Mastering English: Vocabulary, Grammar, and Idioms
Essential Vocabulary
- Battle: A situation in which someone is trying very hard to win an argument or deal with a difficult situation.
- Exploit: Something unusual, brave, or entertaining that someone does.
- Feat: Something impressive, often requiring courage.
- Obstacle: A difficulty or problem that prevents you from achieving something.
- Ordeal: An extremely unpleasant experience.
- Trial: An unpleasant or difficult experience that tests you in some way (your patience, your stamina, etc.).
- Struggle: An attempt to do something that takes a lot of effort over a period of time.
- Accomplishment: Something difficult that you succeed in doing, especially after working hard over a period of time.
- Adventure: An exciting, unusual, and sometimes dangerous experience.
- Hurdle: One of several problems that you must solve before you can do something successfully.
- On my own terms: According to the conditions that I choose.
- Embarked: To start something big or important requiring time and effort.
- Set foot on: To enter or visit somewhere, often for the first time when there is something special or unusual about doing this.
- Favorable: Showing that something good will be possible or likely to happen.
- Be on me: This expression means that I/you are responsible for something.
- Go for it: Try something that will be a challenge.
- Let alone: Used for saying that something is even less likely to happen than another unlikely thing.
- Triggers: To cause something to happen, often a reaction or a series of events.
- Get my head around it: To manage to understand something difficult or confusing.
- Turning point: A time when an important change takes place in a situation, especially one that makes it better.
- Grip: To hold tightly with the hand.
- Estate Agent: A person who helps people buy, sell, or rent homes.
- Tutor: A teacher at a college or university.
- Highest-Ranked: Considered the best.
- Heatwaves: A period of time with extremely high temperatures.
- Operating theater: A room in a hospital where doctors perform surgery.
- Caregiver: A person who looks after sick or old people at home.
Synonyms
- Feat = Accomplishment: logro
- Ordeal = Trial: suplicio
- Obstacle = Hurdle: obstáculo
- Exploit = Adventure: experiencias
- Battle = Struggle: batallas
Idioms with “Hope” and “Dream”
- Hope for the best: To hope that something will happen successfully, especially when it seems unlikely.
- Get your hopes up: To be optimistic.
- Never in somebody’s wildest dreams: To say that something has happened in a way somebody did not expect at all.
- Work/Go like a dream: To work very well/to happen without problems, in the way that you had planned.
- In your dreams: To tell somebody that something they are hoping for is not likely to happen.
Grammar
Comparative and Superlative
Before a Comparative
Significantly, ever, a great deal, slightly, far, much, (quite) a lot, barely (any), considerably, a little, nearly (any), a bit, scarcely (any).
After a Comparative
By a long way, by far, by miles.
Before a Superlative
Easily, altogether, simply, much, quite, by far, far and away, hardly.
After a Superlative
Ever, by a long way, by far, by miles.
As…As
Nowhere near as…as, not nearly as…as, not quite as…as.
Past and Present Perfect
- Past simple: Refers to a completed action in the past.
- Present perfect simple: Used when the action is finished.
- Present perfect continuous: Used to describe an action that began in the past and continues in the present or has recently finished.
Idioms of the Day
- Back to the drawing board: To start planning something again because the first plan failed.
- Behind the eight ball: You are in a difficult or uncomfortable situation.
- Fit as a fiddle: You are very healthy, active, and in good health.
- Hard nut to crack: Someone is difficult to convince.
- Carry the day: To be successful in something.
- Go Dutch: To share the cost of something, such as a meal, equally.
- Rule the roost: To be the person who makes all the decisions.
- On the rocks: A relationship experiencing problems.
- On your last legs: To be very tired.
- On the dot: Exactly on the right time; to be punctual.