The English language can be challenging for first language speakers, let alone those who didn’t grow up with it. It’s all because English has borrowed words from multiple languages and the most confusing are the many pronunciations for the same spelling. Add to that, those same words may also have an entirely different purpose, depending on the context.
‘Shape’ is a classic example.
You can shape up or ship out. In return, you can shape up to someone who’s behaving badly and needs a bonk on the nose. Or you can shape up as in take a shape; transform into or become something or someone else.
You can get bent out of shape by taking offence or becoming angry or agitated. Or of course, something can simply get bent out of shape by, well, bending it out of shape. This is often referred to as banana-shaped.
If you’re in bad shape, you could be poor financially, or in poor health. You can get in shape or get into shape; they both mean to improve your physical fitness and health with exercise and healthy lifestyle choices.
‘Shape’ is a classic example.
You can shape up or ship out. In return, you can shape up to someone who’s behaving badly and needs a bonk on the nose. Or you can shape up as in take a shape; transform into or become something or someone else.
You can get bent out of shape by taking offence or becoming angry or agitated. Or of course, something can simply get bent out of shape by, well, bending it out of shape. This is often referred to as banana-shaped.
If you’re in bad shape, you could be poor financially, or in poor health. You can get in shape or get into shape; they both mean to improve your physical fitness and health with exercise and healthy lifestyle choices.
You might want to be careful who you call pear-shaped because it’s likely their bottom half is somewhat broader than their top. Or they might simply be the victims of everything going very wrong. Of course every woman harbors a desire to be shapely but what sort of shape does that imply when today feminists are critical of body shaping; though retailers apparently are making significant money from shapewear.
Politicians claim to be shaping the future for their constituencies, but very few can shape history. If you want to whip something into shape, you’d be taking the right action to get something or someone into the good condition you would like – from the economy to a student. Alternatively you might want to lick them into shape, though we hope you don’t have to use your tongue, or knock them into shape which might require less effort than whipping.
And just about everyone from writers to artists to architects, entrepreneurs and bureaucrats will describe their current project as taking shape. Of course what shape that may be is debatable.
Something that may measure up to shape may not require a ruler and in days gone by the peak of perfection was termed ship shape and Bristol fashion, not that it was shaped like a ship but rather referring to the British Navy’s rigid rules at its headquarters in Bristol on England’s south coast.
Perhaps the solution to the double entendre is a video-based teacher-training course titled Shaping the Way We Teach English, now available to the entire world.
English has been shaped by many events and as we’ve said at the beginning of this article, has been influenced by many different languages. Probably the key players to changing that shape are students of today. Let’s support their world-shaping influence!
Politicians claim to be shaping the future for their constituencies, but very few can shape history. If you want to whip something into shape, you’d be taking the right action to get something or someone into the good condition you would like – from the economy to a student. Alternatively you might want to lick them into shape, though we hope you don’t have to use your tongue, or knock them into shape which might require less effort than whipping.
And just about everyone from writers to artists to architects, entrepreneurs and bureaucrats will describe their current project as taking shape. Of course what shape that may be is debatable.
Something that may measure up to shape may not require a ruler and in days gone by the peak of perfection was termed ship shape and Bristol fashion, not that it was shaped like a ship but rather referring to the British Navy’s rigid rules at its headquarters in Bristol on England’s south coast.
Perhaps the solution to the double entendre is a video-based teacher-training course titled Shaping the Way We Teach English, now available to the entire world.
English has been shaped by many events and as we’ve said at the beginning of this article, has been influenced by many different languages. Probably the key players to changing that shape are students of today. Let’s support their world-shaping influence!