TO LIE THROUGH TEETH

You're taking a walk with a friend at a park and then you see from far away your boyfriend kissing another girl. Of course he wasn't expecting you around and you would have never known it if it wasn't for such a convenient coincidence.

You don't want to confront him in front of everybody and make a scene, but you go back home and wait till he returns. After a few minutes, there he is. He tries to greet you with a tender kiss, but you keep the distance. "How could you do this to me? I just came back from the park and saw you kissing another girl."

Your boyfriend turns red and starts to shake. But when you think he's going to admit it and apologize, he starts to lie outrageously. He says he was with his friends at a bar and never even walked by the park. What now? Is he trying to make you believe you're out of your mind and blind? you and your friend saw him with that girl and there's no way both of you were mistaken.

STOP LYING THROUGH YOUR TEETH!

When someone lies through their teeth, they're telling something that you know is completely false. They're lying boldly, but make it seem like it's sincere. Do you know anyone who's always lying through their teeth like that? Leave your comments down bellow. Take care!

What do MUMBO JUMBO and GIBBERISH mean?

MUMBO JAMBO

meaning: speech or writing that is nonsense or very complicated and cannot be understood 

example: There's so much legal mumbo jumbo in these documents that it's hard to make sense of them.

situation 1:

-Dude, I'm so terrified at the horror movie I watched last night. So you have an idea I tossed and turned the whole night and couldn't get a wink of sleep. I'll never watch a horror movie again.

-What happened in that movie that was so terrifying?

There was this scene in the movie where everybody who whispered some words into a mirror would eventually die a very terrible death. And now I can't even look into a mirror without thinking I might get killed too.

-Are you out of your senses? Everything in the movie was staged in a way it seems real. But don't waste your time fearing such mumbo jumbo.

situation 2:

You're in class watching a Math class. The problem is that the teacher seems to be speaking a different language. You're desperate to understand the littlest things in the class but it seems you'll need to study the basic things first to try to keep up with the level of that class. By the end of the class you meet up with a classmate and then she asks you if you're ready for the upcoming Math tests. Here's what you say:

- I couldn't get half of all that mathematical mumbo jumbo. I'll probably need to do a lot of studying before the test.

GIBBERISH: You can also refer to things that simply do not make sense as gibberish. If someone says you're talking gibberish, they probably mean they can't understand what you're saying. Either because you're maybe speaking too fast and are hard to understand or you're conveying no message. When some people start learning English, they may speak a lot of gibberish in an attempt to get themselves across. That happens because they're still not used to English grammar or vocabulary. One of these days I saw someone saying on Twitter that internet slang is nothing but gibberish.

ASnd speaking of gibberish, here's a video of two babies talking to each other (an Youtube video that went viral and you've probably watched it). That's a great example of what gibberish sounds like.

Idioms with the word FRIEND

You are living the best time of your life. After working hard and finally getting a promotion and starting to be paid a whole lot better, you can say you finally have a comfortable life. But you come from a poor family. You weren't born with a silver spoon in your mouth (meaning that you don't come from a rich family) and you know what it feels like to struggle a lot to get what you need to get by.

But the money part is just one of the many things that changed a lot from then on. Now that you're happy and successful, people seem to treat you better. And out of nowhere, it seems you don't get as much trouble to make friends as you used to. People just come to you. 'What makes people act differently around you then?', one old friend asks you. 'I don't know. I just think it's hard now to tell my true friends from the fair-weather friends. I have to be a lot more careful now.

a fair-weather friend

someone who is only your friend when you are happy and successful I had a lot of money and I knew a lot of people, but most of them turned out to be fair-weather friends.

But you look at that friend who's talking to you, a very old friend by the way who's been there for you since the struggling times when you had absolutely no money, and you say to him: But I never have to worry about you. You knew me when I hit the rock bottom (the lowest possible level of life) and helped me out of it. A friend in need is a friend indeed.

friend in need is a friend indeed

A true friend is a person who will help you when you really need help. When Bill helped me with geometry, I really learned the meaning of "A friend in need is a friend indeed."

