Future tense: Be going to vs. Will

We use “be going to” + bare infinitive to indicate

Future plan:            I’m going to have a checkup tomorrow afternoon.

Prediction:              It’s going to rain soon.

We use “will” + bare infinitive to indicate

Promise:                 I’ll call you again.

Offer:                     We will drive you home.

Prediction:              It will probably rain soon.

Prompt decision:    I’ll have my computer checked.

Few/A few, Little/A little

Few/A few are used with plural countable nouns.

•    I have few friends. / I have a few friends.

Little/A little are used with uncountable nouns.

•    I have little money. / I have a little money.

Few/little are negative (= hardly any).

A few/a little are positive (= some).

Much - Many - A Lot Of

All the three words refer to quantity. However, usage varies according to the type of statement and nouns. The following table is the summary.

For example:

•    They have a lot of money.

(“Money” is uncountable noun, and it is in the affirmative statement; therefore, “a lot of” can be used.)

•    I don’t have much/a lot of money.

(“Money” is uncountable noun, and it is in the negative statement; therefore, either “a lot of” or “much” can be used.)

•    There are many/a lot of students in class.

(“Student” is countable noun, and it is in the affirmative statement; therefore, either “many” or “a lot of” can be used.)

•    There aren’t many/a lot of students in class. (“Student” is countable noun, and it is in the negative statement; therefore, either “many” or “a lot of” can be used.)

Some / Any

We can use some and any with both countable and uncountable nouns.
Countable nouns must be made plural when preceded by some or any. For example:

• Are there any students in the classroom?

• There are some students in the classroom.

Uncountable nouns remain singular when preceded by some or any.

• Is there any juice in the fridge?

• There is some juice in the fridge.

Basic uses of some and any

                       Some                                                                Any
1. Affirmatives: I bought some books.           1. Negatives: I didn’t buy any books.
2. Requests: May I have some coffee?           2. General questions:  Do we have any paper left?
3. Offers: Would you like some tea?              3. “No matter who or what”: Any student can do it. 

Vocabulary blog - Economy

Hi everyone!

Today, I’ll discuss some vocabulary related to the economy. You may be familiar with some of these from the news, so don’t hesitate to study more from economic news or newspaper articles.

Economy

• bailout (n.)

- the act of giving money to an organization or a foreign country to help with its financial problem (e.g. Greece has received bailouts from EU countries and the IMF.)

• capitalism (n.)

- an economic system based on private ownership of capital rather than government control (e.g. Capitalism focuses on a free market and individual rights to create prosperity.)

• consolidate (v.)

- to combine things (e.g. The three companies have been consolidated for more capital and investment.)

• deflation (n.)

- a reduction of the general price level of goods or the amount of money in a country’s economic system (e.g. Deflation increases the purchasing power of money.)

• inflation (n.)

- an increase in general price level of goods or the amount of money in a country’s economic system (e.g. Wage rate should be adjusted  to match with current inflation.)

• depression (n.)

- a period when the economy declines and many people are unemployed (e.g. The Great Depression happened in the 1930s.)

• downturn (v.)

- a decline in economic activities (e.g. Many countries around the world have been recently facing an economic downturn.)

• fraudulent (adj.)

- aiming to cheat somebody (e.g. They made fraudulent claims for damages.)

• monopoly (n.)

- the complete control of trade of particular products or services (e.g. In the past, the government had a monopoly on public transportation.)

• subprime (adj.)

- related to the situation where the borrowed money is unlikely to be paid back (e.g. The subprime mortgage was one of the biggest economic problems in the U.S. in the past few years.)

That’s all for today. Hope you learned some new words! See you next time for more words. Bye!

Vocabulary blog - Banking

Hi there!
Hope you are making progress with your test preparations! Today, I’d like to introduce more useful vocabulary related to banking. Let’s check them out!

Banking

• bankrupt (adj./v.)

- being unable to pay debts (e.g. The company was declared bankrupt.)

- to reduce (a person or organisation) to bankruptcy (eg. The strike nearly bankrupted the union.)

• collateral (n.)

- property that you promise to give to somebody if you cannot pay back the money that you borrow (e.g. They put a piece of land up as collateral for bank loan.)

• credit (v./n.)

- to add an amount of money to somebody’s bank account (e.g. Your account has been credited with $4,500.)

- a sum of money paid into a bank account (e.g. You have been paid $4,500 by credit into your account.)

• deposit (v./n.)

- to put money into a bank account (e.g. I had my pay check deposited yesterday.)

- a sum of money paid into a bank account (e.g. You can make deposits at any branch.)

• interest (n.)

- the money that you pay for borrowing money or that you receive when investing money (e.g.  Interest rates have risen by 0.25% this year.)

• loan (v./n.)

- to borrow money from someone (e.g. The bank loaned the money to the company.) 

- the money that a bank lends to somebody (e.g. The company took out a loan for overseas investment.)

• lump sum  (n.)

- an amount of money that is paid at one time (e.g. I have decided to pay a lump sum to get a discount on interest.)

• repayment (n.)

- the act of paying back money such as bank loan (e.g. The loan is due for repayment at the end of the year.)

• withdrawal (n.)

- the act of taking money out of your bank account (e.g. ID card is required for making withdrawals at the bank.)

Hope you find these words helpful for your practice and don’t forget to always keep learning words. See you next time. Bye!

Vocabulary blog - Workplace

Hi there!

I hope you are making progress in learning new words that are helpful for the test. Today, I have some workplace-related words to discuss. I’m pretty sure that you know most if not all of them. Just have another look at them again to review their meaning.

Workplace

• ancillary (adj.)

- providing support to the main work (e.g. We need more ancillary workers to help with cleaning.)

• benefits (n.)

- an advantage provided by the company to employees in addition to normal wage (e.g. Group health insurance is offered as one of the employee’s benefits.)

• colleague (n.)

- a person who you work with (e.g. John went to the conference with his colleagues.)

• dismiss (v.)

- to remove somebody from their job (e.g. He was dismissed from his position for misconduct.)

• labour-intensive (adj.)

- requiring many people or more effort to do (e.g. This task is labour-intensive, so we need to recruit more people.)

• partition (n.)

- a wall which separates each part in an office (e.g. Our offices are separated by glass partitions.)

• punch in/out (v.)

- to record the time when people arrive at/leave from work (e.g. I was late this morning as I punched in at 8.45 a.m.)

• resignation (n.)

- the act of leaving or quitting a job (e.g. He submitted a letter of resignation a few day ago, but it hasn’t been approved yet.)

• stapler (n.)

- a tool used to put staples into paper (e.g. Print all of the documents and use the stapler on my desk.)

• workload (n.)

- the amount of work that has been done (e.g. We need to hire more staff to help with the current workload.)