Poucas palavras:

Blog criado por Bruno Coriolano de Almeida Costa, professor de Língua Inglesa desde 2002. Esse espaço surgiu em 2007 com o objetivo de unir alguns estudiosos e professores desse idioma. Abordamos, de forma rápida e simples, vários aspectos da Língua Inglesa e suas culturas. Agradeço a sua visita.

"Se tivesse perguntado ao cliente o que ele queria, ele teria dito: 'Um cavalo mais rápido!"

quarta-feira, 28 de março de 2012

Como dizer "amassar" em inglês.

verbo   
   1  (uma roupa) to crease


      O cinto de segurança amassou minha blusa.
      The seat belt creased my blouse.


      Esse tecido amassa muito.
      This fabric creases easily.

   2  (um papel) to scrunch up


      Amassou a carta e jogou-a no lixo.
      He scrunched up the letter and threw it in the trash.

   3  (uma lata) to crush


      As latas são amassadas e depois recicladas.
      The cans are crushed and then recycled.

   4  (um veículo) to dent


      O Paulo amassou o carro do pai.
      Paulo dented his dad's car.

   5  (massa de pão, de torta) to knead

   6  (batatas) to mash

© Copyright Pearson Education Ltd 2004





Curtam nossa página no Facebook. (Blog Portal da Língua Inglesa).
In some instances we have been unable to trace the owners of the pictures used here, and we would appreciate any information that would enable us to do so.

segunda-feira, 26 de março de 2012

[American Idioms] O que significa “Hit the sack” em inglês?

Às vezes trabalhamos tanto que precisamos de alguns momentos para descansar. Depois de mais um longo dia de trabalho árduo, estou aqui mais uma vez para postar mais uma das dicas da Língua Inglesa. Nesse caso; uma expressão idiomática. Ando muito ocupado ultimamente, por isso, as postagens diminuíram bastante.

Mesmo com um número mais reduzido de dicas, o blog mantem sua média de 300 acessos todos os dias. Agradecemos e segue mais uma expressão idiomática americana. 


Você sabe o significado de “hit the sack”?


Leiam:


BRYAN: Ok, it is getting very late; let’s hit the sack before it gets too dark.

[tudo bem. Está ficando muito tarde; vamos dormer antes que fique muito escuro].

JOSEPH: you’re right. I’m really tired. Let’s hit the sack!

[tem razão. Estou muito cansado. Vamos dormir.]



Conteúdo extra:

Mais uma expressão regional no PORTAL DA LÍNGUA INGLESA. Lembro que o objetivo é divulgar as diversas formas de falar a nossa língua portuguesa. Essas formas só servem para provar o quão rico é o nosso idioma. Se você quiser ajudar enviando dicas, fique a vontade.

Você sabe o que significa “Filé de borboleta”? (Fonte: Dicionário de Potiguês de Kadmo Donato. 3ª edição.) Se você é de outra região do Brasil ou de qualquer outro país lusófono, pode até achar entranho, mas no Rio Grande do Norte usa-se essa expressão corriqueiramente.

Leiam:

José: Pedro tá muito magro. Parece que não tá mais comendo direito. Vou falar com ele.

José: diga ai, filé de borboleta. Como estão as coisas?

Pedro: Tudo bem. E com você?



...

Filé de borboleta = alguém muito magro.

Curtam nossa página no Facebook. (Blog Portal da Língua Inglesa).
In some instances we have been unable to trace the owners of the pictures used here, and we would appreciate any information that would enable us to do so.

domingo, 18 de março de 2012

The Green Designer

David Trubridge presented his installation “Icarus: Freedom in Balance” at this year’s Design Week in Milan:


David Trubridge (Standard British accent): [VIDEO HERE]



This whole installation is based on the story of Icarus, who was helped to escape from Crete by his father, who made wings for him to fly with, and when he took off, he said, “Don’t fly too high because the sun will melt the wax on the wings. Unfortunately, Icarus got carried away, flew too high and crashed. So the moral of the story is… is: “Take the technology we’ve got, use it and enjoy it, and make the most of it, but don’t get carried away and allow the sun to get too hot.” So we have the wings which Icarus flew with, and we have the sun here creating the heat in the middle. The sun… which we call… this light, we call “Sola,” is made from hooped pine plywood, the inside is painted orange, to make it glow like the sun, there are 60 identical shapes cut out here which fit together, to create the… the globe form of the sun.


