既然你已经下定决心要出国学习，你就需要决定你想去哪个说英语的国家学习!
你可能会想，“我是不是应该去可以和袋鼠一起玩的澳大利亚？”或者“要不加拿大？贾斯丁 特鲁多很帅…”或者爱尔兰怎么样？我喜欢倒一杯吉尼斯黑啤酒 …”或者“也许美国!一个芝士汉堡现在听起来很棒!
这一切在理论上听起来都很不错，但重要的是要撇开对这些国家的刻板印象，再确定哪个才是最适合你的留学国家。让我们多谈谈如何获得你想要留学的国家的现实情况。最终，由你来决定哪个国家对你来说是最合适，但你首先要考虑以下几点。
In America, summer officially ends on September 22nd, though in many places it starts to feel like fall much earlier than that! To make sure we enjoy summer for as long as possible, here are some fun summer idioms!
The past continuous is an important and challenging verb form in English. It is used to describe actions that were in progress at a specific point in the past. Read about the rules for using the past continuous tense and how we form it, with charts and over 25 example sentences!
Stop pronouncing these words wrong! If you’re looking for explanations and examples of words with silent T, you’ve come to the right place. Charts, definitions, a word list of over 20 examples, and the history of how silent T became silent.
Today’s idiom posts are all about dogs! Check out this post for several example sentences, definitions. and images to help you remember these idioms!
The present continuous is a common but challenging verb tense in English. It is used to describe actions that are happening at the current moment. Read about the rules for using the present perfect tense and how we form it, with charts and over 25 example sentences!
Today’s idiom posts are all about dogs! Check out this post for several example sentences, definitions. and images to help you remember these idioms!
English has tons of idioms about animals. Have a look at these idioms about cats. Check out this post for several example sentences, definitions. and images to help you remember these idioms!
Today’s post is about all the different nicknames that Americans have for their country.
The present perfect is a common but confusing verb tense in English. It is used to connect the past to the present.. Read about the rules for using the present perfect tense and how we form it, with charts and tons of example sentences!
The simple future is a very common verb tense used to talk about plans and expectations in English. Read about the rules for using it, how we form it, and tons of example sentences!
How Many Vowels Are There?
How many vowels are there in English? Five? Six? Twenty? Five and a half?
If you ask an American what the English vowels are, we will almost all say the exact same thing that we learned in school as children:
A, E, I, O, U, and sometimes Y.
Ellen Degeneres recently tweeted at NSYNC, and she jokingly congratulated for making a major accomplishment "without a vowel" in their band name. However, as many people (including Ginseng) explained, Y is a vowel in NSYNC. Ellen was just making a joke, of course, but many people, learners and native speakers alike, really don't understand what it means when we say that Y is "sometimes" a vowel.
Let's look a little closer at what exactly we mean when we say "and sometimes Y" in order to help us understand several important aspects of English pronunciation and spelling.
Vowels and Consonants
Before we can say how many vowels there are, we need to clarify what exactly a vowel is. The answer is not as simple as you may think. The most common dictionary definitions say something like this:
vowel (n.)
1. a speech sound in which air flows out through the mouth and is not blocked by the teeth, tongue, or lips;
2. a letter representing one of these sounds.
On the other hand, consonant is usually defined something like this:
consonant (n.) - any speech sound or letter that is not a vowel.
So a vowel is a sound made with your mouth open, and a consonant is basically every other sound.
Sounds and letters
You may have noticed that the definitions of consonant and vowel above talk about both sounds and letters, and this is where the confusion comes from. Sounds and letters are different things. Letters are written and are meant to represent the sounds in a language.
However, you have probably noticed that English sounds and letters don't have a perfect correspondence. For example, sometimes the letter C sounds like S (as in city) but other times it sounds like K (as in cat).
This is especially true about vowels. If we ignore Y for a moment, there are 5 vowel letters: A, E, I, O, U. However, if we look at vowel sounds there are between 14 and 21 (depending on the accent).
How is this possible? Think about the different sounds that A makes in the words father, bake, and cap, and the different U sounds in put, cup, and nuke.
The most important idea here is that letters can make different sounds.
Why is Y Special?
Okay, but we're talking about Y, right? Is it a consonant or a vowel!? How many vowels are there!? We need a number!
So, like many other letters, the letter Y represents many different sounds. You can see the most common ones in the words only, cry, myth, and yet.
