Spotlight - 11.2019

LANGUAGE CARDS

New words Spotlight — 07 — 2016

False friends 11/2019 Spotlight

New words

Pronunciation

11/2019 Spotlight

Grammar 11/2019 Spotlight

Idiom magic

(In)Formal English

11/2019 Spotlight

Translation 11/2019 Spotlight 11/2019 Spotlight

11/2019 Spotlight

Global English 11/2019 Spotlight

British speaker:
“A number of new agencies offering escort services have
opened up.”

In Hong Kong English, “compensated dating” refers to
what, in British English, would be called an “escort service”
— in other words, young women paid (or “compensated”)
to accompany older men to social events. “Escort services”
is also a euphemism for prostitution.

a failure / to fail

a success / to succeed

If something “flops” or is a “flop”, it is a failure and totally

unsuccessful. To talk about a success informally, you can

call it a “win” or a “winner”; for example: “Your idea was

a real winner.” The verb “win” can also mean “make pro-

gress”. You could say, for instance: “Although this is a tough

problem, we are winning (= making progress solving it).”

When the word “burning” is used to describe something,
its literal (wörtlich) meaning is “on fire”. Its idiomatic mean-
ing, however, is “urgent” or “very strong”. For example, you
can feel a “burning need” or a “burning desire”. A “burning
question”, then, is a matter that is very urgent and must be
dealt with as soon as possible.

1. We’re taking / sitting an exam next week.


2. I (have) passed the exam.


3. He (has) failed the exam.

Students “take” or “sit” exams. They do not “write” ex-
ams — that is what the teacher does. If you are successful,
you “pass”; if not, you “fail”. In that case, you can “resit” or
“retake” the exam. Whenever you have to take an exam,
it is important to “revise” or “study” (not “learn”) for it.

1. David can’t walk yet. He’s only ten months old.


2. The coffee machine isn’t working.


3. Wie geht es dir / Ihnen?


4. Ich gehe gleich in die Bibliothek.

The German verb gehen has several meanings. The most

basic one is “to walk”, as in sentences 1 and 4. In a less phys-

ical sense, gehen means something like “work” or “func-

tion”, as in sentences 2 and 3.

If there is a negative or restrictive adverb (for example,
“rarely”, “seldom”, “not only”) at the beginning of a sen-
tence, the word order in the rest of the sentence is invert-
ed. If there is an auxiliary verb (Hilfsverb), this is moved in
front of the person or pronoun. If there is no auxiliary verb,
a form of “do” is added after the adverb and before the per-
son or pronoun (see Spotlight 8/19, p. 50).

Sets of data that are too large or complex to be analysed

by traditional methods are called big data, and new tools

have been developed to deal with them. Big data is mostly

used by companies wishing to gather information on be-

havioural habits; for example, to have a greater appeal to

their target markets.

[kæt] [kæts]

[rɒb] [rɒbz]

Did you notice that the pronunciation of the possessive

“’s” is different in these words? That’s due to the last sound

in the name. If it is a voiceless sound, like [t], then the pos-

sessive “’s” is pronounced as [s]. If it is a voiced sound, like

[b], then the possessive ’s is pronounced as [z].