Although he was born in Britain, David Trubridge lives and works in New Zealand. He talked about the unusual evolution of the country’s wildlife:

David Trubridge:

New Zealand was the only land mass that had no mammals. There was a small bat that used to live there, which technically is a mammal, but, apart from that, there were absolutely no mammals, there was just birds there. And because there were no predators the birds developed this… this very free lifestyle where they could nest and walk around on the ground and actually didn’t need to fly and a lot of them lost the ability to fly and it was this kind of this wonderful birdland until humans arrived and with them they brought dogs and stoats and cats and all these other horrible things that eat birds and birds’ eggs and so, as a result, New Zealand has had the highest extinction rate of… of creatures in any other… more than any other part of the world, as a result of that. So a lot of those very helpless, flightless birds have all been wiped out by... by introduced predators. So the Maori… to… to the Maori, who were the first inhabitants there, the birds are really, really important, they call them the “Kaitiaki,” “the Guardians,” because they would fly, keep watch over everybody and they were also the link between terrestrial humans and the heavens and the gods, they were somewhere in there between, so they saw them as this kind of intermediary.
 

As is already evident, David Trubridge is a committed environmentalist:

David Trubridge:

I read recently that they’ve just discovered that… that… that the… the farming of animals, whether it’s for dairy or for… for meat, is actually causing… is a far greater contributor to global warming than had previously been thought. They now reckon that it’s actually 50 per cent of global warming is caused by the farming of animals: more than cars, electricity generation, nuclear power stations, everything put together, it’s farming of animals. Stop eating meat, and you can do more than anything. So… so, in that sense, food plays a crucial role. And, of course, if you’re buying a local food from a market without all the packaging, the plastic wrapping that you need to transport things, distances, then that’s going to make an enormous difference as well.

David Trubridge is also a vegetarian:
 

David Trubridge:

To produce the volume of meat that we’re getting now requires factory farms. Traditional farming in… in the kind of… in the permaculture way, or… or just traditional small-scale farms, have animals as part of that system, so that they would… they would use the animals to fertilise the fields and they’d use the meat from the animals and the milk from the cows and there’d be a kind of circle going around there which would be sustainable. The problem is now that the… that the cows have been taken out of that environment and put into their own sole environment of vast polluting factories, where… where the waste coming out of those farms is far too much to be used locally, in the way it was traditionally, and they can’t get rid of it. America has cleaned up its air, but its rivers are dirtier than ever because of farming, not because of industry. And all those forests that have been cut down in South America to grow soy beans to feed the cattle because there isn’t enough grass because there are so many of them. The amount of land that’s required to create one steak – and I can’t remember the figures – but it’s vastly, vastly more than the amount of land required to feed… to produce the same amount of food as a vegetarian. And we don’t have the land any more, we don’t have the water. The amount of water that’s being used for all those cattle in America… I mean, we’re running out of water rapidly and we don’t need to use that much water for farming, but the biggest thing about farming is… is oil. Every single aspect of farming is based on oil, from the extraction of the fertiliser, the shipping of the fertiliser, the spreading of the fertiliser, the spreading of the seed, the harrowing of the land, the extraction of the food from the land, whether it’s vegetables… or whatever, the transportation to the supermarkets, the packaging and the maintaining of the supermarkets. Every part of that process is… is using oil. And when oil runs out… 


(David Trubridge was talking to Mark Worden)

sábado, 17 de março de 2012

Learning English from Cartoons: Saint Patrick's Day!



Today is Saint Patrick's Day and The Cagle Post has a selection of cartoons on that theme. This one is by Chris Weyant from The Hill.

A hiker is speaking to a leprechaun, which is a type of fairy in Irish folklore, usually taking the form of an old man, clad in a red or green coat. Legend has it that leprechauns spend all their time busily making shoes, and store away all their coins in a hidden pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

The man asks the leprechaun if he can get a full tank of gas instead of the pot of gold.

EXPLANATION

The cartoon is a comment on the soaring price of gasoline in the USA, which has seen a 32-cent jump in the past month, and now averages $3.83 nationwide. 

LANGUAGE NOTES

1. In American English, gas is short for gasoline, the fuel which is used to drive motor vehicles. In Britain, people use the word petrol.

2. "Any chance" is an informal way of saying "Is there any chance...", i.e., "Is there any possibility..."

• Any chance of a lift? 

• Any chance you might be seeing Tom?



from: http://www.englishblog.com/


PORTAL DA LÍNGUA INGLESA has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of URLs for external or third-partly internet websites referred to in this post, and does not guarantee that any context on such websites are, or will remain, accurate or appropriate.
In some instances, I have been unable to trace the owners of the pictures used here; therefore, I would appreciate any information that would enable me to do so. Thank you very much.
Is something important missing? Report an error or suggest an improvement. Please, I strive for accuracy and fairness. If you see something that doesn't look right, contact me!
Did you spot a typo?
Do you have any tips or examples to improve this page?
Do you disagree with something on this page?