Let's look more closely at those examples: in only, Y makes the long E sound /i/, the same sound E makes in we. In cry, Y makes the long I sound /aɪ/, pronounced like the I in mine. In myth, Y makes the short I sound /ɪ/, the same sound as the I in kid. As you can see, these are all vowel sounds.
The Y in yet is different. It isn't really a sound that other letters frequently make. Its "the Y sound" /j/. And this is a consonant sound. If you make this sound, you will feel that the back of your tongue rises up toward the top of your mouth. Remember, when we block or obstruct the air to make a sound, this is what makes a consonant.
So the reason that the letter Y is sometimes a vowel and sometimes a consonant is that it makes several different sounds. Some of these sounds are vowel sounds, and one is a consonant sound. In the words only, cry, and myth, Y is a vowel. In yet, yellow, and you it is a consonant.
In case you were still wondering about Ellen's NSYNC tweet, the Y in NSYNC is definitely a vowel.
Y is Almost Always a Vowel
So we know why Y is sometimes a vowel, but we were curious: How often is Y a vowel and how often is it a consonant. How common are the different sounds that Y makes? The answer was not easy to find, but eventually we came across an academic paper that contained the answer we needed.
It turns out that Y is not just "sometimes" a vowel. It is almost always a vowel. It is only a consonant around 2.5% of the time. That means about 97.5% of the time it is a vowel. By far, the most common sound it makes is long E /i/. As you might guess, this is probably because -y and -ly are very common suffixes in English.
Next time you hear someone say "A, E, I, O, U, and sometimes Y," you can correct them: "A, E, I, O, U, and 97.5% of the time Y!"
在这篇文章中，我们介绍40多个用英语单词以及6个句型来描述人。前三个句子句型是基本句型(A1级)。另外三个则稍微高级一些(A2-B1级)。所有的词汇都是基本的(A1到A2级)。(如果你不知道A1、A2、B1和B2是什么意思，了解CEFR!)
什么是句型？
句型是我们学习说英语的一个很有用的方法。一个句型是一个空的位置，许多不同的词可以在许多不同的情况下放进去使用。例如，如果你学习了 I feel [ADJECTIVE] 的句型，你可以造出几百个不同的句子。你所需要做的就是学习一个新的形容词，放到合适的地方：我觉得饿。我觉得累。我觉得生气。我感觉不舒服。对于基础水平的学生，学习句型是学习英语的好方法!
句型1 -描述人的基本句子。
我们要看的前三个句子是简单句。形容人的最常用的方式之一是使用形容词：高、矮、胖、瘦、漂亮、英俊、丑陋。在一个句子中使用这些常用的形容词，试试这个句型:
The man is [ADJECTIVE].
这个人[形容词]。
The man is tall. (这个男人个子高。) The man is fat. (这个男人胖。) The man is ugly. (这个男人丑。) The man is in shape. (这个男人体型好。) 你可以把任何人放在那个位置。
重要的是要知道，The man男人这个词是可以替换的。这个女人个子高。我朋友个子高。我爸爸个子高。简个子高。她个子高。你可以把任何人放在那个位置。
现在让我们看看一些可以放在这个位置上用来描述人的形容词：
| 英语 | 发音 | 中文 |
|---|---|---|
| tall | /tɔl/ | 高 |
| short | /ʃɔrt/ | 矮 |
| thin | /θɪn/ | 瘦 |
| fat | /fæt/ | 胖 |
| old | /oʊld/ | 老 |
| young | /jʌŋ/ | 年轻 |
| in shape | /ɪn ʃeɪp/ | 状态良好 |
| out of shape | /aʊt ʌv ʃeɪp/ | 变形 |
| beautiful | /ˈbjutəfəl/ | 漂亮 |
| ugly | /ˈʌgli/ | 好丑 |
| handsome | /ˈhænsəm/ | 英俊 |
| bald | /bɔld/ | 秃 |
句型2 -描述特征的基本句子
下一个基本句型是通过某项特征来描述人的基本句型：眼镜，卷发，黑头发，蓝眼睛，胡子，马尾辫。要谈论一个人的特点，可以用以下句子：
The woman has [FEATURE].
这女人有[特点]。
用这个句子句型，你可以造出很多不同的句子：这个女人有一头卷发。这个女人戴眼镜。这个女人留着长发。这个女人扎马尾辫。
同样，你也可以改变人的位置：那男人有一头长发。我的朋友有一头长发。我妹妹有一头长发。克拉拉有一头长发。
以下是一些可以适用于这个句型的特征(名词或形容词名词):
句型3 -描述衣服的基本句子。
我们要讲的最后一个句子是通过衣服来描述人的句子。谁不喜欢衣服！？黑色的鞋子！灰色的裤子！蓝色的领带！绿色的裙子！让我们用它们来做完整的句子。这是句型：
The woman is wearing [CLOTHES].