'Do you remember when we had that project from college and imagined how easier it would be if we had friends in high places to sponsor us?', says your friend. 'Now you're one of those friends in high places.'

have friends in high places

to know important people who can help you get what you want He has plenty of friends in high places willing to support his political career.

Como dizer penúltimo antepenúltimo em Inglês?

Você vai até um dicionário eletrônica a fim de saber como dizer penúltimo e antepenúltimo em Inglês. Eis as respostas que você encontra: penultimate, antepenultimate. Podemos dizer que estão errados? Não. Gramaticalmente falando, são termos absolutamente corretos.

O problema é que muito dificilmente você encontrará alguém os utilizando no dia-a-dia. Soam bastante formais, assim como grande maioria das palavras com origem latina. A maneira mais natural e native-like de se dizer esses termos na verdade assumem a forma duma expressão e não necessariamente um termo. Só para expressar a ideia de penúltimo, veja só a lista de opções que você tem (seguida de exemplos). Logo em seguida, confira como dizer antepenúltimo em Inglês:

Português: o penúltimo, a penúltima

Inglês: second to last, next to last, last but one

Exemplos:

She finished second to last.

He injured himself on the next-to-last day of his vacation.

We'll need to buy some more wine. This is the next to last bottle.

Tomorrow they will play their last but one game of the season.

Baker finished next to last in the 1500 metres race.

ANTEPENÚLTIMO:

Third-to-last, antepenultimate

1. Tomorrow we head to Essen for our third-to-last concert. (nznewsuk.co.uk)

2. That includes a big 4-1 home win on April 1 in what was Washington's third-to-last game of the season.

3. He was the last person killed on the series Gunsmoke (in the antepenultimate episode). (Merriam)

Perceba que o termo antepenultimate também é citado, mas não podemos desconsiderar o tom formal que ele apresenta. Então considere o contexto em que você o utiliza.

O que é uma preposição?

A gente ouve falar de preposição o tempo todo durante os estudos de Inglês. Mas o que acontece é que muitos estudantes de Inglês tem uma vaga ideia do que seja uma preposição e qual é afinal o seu papel numa sentença. Como preposições são sempre o calcanhar de Aquiles dos estudantes basicos e avançados, achei que seria uma ótima ideia fazer uma sequência de posts (começando por essa) dedicada as preposições inglesas. Hoje, vamos estudar o conceito gramatical das preposições.

Afinal de contas o que é uma preposição?

Como você deve ter percebido, preposições são geralmente palavras bem curtinhas. Elas são usadas para estabelecer a relação entre as outras palavras em torno dela. Se você procurar saber o significado da palavra preposition, encontrará algo como "positioned before". Ou seja, uma preposição se posicionará antes dum substantivo ou pronome para estabelecer o relacionamento daquela palavra com as outras próximas. Veja alguns exemplos:

a boy from the ghetto

(Here, the preposition from tells us the relationship between ghetto and boy.)

a bone for the dog

(Here, the preposition for tells us the relationship between dog and bone.)

E já que estamos falando sobre preposições, aqui vai uma lista das preposições mais comuns. Lembrando que as preposições não se resumem apenas a esta lista:

above, about, across, against, along, among, around, at, before, behind, below, beneath, beside, between, beyond, by, down, during, except, for, from, in, inside, into, like, near, of, off, on, since, to, toward, through, under, until, up, upon, with and within.

Há em torno de 80 a 100 preposições na língua inglesa. São importantes porque adicionam informações para o leitor ou receptor duma maneira geral. Por exemplo, podem estabelecer relação de lugar (como a preposição de lugar at: she is at school), relação de tempo (como a preposição before: the dinner comes before dessert), e simplesmente cede informação geral de descrição (como a preposição with, que estabelece a relação entre uma garota e uma tattoo neste exemplo: the girl with the cool tattoo.)

