EDUCATED or POLITE - What's the difference?

One set of false friends that causes a lot of confusion in English is the difference between an EDUCATED person and a POLITE person. This is important to understand because even though we use them to describe people, they don't mean the same thing - and this video explains why.

A post about snow and adverbs

Like the song says, "Baby, it's COLD outside." Two students who are in London are reporting that there's quite a bit of snow in the south-east UK, and my friend Álvaro, who lives just north of Madrid, says that he's got about 10 cm of snow on his car.

Here's a photo of the thermometer on my balcony, taken today at 9:17 AM:

It seems like today is a good day to write about adjectives and adverbs: It's really cold out there today.

One of the jobs of adverbs is to give us more information about adjectives. We often do this with adverbs of degree:

• It's cold outside.
• It's really cold outside.
• It's surprisingly cold outside.
• It's shockingly cold outside.
• It's ridiculously cold outside.

English speakers often do this in order to give you a very specific idea of their opinion about something.  Why? Our ideas of cold are probably different - and, even then, we have so many degrees of cold that it helps me be specific about what kind of cold I mean.

This isn't really common in written Spanish, and almost no one uses it in normal, spoken Spanish. It's very common with English speakers, however, so if you're not sure about how to use adverbs to describe adjectives, be sure to ask your teacher.

ECONOMIC or ECONOMICAL - What's the difference?

I've just posted another vocabulary video: today's topic is the difference between ECONOMIC and ECONOMICAL.

Both of them are adjectives that talk about money, but we use them in different contexts.

One way to remember participle adjectives

If you have problems remembering which participle adjective to use (bored or boring?), here's one trick that you can use.

-ING adjectives can be used to talk about the reason why you use something:
running shoes
frying pan
hiking boots
mixing bowl

-ED adjectives are used to describe what has happened to the thing. (This is why you see -ED adjectives used a lot in the names of foods:)
baked potatoes
fried fish
toasted almonds
roasted chicken
barbecued ribs
chocolate-dipped peanuts (like Conguitos)

And see the photo below to see a perfect example of how NOT to use participle adjectives to describe food.

Participle adjectives: One easy rule

Here's one easy rule that will help you remember the difference between past participle adjectives (bored, relaxed, satisfied) and present participle adjectives (encouraging, falling, irritating):

PAST PARTICIPLE ADJECTIVES are common when you talk about the way you prepare food:
fried fish, a chopped liver sandwich, roasted chicken, baked apples, sautéed mushrooms, Cajun-style blackened trout, stuffed eggplant, poached eggs, percolated coffee, well-steeped tea.

PRESENT PARTICIPLE ADJECTIVES are common when talk about functions or qualities:
working-class children, baking dish, hiking boots, biting sarcasm, sleeping bags, swimming suits.

These are shorter ways of providing defining relative clauses:
trout that has been blackened using a Cajun style
apples that have been baked
a sandwich made of liver that has been chopped
boots that are used for hiking
bags which are meant for sleeping
dishes which are used for baking food.

Another "Schoolhouse Rock!" classic...

Here's one for those of you who are working with adjectives, or who have to master adjectives for your English exams...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XhhWRB0Vfqs&feature=player_embedded