这女人穿着[衣服]。
下面是一个可以加进这个句子的衣服列表:
所有这些衣服都可以用颜色词语来描述。The woman is wearing black shoes. (这个女人穿着黑色的鞋。) The man is wearing a yellow tie. (这个男人戴着黄色的领带。)
所以，这三个句型，加上这些词汇，让你可以造出几百个不同的句子来描述人。如果你是初学者，而且这是你学的新知识，你可以在这里暂停一下。
但是，如果你已经知道这些知识，而且你想学一些难度更高的英语句子，那就继续读下去吧!
描述人的复杂句型
前三个句型是关于名词，特征和服装，这个顺序对吧？接下来的三个句型将会以更复杂的方式谈论这三件事情。以上章节提到的三个句型的所有词汇都可以用同样的顺序在以下三个句型使用。
在前三个句型中，每个句子主要是描述人。这些句子是关于描述人的。我想告诉你关于这个男人的是他个子高。但是有时候我们想用一句话来描述这个人的其他事情，而描述并不是句子中最重要的部分。例如，也许我想告诉你这个人是我的邻居，但我也想说他个子高。以下的句型会在这样的情况下有所帮助。
句型4 -形容词之前的名词
让我们用回这个例子。我想告诉你这个人是我的邻居，我也想把他形容成一个高个子。我可以把形容词放在名词前：那个高个子的男人是我的邻居。你也可以把上面的任何一个形容词放在那个括号处。
The [ADJECTIVE] man is my neighbor.
这个[形容词]的人是我的邻居。
The handsome man is my neighbor. (那个英俊的男人是我的邻居。) The old man is my neighbor. (那位老人是我的邻居。) The fat man is my neighbor. (那个胖子是我的邻居。)同样，句子的结尾(我们称之为谓语)也是一个可填充的位置，你可以在那里放进不同的动词：那个高个男人喜欢足球。那个高个子正在吃东西。那个高个男人有一辆汽车。
句型5 -特点和“with”
如果你想在同一个句子里谈论某人的特征，我们需要使用介词 “with”。我们可以说，戴眼镜的那个男人是我的邻居。任何其他特点都可以放入相同的位置：
The man with [FEATURE] is my neighbor.
有[特征]的人是我的邻居。
The man with red hair is my neighbor. (红头发的那个男人是我的邻居。 The man with a mustache is my neighbor. (留胡子的那个男人是我的邻居。)
句型6 -衣服和 “in”
当我们想谈论衣服时，我们需要另一个介词。我们用 “in”来取代“with”。穿蓝衬衫的那个男人是我的邻居。上面的任何一个服装词汇都可以放进同一位置上：
The man in [CLOTHES] is my neighbor.
那个穿着[衣服]的人是我邻居。
The man in the tie is my neighbor. (那个戴领带的男人是我的邻居。)The man in the grey pants is my neighbor. (穿灰色裤子的那个男人是我的邻居。)The woman in the red hat is my neighbor. (那个戴红帽子的女人是我的邻居。)
总结
就是这样！学习这六个句型和词汇，你现在可以造出数百个新的句子来描述人！稍后回来看看，我们会有一个小测验来测试一下你学到了什么！
Rob Sheppard is the founder and Chief Executive Teacher at Ginseng. Over the past ten years, he has taught English in Taiwan, South Korea, and his hometown of Boston. Now he teaches online at Ginseng while traveling the world.
You can email Rob at rob@ginse.ng.
English Idiom - The Idiomatic Fridge
We came across this fantastic cartoon by John Atkinson, from his site Wrong Hands, and thought it would be the perfect topic for a vocabulary lesson. It’s called The Idiomatic Fridge because all of the “foods” in here are actually idioms in English!
Before we get started, take a look! Do you know any of these?
fish out of water
icing on the cake
piece of cake
top banana
second banana
tall drink of water
milk and honey
full of beans
bowl of cherries
bunch of baloney
whole enchilada
small potatoes
bad apples
good egg
big cheese
Definitions and Example Sentences
top banana 🍌
The idiom top banana is used to describe the best or most popular person in a show, group or organization.
