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If you ARE THE CAT'S WHISKERS,

you think you're better than others.

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If you HAVE A SWEET TOOTH, you enjoy eating sweets and chocolate.  :-)

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to have green fingers = to be good at growing plants.

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Update Your English

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I enjoy teaching everyday English, or "natural" English. The reason for this is that students often arrive in England ill-prepared for the kind of spoken English that is heard in everyday situations."It's so different to what I've studied back home," students often complain. "It's like a different language!" The following examples below are the sort of phrases that puzzle students when they hear them in England for the first time.

What is this "innit" I hear everywhere?
Somebody stopped me in the street and asked me for a "ciggie".
Why do people say "Cheers, mate" all the time?
Why do young people say "I'm not bothered".
I heard someone say they were having bangers and mash for their dinner.
I often hear "Are you gonna watch the footie tonight?" What is" footie"?

The "Y" Factor
I would like to share one lesson I will be doing next week. The focus will be on groups of words which end in -y or -ie. These tend to crop up a lot in everyday conversation.

I introduce the topic by reading out the dialogue below at normal speed, without showing the words. It is a dialogue, which I actually heard a few years ago. I then ask my students to tell me what the dialogue was about. I am usually met with some bemused looks!

A Bickie, Polly?
B Cheers, mate!
A Choccy bickie?
B Oooh! Fab!
A Here you go.
B Cheers, mate.
A No probs!

I ask my students to "translate" this brief dialogue into more formal English:

A Would you like a biscuit, Polly?
B Thanks, my friend.
A Would you like a chocolate biscuit?
B Ooooh! Fabulous!
A Here you are.
B Thank you!
A My pleasure.

The next stage is to get students in groups to brainstorm words that the students may have come across, which feature these 2 particular endings. Groups then feedback to the whole class and words are written up on the board.

Using Authentic Materials
Next I ask students to stand up and look around the classroom walls, where I have stuck some articles from newspapers/magazines/the Internet, which show concrete examples of words or phrases ending in -y or -ie. In pairs, students jot them down in their noteboooks and they try to work out the meaning from the context. General open class feedback follows with definitions and explanations of the 20 or so words from the authentic materials.
I have copied some examples below, taken from the Internet:

Bring in the barbecue and get out the brolly - the heatwave will end today with thunderstorms. And temperatures will plummet to a chilly 13C (55F) in the North next week.

Gourmet tour of Britain: Nicholas Roe enjoys a foodie safari through the UK countryside.

One of the most enjoyable ways of exploring the highways and byways of Britain is to follow a regional food trail - of which there is an ever increasing number. These involve touring restaurants, farm shops, delis, vineyards and cider producers in some of the most scenic areas of the country. Here's a selection to whet the appetite this summer.

Lavish Oscar gifts are set to be taxed.

Those who hold a rose-tinted view of the entertainment industry may wish to look away now. It turns out that the eye-poppingly expensive gifts showered upon the film stars who present the Oscars are not given purely out of a spirit of generosity.

America's tax authorities are cracking down on the "goodie bags" handed out to awards presenters, which now frequently include luxury holidays, expensive hi-tech gadgets, designer clothing and even free laser eye surgery, and are valued at up to $100,000 (£53,000) each. The free items are a marketing tool and a de-facto payment for the stars' services, the internal revenue service insists, so do not count as gifts and are liable for tax.

I then have a few more activities to practise the new words. For example, a wordsearch created on www.puzzlemaker.com. Students have to find the 17 words in the puzzle. The answers are directly below.

H U T R T R K W G J X W Z H H
R U H C S Y C C O H C G I C Y
J W Z C R A T J H S X H U E G
R I B D Y B B J K W D I B W C
E P I B U E I N R A S E P B U
S E B B O M E P V H H C J I W
B U L A I R Y L L K M B Z E S
E U O F L L P E E K W G L M Q
Y I S D T E G Z K E P C O M L
C F T Y I C T J E Q B B R U U
L O H O I E F O Y R K I B Y U
Y F M G O O V L L L K C E N N
B W G F O F B O S I C K I E W
H T Y L V J F F C D Z Z Y C J
U O F L P K G R J V X L L Y Y

BROLLY
BICKIE
BUBBLYCHOCCYCIGGIECOMFYFOODIEFOOTIEFREEBIEHOODIEHUBBYLAIRYNEWBIESARNIESICKIETELLYYUMMY
17 of 17 words were placed into the puzzle.

I would love to hear how you would teach the group of words I have selected in this post.