Uma preposição nem sempre consegue passar um sentido satisfatório de maneira isolada numa sentença. Então devemos levar em consideração principalmente o que vier depois da preposição, que na gramática chamamos de objeto. É essa junção de preposição + objeto que damos o nome de prepositional phrases. Por exemplo, pense numa mesa (table). Qualquer preposição que se relacionar a table construirá uma prepositional phrase, como em "on the table", "over/under/beside the table". Então perceba que a preposição é necessária para dar essa informação da relação entre o sujeito da frase, como Antonio, e o objeto, que é table. "Antonio is sitting on the table".

Studying the word SUPER

Knowing what super means in English is easy. We have the same word in Portuguese after all. But did you know super can work as an adjective, adverb and even a noun? If you didn't, keep reading.

And here's an excellent example where the word super works as all those grammatical elements: The super is super demanding. But because he always wants the best, the quality of our work is always just super!

The word super as a noun, just like in the sentence you've just read, means superintendent. As an adverb, super works to make the adjective stronger in intensity, as in "this task is super overwhelming". And finally, super as an adjective means just what it means in Portuguese: excellent.

As a bonus, I have a very common expression with the word super, which is super-duper. That idiom sounds very childish to me, but you can use it to sound funny. If you call someone or something super-duper, you're saying they're excellent. Take a look: That's just super-duper. Couldn't have asked for better. That's all for now. Take care!

Advérbios de frequência mais comuns e como usá-los

No present Simple, você as vezes vai sentir a necessidade de incluir algum advérbio de frequência. Por isso eu trouxe uma lista pra vocês dos mais comuns:

always

frequently

generally

hardly ever

infrequently

never

normally

occasionally

often

rarely

regularly

seldom

sometimes

usually

Como advérbio, a posição dele numa sentença as vezes pode mudar muito. Mas a estrutura mais frequente é essa: pronome + advério + verbo + complemento. Veja os exemplos:

I often go to the cinema.

She sometimes visits me at home.

We usually drink coffee.

É claro que você também pode encontrar o advérbio na frente da sentença e no final. Mas atenção no terceiro exemplo para o lugar na sentença que você jamais deve incluir o advérbio de frequência:

Often I go to the cinema.

I go to the cinema often.

But never: I go often to the cinema.

Quais são e como usar os pontos cardinais em Inglês

Antes de qualquer coisa, vamos aprender quais são os principais pontos cardinais. Dê uma olhada na bússola acima e, com a ajuda dessas abreviações, tente dizer todas as suas direções. Caso você se perdeu em algum, aqui estão elas em ordem consecutiva a partir do Norte: North, Northeast, East, Southeast, South, Southwest, West, Northwest. Se você achar que são muitas palavras pra memorizar, perceba que os pontos intercardinais, ou seja, os que ficam entre os quatro principais pontos, são nada mais que uma combinação entre o anterior e o posterior (North + East: Northeast).

Algo muito curioso a se notar é que os pontos cardinais podem funcionar tanto como substantivo, adjetivo e advérbio. Mas como isso é possível? Veja só através dos exemplos abaixo:

noun - The sun rises in the east.

adjective - It is sunny on the east coast.

adverb - We drove east for 50 miles.

Se você está sempre em contato com a língua inglesa, deve ter se deparado com o sufixo -ern, como em northeastern. Esse sufixo é designado especificamente para nomes de regiões, lugares, localizações. É um adjetivo e serve para caracterizar alguma coisa ou pessoa que tem a natrueza de/pertence a determinada região. Por exemplo, "Northeastern people in Brazil are discriminated by their own countrymen". Isso é tudo pessoal. Take care!

Many expressions with the word HABIT

I've never thought there would be so many expressions with the word habit. I've selected my favorite ones. So here it goes: Imagine you need someone to keep you company while backpacking across Europe and the only person who also knows English and would be of great help is your friend Tom. The problem is that Tom is far too much a creature of habit. And what does that mean?

When you call someone a creature of habit, you're saying they prefer the comfort and reliability of routine and habitual behavior. So maybe you think your friend Tom is wasting his youth and want to encourage him to break the habit he's had for so long of being stuck at home. Again: when you break a habit, you put an end to it. So here's what your friend Tom might tell you when you ask him to stop being such a shut in (someone who's more comfortable spending time indoors): I wish I enjoyed outdoor activities more, but you know old habits die hard! That expression is very easy to understand. You say old habits die hard because people find it difficult to change their accustomed behavior.

