Fish vs. Fishes: Is it ever correct to say "fishes"?

When Plurals have the same form as their singulars. 

There are nouns whose singular and plural forms are the same, such as “fish,” “moose,” “sheep,” “deer,” and “swine".

These nouns don’t have the normal plural ending because we think of them as a group, as in “We saw deer in the woods.”

The American Heritage Guide to Contemporary Usage and Style uses the example “Half a dozen fishes inhabit the lake” (7).

So you could say:

We caught five fish.

Or:

The commercial troller caught 5000 fish.

We had fish for dinner.

And if you can also say:

There are many fishes in this pond. 

Just remember that the meaning changes. This sentence means that the pond has many species of fish in it. Use "fishes" only for this purpose.

Heat up vs. Hot up

What is the difference between Heat up and Hot up?

Heat is a verb and hot is an adjective, so it seems wrong to put an adjective together with a particle:

Hot up, hotting up

I consulted several sources and found:

OED:

verb (hots, hotting, hotted)

(hot something up or hot up) British informal

make or become hot:[with object]He hotted up the flaskbecome or make more lively or exciting:[no object] :the championship contest hotted up
The Merriam-Webster:

hot up

 verb

Definition of HOT UP

intransitive verb; chiefly British

: to increase in intensity, pace, or excitement <Air raids began to hot up about the beginning of February. — George Orwell>

transitive verb

chiefly British : to make livelier, speedier, or more intense

With a silky Southern drawl, the waitress asked, "Want me to hot up that pie?"

(Well, I doubt that, because most Americans have never even heard of 'hot up'.) Here is what an American from California had to say:

"I think it's simply that "hot" is an adjective and "heat" is a verb. I've also never heard "hot up".  You can also "reheat" your food in the microwave, if you're warming up leftovers, for example."

 

and The American Heritage Dictionary:

Hot up

Chiefly British Informal. to heat; warm (usually followed by up).

I heard it today, here:

http://www.euronews.net/2011/12/01/diplomatic-row-grows-between-tehran-and-london/
So you might think that 'hot up' is just a silly journalistic attempt at originality, but you'd be wrong.
Again, according to Merriam-Webster:

First Known Use of HOT UP

1878! 

 

It turns out that this informal British usage is not even new, and it's not slang either.
At least, it's not slang to say that a situation is 'hotting up'. Apparently, it is slang to 'hot up' a person, an audience or a situation. 


Being an American English speaker, I will always prefer Heat up to Hot up, but essentially both are correct.

More on Heat:
Meaning #2 - intensity of feeling, esp. of anger or excitement : Words few men would dare use to another, even in the heat of anger. 
You can also say> In the heat of the moment, when you are describing something said or done rashly.
• 'The heat' [informal] - intensive and unwelcome pressure or criticism, esp. from the authorities : A flurry of legal proceedings turned up the heat in the dispute.
Other interesting expressions with heat:

go hot and cold - experience a sudden feeling of fear or shock

have the hots for - [informal] be sexually attracted to

hot on the heels of - following closely: The mugger ran away from the scene of the crime, with the police hot on his heels.

hot to trot - impatient to begin some activity

hot under the collar - [informal] angry, resentful or embarrassed.

in hot water - [informal] in trouble: She landed in hot water for falsifying the documents.

ESL Spanish students:
Calor - heat 
Caliente - hot
Calentar - heat/ heat up (or hot up, if you must); 
Warm up is used in certain contexts, but I won't comment on that in this post.
Califacción - heating (n.) 


So...In summer you feel the heat.
If I ask,"How are you?"
in Spanish you might say, 'Tengo mucho calor' or 'Con mucho calor'
This cannot be translated directly.
You could say:


It's very hot/it's too hot today.
or
I'm overheated.(I feel the heat too much)
eg. She felt overheated after her run in the park.

Liveblogging

Put up

As you can see, Put up has three main meanings. 
12 o'clock: The most literal meaning, to erect or post. This meaning can even be extended to include the idea of publishing in the internet: "He put up a post about the state of the global economy." Offer would be in the following sense: "They put up quite a fight, but they were ultimately defeated."

3 o'clock: in the sense of giving some one lodging, here the object goes in between the two parts of the phrasal verb. "She was kind enough to put me up for the night."

9 o'clock: To be used with the preposition 'with', in Spanish, 'aguantar'; "I can't put up with the way the cost of living is continually rising." The last few words there - digest, brook, bear and abide

Please check out the original diagram, which is interactive. Go to http://www.visualthesaurus.com/

Type put up in the search text field, and you will get a pop up with the think map above. Click on the green circles to see each meaning configuration separately.

Could it be this one?

More phrasal verbs with 'keep'

http://www.visualthesaurus.com/

Some model sentences for keep on, keep out, and keep up. Find the contexts on the Think maps above.

1. If we can't keep up with the current workload, we might have to hire more staff.
2. How much longer will he keep up this pretense that all is well?
3. We've installed screens over all the windows to keep out the mosquitoes.
4. When his business failed, his employees bought him out, but he was kept on as project coordinator.
5. It kept on raining all evening, so the concert had to be canceled.
6. Having frequent visitors keeps patients' spirits up.
7. The new students tried to keep up with their peers accomplishments.
8. Collins was carded and kept out of the remainder of the match.
9. There was a sign on the door that read, 'keep out'.
10. If you keep up with your English studies, your command of the language will grow.