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I enjoy teaching everyday English, or "natural" English. The reason for this is that students often arrive in England ill-prepared for the kind of spoken English that is heard in everyday situations."It's so different to what I've studied back home," students often complain. "It's like a different language!"

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Professor David Chystal's thoughts on the English language. Some fascinating posts!

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The Ucheldre Centre have just sent me the leaflet with details of Ben's Dreame fortnight - an Elizabethan-style adaptation of A Midsummer Night's Dream - involving actors, puppeteers, choreographers, and other contacts of Ben from around the world, all gathering in Holyhead for open rehearsals (30 July - 2 Aug), two free performances (3-4 Aug), and follow-up workshops on dance, movement, and Shakespeare (6-8 Aug) and puppetry making and working (9-10 Aug).

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The Ucheldre Centre have just sent me the leaflet with details of Ben's Dreame fortnight - an Elizabethan-style adaptation of A Midsummer Night's Dream - involving actors, puppeteers, choreographers, and other contacts of Ben from around the world, all gathering in Holyhead for open rehearsals (30 July - 2 Aug), two free performances (3-4 Aug), and follow-up workshops on dance, movement, and Shakespeare (6-8 Aug) and puppetry making and working (9-10 Aug).

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Professor David Chystal's website full of 'goodies'!

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About

David works from his home in Holyhead, North Wales, as a writer, editor, lecturer, and broadcaster. Born in Lisburn, Northern Ireland in 1941, he spent his early years in Holyhead. His family moved to Liverpool in 1951, and he received his secondary schooling at St Mary's College. He read English at University College London (1959-62), specialised in English language studies, did some research there at the Survey of English Usage under Randolph Quirk (1962-3), then joined academic life as a lecturer in linguistics, first at Bangor, then at Reading.
Read more

Talks and book signings

I'm no longer giving many public talks, but am happy to consider invitations to speak via online media. To arrange an event, please get in touch with Hilary Crystal (via the Contact page of this website), who can provide information about costs and other details.

I often get requests for signed copies of my books; but the opportunities to have a book signed are now very limited. So if you'd like a signed copy, there are two ways to arrange this:

You can send an email request for books using the above link and, if we have them, we'll send you a quote in the form of an e-invoice for the cost of the book(s), plus postage. The books will be sent on receipt of payment. We normally send books by second-class post, so you'll need to let us know if you want a faster or tracked delivery. Please include the name of the recipient, the delivery address, and tell us if the book is for a special occasion (birthday, leaving present, etc).

You can buy the book yourself and send it to my home address (14 Gors Avenue, Holyhead, LL65 1PB, UK) together with a stamped addressed envelope for its return. If you live outside the UK, this is the only method available.

This website © 2020 David Crystal.

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Yummy & scrummy

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BBC World Service | Learning English | Keep your English Up to Date

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Professor David Crystal gives short talks on the origins and usage of new and evolved words and phrases.

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Learn a few expressions by logging on to the

BBC Learning English website archive. There are loads of lessons you can use with your students.

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Learning English - Keep your English up-to-date

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One QUID = one pound

To POP OUT = Go out for a short period

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You will find this Issuu booklet by Kerry Maxwell very useful for learning new expressions.  The free digital booklet contains 50 of her favourite 'BUZZ WORDS', introduced on the Macmillan blog.

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Macmillan Dictionary - Our Favourite BuzzWords

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Macmillan Dictionary - Our Favourite BuzzWords - 2003-2013

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Use writecomics.com to teach/recycle new expressions in a fun way!

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It´s raining cats and dogs.

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I´ll have a cup of rosy lee.

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現役女子大生とかも働いているのが、高級デリヘルの特徴だなって思います。キャスト一覧とかを見るとわかると思いますが、本当の女子大生だらけです。勉強もしないで何をしているのかと思ったら、風俗でバイトしている子が多いってことですね。確かに女子大生なら、時間も融通が利くし、普通に働きやすいんだなって思います。それに、人気が出れば相当稼げることは間違いないですからね。僕らが使う場合は、予算も2万円前後...

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'off the Richter'

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To be in the DOGHOUSE

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Wordspy.com is a great place to find out about new words entering the English language!

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Learn new expressions with the MacMillan Dictionary Blog!

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This post from the Stories behind Words series is from 2014. Happy 2021 everyone! 31st December, the last night of the year in the Western calendar, is celebrated in many places, but nowhere more enthusiastically than in Scotland...

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This post from the Stories behind Words series is from 2014. Happy 2021 everyone! 31st December, the last night of the year in the Western calendar, is celebrated in many places, but nowhere more enthusiastically than in Scotland...

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We can post new words and expressions you come across! on this Padlet wall!