabbed my wife’s keys by mistake.)
Compare:
I got $20 from my Dad for helping him clean the garage. My Dad gave me the money. I took $20 from my Dad’s wallet. I stole $20 from my Dad. I removed $20 without permission.
Take can also suggest to gain possession of something by force, illegally or unfairly. Then it is similar to verbs like “seize” and “capture”.
The military took control of the country after the soldiers rebelled.
Take is also often used more idiomatically (cannot be understood from the meanings of its separate words but that has a separate meaning of its own) as well, in providing directions to a place. For example:
Jack’s store is on Robbins Road. Take 4th Street for a mile and you will see it.
In that case, take means “use” or “follow”.
Confusingly, take can also be used similar to the verb “give”, like in this sentence:
Michael takescare of Jennifer’s dog.
In that case, the speaker means Michael is the person responsible for meeting the dog’s needs. He is the caregiver to the dog.
Finally, take is often used in connection with expressions of time. For example:
Ellie takes 30 minutes to get ready for work.
That sentence has the exact same meaning as Ellie spends 30 minutes to get ready for work.
Get also is common to idiomatic expressions. It often substitutes for “understand” and “know” (check out the Verbo “to get” lesson). Look at this sentence:
I get that we have to learn math but I do not like it.
Sometimes that usage clearly suggests a speaker’s impatience or frustration:
“I get it, Mom! I have to clean my room today.”
Finally, get is a common substitute for “feel”, “become”, or “start”, among others (check the Adjectives for feelings lesson). Here are some examples:
I’m going to leave for lunch when I get hungry.
She gets sad on rainy days.
He left the show when the music got loud.
There are many more idiomatic uses of get and take. Look for them whenever you get to practice your English! Hehe…
Below is a chart to help you with all this information.
What you have to understand is that both get and take are very common verbs in the English language and they are used with hundreds of different expressions.
The best thing that you can do is recognize when an expression uses get or take, understand how that expression is being used, practice the expression, get comfortable with it and add it to your speech.
It’s more effective to simply learn get or take in a natural context when you see them, when you’re listening to TV, when you’re watching a movie, when you’re reading a book and add it to your vocabulary after a lot of practice and repetition.
For some practice, work on a quiz about get and take.
How long it will take you to learn a foreign language depends on many things:
Your current level of the language
The level of language you need (Hint: for most people, upper-intermediate is enough)
Which languages you already speak
If you’re living in the country that speaks the language
How much time you dedicate to your formal studies or how much exposure you get, through series, music, videos, for entertainment or leisure
How committed you are to your learning process
How much you practice
How much consistent correction you get
How good you are at learning languages
If your schedule doesn’t allow for many hours of study, keep a steady pace within the time available.
You can achieve quality results at your own, consistent pace.
And here are two different experiences. First, from a beginner who learned French in a year. That was pretty fast. Specifically, a year is the average amount of time it will take an adult to become fluent enough to work in English if he starts as a beginner and studies at least 5 hours a day. But everyone is different.
And I’m proud to say that this learner, my daughter Cecilia, went from knowing nothing of French to scoring well in the mandatory fluency test to be admitted in the university, test after only one year, but studying 8 hours per day, 7 days a week.
The second experience was with a former student of mine, Danielle, who finished her English studies at a very good English school in the town before we started working together. Back then, she also fit traveling, reading, watching TV series and movies in her routine. All that, at her pace, but a steady exposure, produced the same result, that is fluency, but after some years, since she shared her time with other demands.
It was so generous and sympathetic of Danielle to acknowledge the result of her studies, as well as how much she is enjoying her fluency. We don’t work anymore. For years now, she doesn’t need my advice. I’m very happy about the way things turned out to be for her family and how important the English language and culture became for all of them, in the end.
I’m embarrassed to share her acknowledgment, but it’s beautiful, and she allowed me to do so.
Thank you very much, Dani. I’m very grateful for the bond we established once through our shared interest and that somehow we’ll have it forever.
So, it just depends on your needs or goals. You sure can feel comfortable with a foreign language either in the short or long term. And even before your goal is reached, don’t forget to enjoy what you’re becoming along the way!
Have you ever noticed how people seem to love talking about the weather? Whether (same pronunciation;-) they’re standing in the grocery checkout line or meeting new people at a party, the weather is quite a popular conversation starter.
Even at more formal occasions, like business meetings or other professional settings, the weather is a popular topic for small talk.
That might be because the weather is often different from day to day and from place to place, making it a relevant subject for everyone.
a description of what the weather is likely to be for the next day or few days.
Now listen carefully to the following two videos. The first one teaches the more basic vocabulary. The second video shows a more advanced vocabulary. Notice the verbs and verb tenses used. Make notes of them.
Now, just like letters build words, we need to combine words to build sentences, which are thoughts, ideas, and stories. Sentences build language. Without sentences, there’s no real communication.
So that’s how we can combine the word forecast:
FORECAST + VERB
says something
predicts something
suggests something
calls for something
The following are all possible structures:
Did you listen to the weather forecast?
The weather forecast is good for today.
The weatherforecast is not always reliable.
The weather forecastsays it will be fine tomorrow.
The weather forecastsays there will be rain.
The forecastsays it will begin to rain tonight.
The weather forecastsays it’s going to rain tomorrow.
The weatherforecastsaid that it would rain this afternoon, but it didn’t.
The weather forecastsaid rain, so take your umbrella when you go out.
The weatherforecast was right.
What’s the forecast for tomorrow?
What’s the weather forecast for tomorrow?
Now it’s time for the weather forecast.
The weather forecastpredicts it will be cooler tomorrow.
The long-rangeforecastsuggests we will have a mild winter.
The weather forecastcalls for light rain tonight.
The forecast didn’tcall for rain.
It will snow tomorrow according to the weatherforecast.
According to the weatherforecast, it will clear up tomorrow.
According to the weatherforecast, there’ll be more rain on the way.
According to the weatherforecast, the hurricane is likely to approach the coast.
The weather forecast warned of winds of up to 60-miles-an-hour today.
You can also get the weatherforecast by the Internet.
Rain is forecast for this evening.
Tom does a pretty good job of forecasting the weather.
If you want more work on the weather forecast, listen to this lesson and answer the questions to practice and improve your listening skills.