Cut out

Some model sentences for Cut out. Find the contexts on the Think map above.

1. "Cut it out! Stop teasing me!"

2. The doctor said that I have to cut animal fats out of my diet.

3. They cut out a small growth under his jaw, but luckily, it was benign.

4. He is not cut out for the pressures of being president. (EDUCATION;TEMPERAMENT)

5. She was furious when her father cut her out of his will.

6. The characters in this TV show are like cardboard cut-outs.

7. Our car was performing beautifully for most of the trip, but when we reached Calais the  motor cut out and we could not get it started again.

8. We cut out of the end of the presentation because it was boring, and we needed a coffee. (INFORMAL)

9. They cut a lot out of the movie for the commercial version; I prefer the director's cut.

10. Take these cut-outs and paste them over the green banner.

TALE OF TWO SUFFIXES

In English, there are two suffixes which in Spanish both translate the same way, but often mean different things. These are -ic and -cal. In some cases, the difference is very clear.
eg.Hysteric (the noun), Hysterical (the adjective)
But:

Economic vs. Economical


People sometimes describe something as economic when they mean economical. Economic means‘ concerning economics’: he‘s rebuilding a solid economic base for the country’s future.

Economical means‘ thrifty, avoiding waste’: Small cars should be inexpensive to buy and economical to run.

Others:

Historic vs. Historical

1 On the use of an historic moment; or a historic moment;  
2 Historic and historical are used in slightly different ways. Historic means‘ famous or important in history’, as in a historic occasion; , whereas historical means‘ concerning history or historical events’, as in historical evidence; : thus a historic event; is one that was very important, whereas a historical event is something that happened in the past.  

There are still more examples of this, but it’s interesting to note that there is no such word as grammatic, only grammatical.


Geometric vs Geometrical
The Oxford English Dictionary gives Geometrical as a variant of Geometric.

Geometric

|ˌjēəˈmetrik|

adjective 

1 of or relating to geometry, or according to its methods.

2 (of a design) characterized by or decorated with regular lines and shapes : traditional Hopi geometric forms.

American and British Pronunciation here:

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/geometric

Phrasal verb Spotlight: Thin out

Here are some examples of things that can thin out or can be thinned out:

(meaning to make or become less dense, crowded, or numerous)

A crowd

Your hair (If it's too thick, or it's falling out)

Something growing in your garden ( to make space for it to grow)

A sauce, soup or stew

Any other liquid substance that can be diluted

The Visual Thesaurus is an amazing tool!

 

 www.visualthesaurus.com/landing/?ad=ddc.large&utm_medium=large&utm_campaign=VT&utm_source=ddc&word=thin+out&lang=en

Phrasal Verb Spotlight: Look Back

ESL LEVEL: ADVANCED

Remember (a period of time, sequence of events); reminisce

She looked back on her achievements with pride.

Look back on + noun phrase (NP) 

(a phrase whose head is a noun or a pronoun, sometimes accompanied by modifiers):

When I look back on my university days...

...on the neighborhood where I grew up...

OTHER PREPOSITIONS WITH Look Back 

Look back at + noun.

...a look back at the Roaring Twenties. (A time)
... last year's sales figures...(a thing in the past)

Look back in + noun used to express an emotion

This will not work for every case. Check in you dictionary to find out the correct collocation.

Look back in anger, in shame.

Look back + with 

Some adjectives, for example those ending in -ing, will be seen in noun form:

Look back with amusement (not amusing)

with is used in other cases as well:

Look back with laughter, with pride

Look back with gratitude, with remorse

In the negative :She launched her own company in 2003 and has never looked back.

This means that she has never again thought about what she was doing before she started her company.

Look Back In Anger is the title of a play, by John Osborne.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Look_Back_in_Anger

David Bowie wrote a song called Look Back in Anger, and

Moby wrote a song called Look Back In

The exact meaning of the title is open to interpretation....

Have a great weekend!

Idiomatic Expression of the day

Long in the Tooth

[Figurative] meaning rather old. 

ORIGIN: originally said of horses, from the recession of the gums that occurs with age.

The meanings of Particular

 ENGLISH

Particular     adjective

1. To used to single out an individual member of a specified group or class:
The action seems to discriminate against a particular group of companies.

SYNONYMS:
1  specific, certain, distinct, separate, discrete, definite, precise; single, individual. antonym general.

'FALSE FRIEND' * TO SPANISH MEANING:  Privado, que no es público (Espasa)
In English, Private and Particular are not synonyms.

MEANING SHARED WITH SPANISH:
2 an issue of particular importance (extra) special, exceptional, unusual, singular, uncommon, notable, noteworthy, remarkable, unique; formal peculiar. 
antonym: ordinary.

OTHER MEANING: 
3 insisting that something should be correct or suitable in every detail; fastidious : 
She is very particular about cleanliness. 

SYNONYMS:
3  finicky, meticulous, punctilious, discriminating, selective, painstaking, exacting, demanding; informal persnickety, choosy, picky. antonym careless.


*False Cognate

What the heck is a Pig tail for F to Sma?

From Twitter post : How to build a Wi-fi Cantenna