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The DET part 1 asks you to decide whether a word is real or not. Today, we're doing something similar with pleonasms. Does the expression repeat meaning unnecessarily?
Choose PLEONASM or NOT A PLEONASM.
💘 NATIONAL MATCHMAKER DAY
If you're British and of a certain age, the video above may bring back a few memories! 🍫
Matchmakers were launched by Rowntree's in the UK in 1968. Those long, thin chocolate sticks are still around today, now made by Nestlé.
But today's National Matchmaker Day is about a rather different kind of matchmaker: someone who brings two people together in the hope that romance will follow. ❤️
But have you ever stopped and looked closely at the word matchmaker?
We can match two people:
She matched James with Anna.
We can also make a match:
She made a match between James and Anna.
So why is the person who does this called a matchmaker?
Why don't we simply say matcher?
My granny is a a real matcher.
And that leads us to something else English does: combining words whose meanings sometimes seem to overlap or repeat.
🎁 free gift
A gift is normally something you receive without paying for it. So why does it need to be free?
🛟 safe haven
A haven is already a place of safety or refuge. Can you have an unsafe haven?
🏁 end result
A result is the outcome of something. So isn't it already at the end?
🐟 tuna fish
We already know that tuna is a fish. So what does the word fish add?
There is actually a word for this: pleonasm.
A pleonasm occurs when we use more words than are strictly necessary because part of the meaning is already contained elsewhere in the expression.
That doesn't necessarily make it bad English. Many pleonastic expressions have become completely normal, and native speakers use them without even noticing the repetition.
You may already know a related term: tautology.
A tautology also involves unnecessary repetition, usually by expressing essentially the same idea more than once:
🔹 It is what it is.
🔹 They arrived one after another in succession.
Pleonasm and tautology overlap, and the terms are sometimes used interchangeably. However, pleonasm is particularly useful when we're looking at unnecessary or apparently redundant words within an expression.
And then there's something rather different: the oxymoron.
Instead of repeating meaning, an oxymoron puts together words or ideas that appear to contradict each other:
🔹 deafening silence
🔹 bittersweet
🔹 seriously funny
So, in simple terms:
🔁 PLEONASM: meanings repeat
🔁 TAUTOLOGY: an idea is unnecessarily repeated
↔️ OXYMORON: meanings appear to contradict
English can put words together in some very strange ways.
And sometimes we don't notice just how strange they are until we stop and look at them.
Now let's see if you can spot a pleonasm yourself in today's quiz below. 👇
#AdvancedEnglish #EnglishVocabulary #NationalMatchmakerDay
Who says beaches can sometimes protect coastlines better than modern technology?
Which TWO things can affect the size and shape of sand grains?
Who says beaches can sometimes protect coastlines better than modern technology?
Who says beaches can sometimes protect coastlines better than modern technology?
Which TWO things can affect the size and shape of sand grains?
🏖 NATIONAL BEACH DAY
Hope you enjoyed the Chris Rea video we posted above. 🎵
“On the Beach” gives us some last rays of summer sunshine as we think about the fine summer we've spent, with autumn now approaching. ☀️🍂
But while you're sitting on the beach, have you ever thought about what you're actually sitting on?
Today we're going to look at sand: where it comes from, why it can have different colours, what happens to it over time, and why it may be more useful than you think.
🏖 More than just sand
Sand is much more interesting than it looks. Most sand is made from tiny pieces of rock that have been broken down over thousands, or even millions, of years. But it can also contain fragments of shells and other marine organisms. If you examine a handful of sand closely, you may discover that the individual grains are surprisingly different from one another.
The colour of sand can give us clues about where it came from. Brilliant white sand may contain coral or quartz, while some black beaches are the result of volcanic activity. On the Hawaiian island of Kamoamoa, for example, a black-sand beach appeared after a volcanic eruption in 1990. This means that the appearance of a beach can tell us something about the geological history of the surrounding area.
The age and origin of sand can also affect the size and shape of its grains. Older grains tend to become finer and smoother as they are worn down over time. Waves, wind and weather continually move the grains around, gradually changing their shape. Studying these characteristics can therefore provide clues about the journey the sand has made.
And sand isn't only useful for building sandcastles! We use enormous quantities of it to make concrete and glass. It also has an important natural function. Geologists say beaches can protect coastlines from the power of the sea, sometimes more effectively than modern coastal technology. So that ordinary-looking sand beneath your feet may be doing a surprisingly important job.
🔎 IELTS Reading Challenge
In IELTS Reading, questions in a set will normally follow the order of the information in the text.
But we're doing something a little different today.
This exercise is specifically designed to practise skimming and scanning, so the questions are deliberately mixed up.
First, skim the text to get a general idea of what each paragraph is about. Then scan it to find the specific information you need for each answer.
Don't expect the next answer to appear further down the text. You may need to go backwards as well as forwards!
Six questions are coming up. 👇
#NationalBeachDay #IELTS #IELTSReading #LearnEnglish #EnglishVocabulary #IELTSAAA
📚 Source material: Adapted from an IELTS reading activity in New Insight into IELTS, Vanessa Jakeman & Clare McDowell, Cambridge University Press, 2008, p. 44. Original source: BBC Focus Magazine.
