✨-phile

/faɪl/ BrE AmE (also -phil) suffix
[in nouns]

= someone who likes something:

🔹a bibliophile (=someone who likes books)

🔹an Anglophile (=someone who likes English or British things)

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⭐️ THE THING IS IS ⭐️


📘The phrase the THING IS is frequent in spoken English and functions as a discourse marker which focuses attention on what follows and usually signals that there is a problem. The verb form is tends to be stressed. The is commonly ellipted in informal use:

🔻The thing is . . . erk . . . we don't have any money left.

🔻Yeah, but, you know, the thing is, she's left rather late.

📕The expression THE THING IS IS treated by speakers as a fixed item, and in many cases in informal speech an 'EXTRA' IS is added as speakers feel a need to have a verb in the clause. When this happens, the first IS is stressed:

🔻THE THING IS IS no one wants to take responsibility for paying for it all.

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⭐️Prepositions with TROUBLE (verb)⭐️


📕Followed by about, with, and for. When trouble is used transitively:

⏩ Trouble one about (something) means 'trouble one concerning whatever is mentioned;'

🔻I am sorry to keep troubling you about the letter, but until it is found I cannot answer it.

⏩ Trouble one with (something) means 'trouble one by bringing the thing in question before him'.

🔻He is always troubling me with some complaint or another.

⏩ Trouble one for (something) means 'trouble one in order to obtain whatever is mentioned'.

🔻Could I trouble you for the newspaper, please?

📗When trouble is used intransitively:

⏩ Trouble about means 'trouble (oneself) concerning'

🔻Just call and see me when you feel inclined; don't trouble about writing (or to write) first.

🔻If you trouble about every little thing that goes wrong, you will never have any peace of mind.

⏩ Trouble with 'trouble (oneself) by having, helping, considering, using, etc. Whatever or whoever is mentioned'.

🔻I have a good breakfast and good meal in the evening, and never trouble with lunch.

🔻A person who asks your advice and then ignores it is not worth troubling with.

⏩ For is not used with the intransitive verb

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⚠️Note:

⏩ It goes without saying that when trouble is used transitively, it can be followed by by.

🔻They have been deeply troubled by the allegations.


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🔹GAME 🔹

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🔴 LOW-DOWN

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⭐️Prepositions with CONCENTRATE ⭐️

⏩When concentrate is used in the sense of 'draw together to one central place or point', the place or point is indicated by whatever preposition is appropriate; e.g.: concentrate troops

🔹in a particular area or district
🔹at a sea port
🔹along the bank of a river, etc.

⏩When it means:

🅰️ direct intensively towards some particular spot or object

or

🅱️ direct one's energies, efforts, or attention to, the preposition used is ON ; concentrate:

🔹gunfire on a town
🔹on one's work
🔹one's attention on the matter in hand
🔹all one's efforts on getting through an examination

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🔵ONLY JUST

✨In speaking, ONLY can be used with just for emphasis. It can mean ‘very recently’ or ‘almost not’:

🔸She’d only just moved into her new house last July. (= very recently)

🔸The building had survived the earthquake of two years before, but only just. (= It almost didn’t survive the earthquake.)

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🔵Conjunction ONLY

✨Mainly in informal spoken English, ONLY is used as a conjunction with the meaning of 'but':

🔸I would come, only I don't know what to wear.

🔸Okay, I'll let you bring your golf clubs. Only please hurry up.

🔸It's more or less the same in Cyprus, only even hotter in july.

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⭐️Special use of ONLY

There is a special use of only in which it is followed by too to mean 'extremely':

🔹I'm only too glad to be of help.

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✨Common mistakes!

❎The names on the list were unknown to me.

✅ The names on the list were unfamiliar to me.

🔹 Explanation:

🔘 UNKNOWN usually describes something people in general do not know or know very little about.

🔘 Something that you yourself have not seen, heard, or experienced before is UNFAMILIAR ( to you ).


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🏫AT School 🆚 IN School🏫


✨AT school has the following meanings:

1️⃣ Attending school.

🔹John is not at school today.
🔹She went out to do her shopping while the children were at school.
🔹Is Susan still at school, or has she left?
🔹An increasing number of pupils are staying at school until they are eighteen.
🔹We've got two children at school, and one at unvirstiy.

2️⃣ On the school premises.

🔹I was at school until almost half past five yesterday.
🔹He couldn't do his homework, as he found he had left his text-book at school.

3️⃣ In one's lessons or school work.

🔹A good deal of what we learn at school we forget in afterlife.
🔹Andrew is getting on very well at school.

✨On the other hand, IN school has the following meanings:

1️⃣ In the school building.

🔹Pupils are not allowed in school after 8.30 a.m.

2️⃣ In lesson's time.

🔹We did the first part of the exercise in school, and the rest for homework.

3️⃣ In American English, in school is used for attending a school or university.

🔹Are your boys still in school?

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Reference: English Prepositional Idioms by Frederick T. Wood.

#prepositions
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Using present to talk about the past👆
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When the past is not the past👆
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⭐️The with Superlatives⭐️


1️⃣✨The is obligatory before adjectives used attributively:

🔹It's the most interesting novel I've read in a long time.
(NOT It's most interesting novel...)

2️⃣✨If the adjective is not attributive, the is optional:

🔹Anna is (the) youngest.

3️⃣✨When a superlative adjective is used predicatively in expressions which define an entity, the is obligatory:

🔹His brother is quite tall but Henry is the tallest of them all.
(NOT His brother is quite tall but Henry is tallest of them all)

4️⃣✨The is optional before predicative adjectives in a wh-clause or adverbial uses of the superlatives:

🔹Let's see who's (the) quickest at answering these questions.

🔹Pasty arrived (the) earliest.

5️⃣✨The is not used with superlatives in predicative position or superlative adverbs, when we compare the same person or thing in different situations:

🔹He's nicest when he has a few drinks.
(NOT he's the nicest when...)

6️⃣✨The + superlative adjective + of is used, particularly before indefinite nouns. This structure is rather formal:

🔹The best of ideas happen when you are not thinking.

7️⃣✨The is optional with superlative adverbs modifying verb phrases:

🔹A lot of students work hard but mature students work (the) hardest.

8️⃣✨The is used with superlative adverbs if the adverb modifies an adjective:

🔹It's one of the most beautifully structured pieces of music.


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💠 be taken aback (by something)

= to be very surprised or shocked by something:

🔹For a moment, I was completely taken aback by her request.

#phrasal_verb
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