A 7-minute workout
This seven-minute workout can be done in your lunch break. You only need to work with your body weight, a chair and a wall. So there’s no excuse now. Shall we give it a try?
The army, the navy or the air force?
You want to tell someone that you didn’t do military service but did what they call in Germany ‘Zivildienst’. You can either say that you did ‘alternative service’ or ‘civilian service’ instead.
‘Civil service‘ is ‘the service responsible for the public administration of the government of a country’!
a or an?
Some people seem to mix these up so I wanted to explain them today.
We use ‘a‘ before a word that begins with a consonant sound (such as ‘a bag’, ‘a European trip’, a ‘used car’) and we use ‘an‘ before a word that begins with a vowel sound (such as ‘an apple’, ‘an hour’, ‘an Indian meal’).
My tip for you … Just speak the words out loud before you write them down. Actually, I do that quite a lot! 😉
Help!
Two hunters are out in the woods when one of them collapses. He doesn’t seem to be breathing and his eyes are glazed. The other guy takes out his phone and calls the emergency services. He gasps, “My friend is dead! What can I do?”.
The operator says “Calm down. I can help. First, let’s make absolutely sure he’s dead.”
There is a silence, then a shot is heard. Back on the phone, the guy says “OK, now what?”
Words of wisdom
Mark Twain was a very well-known American author. If you’d like to learn more about him, take a look at this article in Wikipedia.
“Would you …
… kindly help me?”
Here is another rather old-fashioned phrase. I find this type of writing very boring. Why not use everyday language and just write, “Would you please help me?” Now isn’t that nice, clear and polite?
A lot of writers use the phrase, “Would you be so kind to … email/phone me”. However, this is not correct. The phrase should read, “Would you be so kind as to … email/phone me”. My suggestion? Don’t use it. Just write, “Please email/phone me”. You won’t make a mistake then! 😉
