Prepositions

Prepositions are locators in time and place. 


Read the following:


You can sit before the desk (or in front of the desk). The professor can sit on the desk (when he's being informal) or behind the desk, and then his feet are under the desk or beneath the desk. He can stand beside the desk (meaning next to the desk), before the desk, between the desk and you, or even on the desk (if he's really strange). If he's clumsy, he can bump into the desk or try to walk through the desk (and stuff would fall off the desk). Passing his hands over the desk or resting his elbows upon the desk, he often looks across the desk and speaks of the desk or concerning the desk as if there were nothing else like the desk. Because he thinks of nothing except the desk, sometimes you wonder about the desk, what's in the desk, what he paid for the desk, and if he could live without the desk. You can walk toward the desk, to the desk, around the desk, by the desk, and even past the desk while he sits at the desk or leans against the desk.


For more information, visit Grammar.


The following is a very simple and quite boring video I found on Youtube. However, it is simple and clear and not too long. 

The Difference Between Wondering and Wandering.

Taken from Seth's Blog 

  Seth says: 

I stumbled on a great typo last night. "Staff in the lobby were wondering around..."

Wandering around is an aimless waste of time.

Wondering around, though, that sounds useful.

Wondering why this product is the way it is, wondering how you can make the lobby more welcoming, wondering if your best customers are happily sharing your ideas with others... So many things worth wondering about, so few people actually taking the time to do it.

Wondering around is the act of inquiring with generous spirit.

Photo taken from Martha Beck

Overuse of the Word Beautiful

It's typical to hear Spanish/Catalan speakers overuse the word 'beautiful'. In English we use nice, pretty, attractive, lovely and cute rather than beautiful. Beautiful is often saved for top of the range gorgeousness, rather than something we may see every day. 

Also, we often use beautiful to describe something we can see, rather than something we have experienced. There are exceptions to this, but they are meaningful exceptions. 

Today, find more adjectives for the word ‘beautiful’.

The following is taken from Merriam-Webster Dictionary

Main Entry: beau·ti·ful 

Pronunciation: \ˈbyü-ti-fəl\

Function: adjective

Date: 15th century

1 : having qualities of beauty : exciting aesthetic pleasure
2 : generally pleasing : excellent

— beau·ti·ful·ly  \-f(ə-)lē\ adverb

— beau·ti·ful·ness  \-fəl-nəs\ noun

synonyms beautiful, lovely, handsome, pretty, comely, fair mean exciting sensuous or aesthetic pleasure. beautifulapplies to whatever excites the keenest of pleasure to the senses and stirs emotion through the senses <beautiful mountain scenery>. lovely is close to beautiful but applies to a narrower range of emotional excitation in suggesting the graceful, delicate, or exquisite lovely melody>. handsome suggests aesthetic pleasure due to proportion, symmetry, or elegance handsome Georgian mansion>. pretty often applies to superficial or insubstantial attractiveness pretty scenes>. comely is like handsome in suggesting what is coolly approved rather than emotionally responded to comely grace of a dancer>. fair suggests beauty because of purity, flawlessness, or freshness <fair of face>.

What adjectives could you use for the following photographs, instead of beautiful?