Use one of your social-media accounts to share this page:

Saint Patrick's Day!


Nascido na Bretanha Romana, Patrick, com apenas 16 anos, foi sequestrado por um grupo de bárbaros e trazido até a Irlanda onde ele foi mantido como escravo. Nesta época ele trabalhava como pastor na Slemish Mountain no Condado de Antrim.


Depois de 6 anos trabalhando na Ilha Esmeralda, Patrick teve um sonho com um anjo que lhe disse para escapar daqui. Determinado ele seguiu para a França onde se dedicou aos estudos religiosos. Há uma versão na qual o anjo disse para ele retornar à Irlanda como missionário, mas isto não é o ponto central, o mais importante é que depois de se tornar Bispo, Patrick voltou à Ilha Esmeralda para difundir o cristianismo.



Em Tara (próximo a Newgrange) lugar central dos Grandes Reis da Irlanda, Patrick utilizou as três folhas do trevo e explicou a Santa Trindade – Pai, Filho e Espírito Santo – para os druidas e para o Rei, assim Patrick obteve permissão para continuar com sua missão.



Muitas pessoas acreditam que St. Patrick foi o primeiro missionário a chegar à Irlanda em 432, em especial na cidade de Saul no Condado de Down. Ele viajou por toda a ilha convertendo as inúmeras tribos celtas, mostrando a verdade pelos olhos da nova religião e fundando centenas de igrejas até sua morte (entre 463 e 493 D.C.).



Dizem que é dele também a proeza de ter espantado todas as cobras da Irlanda (aliás, você sabia que não há cobras na Irlanda? Pois é…), contudo algumas pessoas argumentam que tudo é uma metáfora e que as cobras seriam as religiões pagãs.




Adaptado do VIDAnaIRLANDA.

quarta-feira, 14 de março de 2012

Dublin, Irlanda por Bruno Coriolano (part II).



Saint Patrick's Day is just around the corner... Are you guys ready????



Next Saturday Irish people celebrate Saint Patrick’s Day and here we have some activities related to this celebration. In this very first activity we present a video about the history behind the myth. We hope you enjoy it.


It's an interview about the history of St. Patrick's Day and St. Patrick himself. The worksheet contains a list of comprehension questions for the video. Your students are supposed to listen and then answer the questions. You may want to pre-teach some of the vocabulary.

Watch the video (HERE).


The speaker is Irish, so it's not so easy to understand him. 



These questions are related to the video “Who was St. Patrick”


1-   Where was St. Patrick from?




2-   After being kidnapped, what did He become?




3-   What did God say to him?




4-   Why did he decide to become a cleric?




5-   Why did he come back to Ireland?




6-   Where did St. Patrick create the 1st Church?





7-   Write about the Legend of the Snakes.





Do you want some more? (HERE)

quinta-feira, 8 de março de 2012

[American Idioms] Como se diz “queimar o filme” em inglês?



Às vezes essas certas situações são muito desagradáveis, mas elas também são corriqueiras nas nossas vidas. Outro dia eu estava passando por ai e ouvi, sem querer, uma conversa ao telefone (a pessoa estava gritando, então suponho que não era um segredo). A mesma estava falando mal de alguma pessoa, ou seja, estava “queimando o filme” de alguém.

Como eu digo “queimar o filme” de alguém em inglês?
Burn the movie? Não.

LEIAM ESSES EXEMPLOS:


“Be careful what you say to him”, John said. “You do not want to burn your bridges, right?”

[“Cuidado com o que diz”, João disse. “Você não quer ‘queimar seu filme, não é?”]

Luiza, who lived in Canada, smiled to the cameras because she did not want to ‘burn her bridges’.

[Luíza, que morava no Canadá, sorriu para as câmeras porque ela não queria queimar o próprio filme.]


Fica ai mais uma dica do blog. Essa postagem marca a visita número 50.000 nesse blog. Esperamos que vocês tenham gostado. Deixem suas opiniões sobre essa postagem. Curtam nossa página no Facebook.

In some instances we have been unable to trace the owners of the pictures used here, and we would appreciate any information that would enable us to do so.

quarta-feira, 7 de março de 2012

Coming up...

