Lesson 40: Cat overpopulation, toilet study and titanium balls. Jun 29th, 2006

On this show, we discussed the phrasal verb “to catch on”, and the World Cup again, with Bob and Rob teasing each other about the teams and the game itself. We also read some of [bad word] sent in by listeners and tried to deal with some of their questions:

1. adjectival placement- we usually place adjectives in the following order:

evaluation or opinion / appearance (size, shape, condition) / age / colour / origin

so, we may get a sentence like this: “I bought a great big round German table”.
Generally however, we don’t use more than 3 adjectives before a noun. 

For more on this, go here

2. Aint: this is colloquial and it means “aren’t” or “isn’t”. It is only used in informal speech and never written (except perhaps on lyrics for popular songs).

Extra Language
wind someone up (slang): to tease someone
to pull someone’s leg: to play a trick on someone or tease them
drop off: to sleep
ain’t: are not / is not
toot your horn / blow your own [bad word]  to boast, or to show off
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Ancient Japanese English Study Secret
Keep some English study material in the bathroom (toilet)
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PSA: Cat overpopulation
Transcipt: Hey, what are your cats doing?
Oh, they’re working on their addition. It’s not going so well, though.
Mmm, 1+1 = 6, yeah, I see what you mean.
Whoa, what are they doing now? Max! Lucy! Stop that!
They can’t add, but they sure look like they know how to multiply.
One female cat can have 12 kittens a year.
Across Canada this adds up to 150,000 unwanted animals that need new homes
Most won’t find one.
Help solve the pet overpopulation problem. Have your cat spade or neutered.
message from the ….
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Phrasal Verb
“to catch on” has a few meanings:
1) it can mean to [bad word] popular e.g.: Football has really caught on here in Japan over the last 5 years.
2) it can mean to understand something, especially after a long time e.g.: After a while, everybody can catch on to Bob and Rob’s sarcastic sense of humour.
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Bubba Joke
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Both sides of the pond
(US) on the weekend (UK) at the weekend
(US) on a team (UK) in a team
(US) Please write me soon (UK) Please write to me soon
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Song
Alley Cats
By Milk
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