Heartland English School – Word of the Day

Theme:  American Slang

Word:  redneck

Meaning: a white person who lives in a small town or in the country especially in the southern U.S., who typically has a working-class job, and who is seen by others as being uneducated and having opinions and attitudes that are offensive (noun)

Examples:

• You might be a redneck if you fix a broken window with duct tape…permanently.
• You might be a redneck if your bicycle has a gun rack.
• You might be a redneck if you’ve ever stolen toilet paper.
• Also see: Duck Dynasty

Theme:  American Slang

Word:  y’all

Meaning: You all; another way to say you (plural)

Examples:

• Hey, y’all!
• How y’all doing?

*This week’s words are courtesy of Hanna, Heartland’s only American employee!*

Theme: Confused Words

Words:  clothes / cloth

Pronunciation: / kloðz / & / klαθ /

Meaning: clothes = items worn to cover the body; cloth = material made of interwoven threads, something used for cleaning

Examples:

• She loves to buy clothes, especially jeans and sweaters.
• I want to buy some cloth and sew a dress.
• I need a cloth to wipe the table.
• Clothes are made of cloth.

Theme: Confused Words

Words:  who’s  / whose 

Pronunciation: / hus / for both words

Meaning: who’s = contraction of “who is”; whose = interrogative possessive adjective

Examples:

• Who’s going on the activity with this Friday?
• Whose bag is that?

Theme: Confused Words

Words:  then (adv.) / than (conj/p.)

Pronunciation: / Θεn / & / Θæn /

Meaning: then = next, at that time; than = used in comparisons, used to introduce an exception

Examples:

• Do your homework. Then we will watch a movie.
• Toronto is bigger than Winnipeg.
• He doesn’t drink anything other than water.

Theme: Confused Words

Words:  affect (v.) / effect (n.)

Pronunciation: / ∂fεkt / for both in normal speech, /æfεkt/ & /εfεkt/ at the word level

Meaning: affect = influence, impact, have an effect on; effect = a result, an outcome, a consequence

Examples:

• If you don’t write enough words on the IELTS test, it will negatively affect your score.
• It takes about 30 minutes to feel the effect of this medicine.

Theme: Confused Words

Words:  it’s / its  

Pronunciation: / Its /

Meaning: it’s = contraction of “it is”; its = 3rd person neutral possessive adjective

Examples:

• It’s nice a warm outside today.
• That was a good movie. Its landscape scenes were beautiful.

Theme: tank

Word: think tank

Meaning: a group of experts who often give advice and ideas about economic or political problems

Example: The Canadian International Council is a think tank that gives seminars on Canada’s foreign affairs.

Theme: tank

Word: tank (slang verb)

Meaning: to fail badly

Example: He wasn’t prepared, so his presentation tanked. He may lose his job.

Theme: tank

Idiom: built like a tank

Meaning: to be very big, powerful, and muscular

Example: Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson is built like a tank.