Today’s idioms: heads or tails, can't make head or tail of it and it's a toss-up.

Suppose you are stuck in a dead-end and boring job but you have done it for years and you can’t really imagine your life without having a friendly chat with your colleagues and going through your regular work routine. On the one hand, you are yearning for changes, but on the other hand, it is hard to leave behind something that has been part of your life for such a long time. How would you go about deciding whether to stay or to hand in notice? Why not flip a coin: heads or tails? If it comes up heads, you will quit. If it comes up tails, you will stay and put off taking this life-changing decision till next year.

Which side of the coin is heads and which is tails? It doesn't take a rocket scientist to work it out. Most coins have a side that shows the head of some prominent person. For example, all British coins have had a profile of the current monarch’s head since the 17th century and the most outstanding US presidents have been selected by Congress to appear on American coins.

The practice of flipping a coin to make a choice has resulted in the appearance of two more idioms: I can’t make head or tail of it and it’s a toss-up. When you throw a coin in the air, you get a simple solution to the dilemma you are caught in. If the situation is extremely confusing and you don’t understand a thing, you say I can’t make head or tail of it suggesting that it is not as easy as flipping a coin and getting an answer to your question within seconds.

When you are asked whether you would like to go to Paris or to Vienna for Christmas, you say It’s a toss-up… because both cities are so beautiful and enticing that only tossing a coin up can help you decide which of them you will visit.

Commonly confused words: concept or conception?

For most of us happiness is the overriding aim in life but there is one formidable obstacle to achieving it – few of us have a clear CONCEPTION of what happiness is. For Socrates, a famous Greek philosopher, there was an inextricable link between a person’s well-being and knowledge. You can become truly happy once you have rationally examined every aspect of your life and made sense of the world you live in. Socrates is supposed to have said: ‘The unexamined life is not worth living’. Rational examination of your life is all about CONCEPTS. For example, you have chosen the career of a judge in the hope of promoting justice. Whether your decisions as a judge will make you happy or not will hinge on how clearly you have formulated the CONCEPT of justice. However, the answer to the question ‘What is justice?’ may elude you. What method did Socrates suggest for defining CONCEPTS ? Socrates’s mother was a midwife – she helped women to give birth to babies. Socrates compared

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Grammar spot. ARTICLES with nouns in apposition

Which is correct: The President Obama or President Obama? Lionel Messi, a first-class foorball player or Lionel Messi, the first-class foorball player ? The writer Joanne Rowling or W riter Joanne Rowling? Read our post to find it out. Have you ever heard of George Bernard Shaw, THE IRISH PLAYWRIGHT? He wrote more than 50 plays including ‘Pygmalion’ and is the only man in history to be awarded both the Nobel Prize and an Oscar. Besides, he had a reputation for being a wit. Anecdotes abound featuring Shaw responding in an amusing and clever way to all sorts of situations he found himself in. Here are some of them: ANECDOTE 1 THE DANCER Isadora Duncan once wrote to George Bernard Shaw suggesting that they should have a child together: “Think of it!” she remarked. “With my body and your brains, what a wonder it would be.” “Yes,” Shaw replied. “But what if it had my body and your brains?” ISADORA DUNCAN ANECDOTE 2 Shaw decided to invite Winston Church

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Grammar alert: Plurals of English nouns with Greek or Latin roots

Is ‘media’ singular or plural? Would it be correct to say: Managerial excellence is an important criteria? Which plural should I use: referenda or referendums? Read our post below to find it out. There is a small group of nouns in English which are of Greek or Latin origin. For example: an analysis, a criterion, a stimulus. These nouns still form plurals in the same way as they did in Latin or Greek. Let us focus on the most common nouns of this type and divide them into 5 groups. Group 1 -is [ ɪ s] ending in the singular -es [i ː z] ending in the plural a crisis crises an analysis analyses Group 2 -on ending in the singular - a ending in the plural a criterion criteria a phenomenon phenomena Group 3 - um in the singular -a in t

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Reading English Books Together

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