Hi everyone,
Mais um post de vocabulário, como sempre naquele contexto bem humorado para fixar. Vamos à piadinha:
"My house caught on fire and the police think it was Arson. I told them it couldn't have been because he's on holiday with his mates." [Minha casa pegou fogo e a polícia pensa que foi o Arson. Eu disse a eles que não poderia ter sido porque ele está de férias com seus amigos.]
Arson realmente parece nome próprio. E provavelmente existam pessoas com esse nome/sobrenome.
Acontece que arson também significa incêndio premeditado, criminoso.
Parece que o personagem da estorinha aí é alguém que desconhecia esse vocabulário e que por coincidência tinha algum amigo com esse nome. :D
Para aumentar seu vocabulário, procure por combinações com a palavra fire, como essas que escolhi num site bem bacana que te diz quais são as combinações mais populares, as mais usadas. São chamadas collocations. Se você sabe como usar a palavra, você soará mais natural aos ouvidos de um nativo. O link está logo abaixo. Use e abuse. ;)
destroy by fire - To ruin completely
open fire - to begin shooting at someone or something
put out fire - extinguish
set fire to - to put someone or something to flames
set on fire - to excite someone; to make someone passionate.
come under fire - to be criticized (often + from )
http://www.just-the-word.com/main.pl?word=fire&cdb=thesaurus
See you next time,
Hi Ira I guess Portuguese also has these kinds of collocations?
ResponderExcluirIt's a pity I haven't found the equivalent of your blog for learning Czech, as my vocabulary needs to get better.
My favourites with fire, in addition to the ones above include:
'be on fire' eg they're on fire tonight! [performing well or doing something very well]
and 'add fuel to the fire' [make a bad situation worse]
I found this Tweet using it:
MsNita2U_08 "It's funny how celebs will say please respect our privacy but will add fuel to the fire with their tweets."
Btw I'll post a worksheet of your idioms soonish, though you'll see my site has been a little dismantled! Need to get it re-designed
David
Hi David,
ResponderExcluirThanks for your comment and contribution. I really appreciate that.
We sure have collocations in Portuguese. Actually the example you mentioned above "add fuel to the fire" in Portuguese would be something like "colocar lenha na fogueira" which has the same meaning as in English.
And of course it is a collocation.;)
I'm so glad you have chosen the idioms I've been sharing to post on your blog. I'm sure the new design will be amazing and so will the worksheet. You're very competent.
Take care, David!
Hi again
ResponderExcluirHa, I might not be so competent at finding someone - it seems all the top designers are busy!
Anyhow, I'll keep on posting articles - I have more students all of a sudden, and want to have my own group classes next year ;)
A pity I don't speak Portuguese, though I have learnt some Spanish and French, so I can read a little (Italian also).
Have a great day
David