Teacher, What’s a Yankee? Well, It Depends…Contextualizing Language Learning

For a long time, as a child, I didn’t know what a “Yankee” was.

Sometimes, as in the phrase “Damn Yankees!” it seemed to refer to the people from the Northern states during the American Civil War. Other times, as in “Yankee thrift” or “Yankee ingenuity,” it seemed to refer to individuals from only New England states, and then still other times seemed to be directed at Americans in general. If I tried to ask an adult what “Yankee” meant, she would usually respond with another question, “Who said it?”, which just further confused me, leaving me with the impression that “Yankee” was something pejorative, something one shouldn’t say. But of course the adults were right in this case: who a “Yankee” is depends on who says it. If the speaker is from within the United States, she probably means someone from the north, probably New England; outside of the United States, and he’s probably referring to Americans in general. To further complicate matters, at one time in history “Yankee” was actually how the American soldiers referred to the British troops, as in the song, “Yankee Doodle Dandy,” which mocked their effeteness. But the context of that particular cultural reference, the American Revolution, has long disappeared.


Much of Language is Context Specific

The question “Where are you from?”also demonstrates the contextualized nature of language in that the answer to this depends on where I am now. If I’m on campus, I’ll reply, “The ESL Department.” If I’m in my hometown, I’ll answer, “The Greenhaven neighborhood.” If I’m in New York, I’ll respond, “California,” and if in Paris, I’ll say, “The U.S.” Mixing the answers up would seem strange, perhaps bizarre (Imagine responding to the copy clerk on campus that you’re from the United States when he asks where you’re from because he needs to know where to direct the copies.) Students should for this reason be taught the contextualized nature of language and how it is based on situation.

What Material Should Be Taught in Teaching Language and Context?

sexta-feira, 2 de março de 2012

Aprendendo inglês em comerciais de TV: Chevrolet Commercial. "Best gift ever!"

One lucky man receives the best graduation gift ever -- or does he? This ad, submitted by 26-year old Long Island resident Zach Borst, was aired during the Super Bowl XLVI, beating out submissions by independent filmmakers from around the world as part of Chevrolet's Route 66 Super Bowl ad contest.
COMMENT







TRANSCRIPT

GRADUATE: A blindfold Mom, really, is this necessary?
MOTHER: Happy graduation, sweetie!
GRADUATE: Aaaaaggggghhhhhh! I can't believe you got me this car! Amazing! Status update: best date of my life. Go on grandma.
MOTHER: Should we tell him?
FATHER: No, let him tire out first.
GRADUATE: Jogger, check out my sweet ride. How can you jog when you can drive?
FATHER: Not yet, he's losing steam. Just let it run its course.
GIRL: Marry me right now!
GRADUATE: I'm so marrying you right now!
GIRL: Mom, we're getting married!
GRADUATE: It's the best day of my life.
FATHER: Hey, Steve. Love the car.
FRIENDS: Best gift ever! Best gift ever!
GRADUATE: I love you guys so much.
GRADUATE: Hey, Mr Johnson just stole my car.



quinta-feira, 1 de março de 2012

Inglês e Meio Ambiente: Qual a diferença entre tempo e clima?

Hoje, temos um pequeno vídeo explicando a diferença entre TEMPO e CLIMA. Como o mesmo é inglês, acreditamos ser essa uma boa oportunidade para praticar o listening. Toda essa postagem foi retirado do site PLANETA ÁGUA.





Tenho observado por aí uma grande confusão entre os termos clima e tempo, e embora já tenha visto pessoas dizendo que ambos correspondem a mesma coisa, eles NÃO são. Clima é diferente de tempo!

A mesma confusão é vista quando pessoas afirmam que um dia frio, ou a presença de neve de alguma forma contradizem o aquecimento global.

O clima corresponde as tendências durante um longo período de tempo da temperatura, pluviosidade, vento, etc. Enquanto tempo é aquilo que está acontecendo   agora mesmo do lado de fora da sua janela.

Para entender melhor isso um informe norueguês publicou um vídeo que ilustra bem o que acontece com o tempo e o clima. Na animação eles correspondem respectivamente a um cachorro e ao seu dono:





Enquanto o dono (clima) caminha por uma rota linear, seu cachorro (tempo) percorre um caminho muito menos previsível. Uma maneira simples de descrever tendência e variação e ótima para ser compartilhada com todos os seus amigos que insistem em negar as mudanças climáticas na primeira esfriada que ocorre.


Retirado de PLANETA ÁGUA.









In some instances we have been unable to trace the owners of the pictures used here, and we would appreciate any information that would enable us to do so.