You're still engaged in talking your friend Tom into making your friend more sociable and adventurous. So here's what you suggest: Why don't you come backpacking across Europe with me and make a habit of traveling around the world? You'll see how fun it is. And again, just as you can imagine, when you make a habit of something, you do it so often that it becomes a habit. That's all for today. Take care!

O que significa a expressão "to play in the big leagues"

I guess most people or maybe everybody would agree working for a big company, like Google or Facebook, is a big dream come true. But one of these days, I read an article talking about the disadvantages of being a Google or Facebook employee. Among the many reasons, and I say many because they weren't few, one of them was having to deal with the fact that even being a renowned professional you may end up in charge of a very simple task. And that's reasonable if you stop to think even the janitor might hold a PhD. But imagine working for one of those major company is and will always be your lifelong dream. Here's what somebody might tell you as a piece of advice: You had better shape up if you want to play in the big leagues.

When you say the idiom "to play in the big leagues", you're alluding to playing a professional sport at the highest level. So the same way you'd do if you were part of a top-notch soccer team, if you want to succeed at something and play in the big leagues (that is to say, be involved in something of large and important proportions), you have to work really hard. That's all for today. Take care!

Expressionss with the word PLEASURE

You plan the trip of your life to Europe, spend a few months meeting the top tourist attractions, stay at the nicest hotels, have the experiences you've always dreamed of, meet interesting people and most importantly comes back with a lot more to say and share. But the problem is, now you're back home to your newly-found reality. And what reality is that? you're burdened with debts from your dream trip. But here's what you say when someone tries to take the joy away from you: It may take years for me to clear all my debts, but there is no pleasure without pain. What does that mean?

When you say there is no pleasure without pain, you mean to say that for every pleasure you enjoy, you must suffer some pain. And here's my question: Do you think that's really true? Do you think that idiom applies to everybody's lives? Leave your opinions down in the comment section.

Stolen pleasures are sweetest: do you have any idea of what that means? That is our second expression. Imagine you've had a secret affair for a while and now she's trying to talk you into leaving your actual wife and making that relationship official and public. And since you're far from taking up that offer, here's what you say: Don't you think it makes it more interesting for our relationship to be secret and somewhat wrong? Stolen pleasures are sweetest!

You can also say "stolen fruit is sweetest", which means people often enjoy illicit things just because they are illicit. Just remember what happened to Adam and Eve in Paradise. That apple became sweetest for simply being the only one they couldn't eat. That's it for today guys. Take care!

Como dizer em Inglês "eu gostaria que...", "eu quero que..." "eu queria que.."?

Quando a gente aprende uma língua estrangeira na fase adulta, a tradução direta é um dos inimigos número 1 para a nossa fluência. Não, eu não acredito que a nossa primeira língua seja sempre um aspecto negativo nos nossos estudos, mas se você não tomar cuidado, seu Inglês vai ter sempre um ar estranho de se ouvir.

Eu falei tudo isso porque, apesar da estrutura da frase "eu queria que você fizesse isso para mim" parecer simples para passar para o Inglês, as vezes ela é respoinsável por um dos erros mais comuns entre alunos de Inglês. Veja só como essa mesma frase ficaria em Inglês: I'd like you to do something for me", ou "I want you to do something for me".

Se você já conhecia essa estrutura, esse post parece bem dispensável. Mas pra você que insiste em colocar o "that" antes do verbo want ou would like, é bom ficar atento. A estrutura é essa: pronome + want/would like + pronome oblíquo (him/her/them/etc) + verbo no infinitivo com o to. Veja alguns exemplos:

I want him to come. – Eu quero que ele venha.

She wants me to call her. – Ela quer que eu lhe telefone.

Paul wanted Jane to go. – O Paul queria que a Jane fosse.

Would you like me to help you? – Voce qostaria que o ajudasse?

Maria didn’t want the children to watch TV. – Maria não quis (queria) que as crianças assistissem TV.