Of all the comedians in the world, Robin Williams was the top banana. Would you agree?
second banana 🍌🍌
Going hand in hand with top banana is second banana which means the second best or most popular person in a show group or organization.
President Obama was top banana, but he would be nowhere without his second banana, Vice President, Joe Biden.
whole enchilada 🌮
The whole enchilada is a funny way of explaining that something is complete and comes all packaged together.
When considering vacation packages, I decided to go for the whole enchilada and get a deal that included the room, transportation to the airport, and unlimited food and alcohol. I didn’t regret it, I had an amazing trip!
small potatoes 🥔
If something is small, insignificant, or cheap, we might say that it’s just small potatoes.
The price we pay for health insurance is small potatoes compared to what we would pay for medicine without it.
bad apples 🍎
If a bad apple is stored in a container with good apples, it will typically cause the other apples to rot faster. Someone who is very negative can make people around them very negative as well, so we call a negative or badly behaved person a bad apple or a rotten apple.
Joey always complained about his homework in class, and then I started noticing my other students didn’t want to do their work either. I think he’s a bad apple!
good egg 🥚
A good egg is pretty much the opposite of a bad apple. If you someone is just all around (like an egg!) a nice, helpful, and responsible person, he or she is considered a good egg.
When I broke my leg, my neighbor mowed my lawn and made me dinner without me even asking! What a good egg!
big cheese 🧀
If someone is very important and successful, we might call them the big cheese, or a big shot.
After Alex got promoted, he thought it was the big cheese around the office, but he quieted down once he realized he still wasn’t such a big shot...
tall drink of water 🚰
This isn’t an expression that we use very often anymore, but it’s still a funny one! If someone is very beautiful, handsome, and overall just very attractive, you could say that they are a tall drink of water. Imagine drinking a tall glass of water on a hot day. This is how some people feel when seeing someone very attractive!
Even after all these years of marriage, when my wife comes into the room I still think she’s a tall drink of water!
milk and honey 🥛 🍯
This term is used to explain a land that has plenty of everything that you could possibly need to survive, and is therefore considered a perfect place to live.
When I moved to Florida, it had everything I could want, beaches, friendly people, and good food! I thought it was the land of milk and honey until I realized that I missed snow!
full of beans 🥫
If you have a ton of energy, are very happy, and can't sit still you’re full of beans.
On this beautiful summer day, we were full of beans and couldn't wait to go play outside!
bowl of cherries 🍒
When something is very nice, and everything is going perfectly in your day, or your life, we might say that it’s like a bowl of cherries.
Today I found $100 on the sidewalk! Life is a bowl of cherries!
However, this expression is actually used more often in a sarcastic or ironic way, meaning exactly the opposite of perfect.
My car broke down, and I was late for work so I lost my job. Life is a bowl of cherries, huh?
bunch of baloney 😡
If someone is telling you lies, or a fake story, we call this a bunch of baloney.
The car salesman promised me a good price on a car, but when I went to actually buy it, it was much more expensive than he originally said. What a bunch of baloney!!
fish out of water 🎣
A fish out of water is very uncomfortable, doesn’t know what to do and usually can’t survive. When someone is in a situation that they are unfamiliar with, or very uncomfortable with, we call them a fish out of water.
When Lexi visited China for the first time, she felt like a fish out of water because she didn't know anyone, couldn't speak Chinese, and had no idea where to find her hotel.
icing on the cake 🎂
This is another idiom that can be used positively or sarcastically. The icing on the cake is the colorful, sugary cream that goes on the top of the cake. It is the last thing done to make the cake look perfect.
We use this positively to talk about the final thing that made a situation just perfect:
The dinner was already amazing, but the waiter gave us a free bottle of wine, which was really the icing on the cake.
We also use it negatively, sarcastically, or ironically when a situation seems like it can’t get any worse, but then it does:
It rained on my wedding day, my mom couldn’t come because her flight was delayed, and the caterer canceled but the icing on the cake was that my husband got food poisoning! It’s ok though, the honeymoon was amazing!
piece of cake 🍰
Something that is very easily accomplished or achieved is known as a piece of cake.
I got the job! I had the right qualifications and had great answers prepared for their questions, so the interview was a piece of cake.
Other free English resources:
Idiomatic Fridge
Check out this blog post to learn what "going hand in hand" means!
English spelling is crazy but there are patterns. Silent E words follow a very common pattern. Check out this explanation with charts and over 200 of examples.