Show 802 Wednesday 23 July

Watch today’s show at YouTube or BlipTV.

Hi, I’m Sarah. Welcome to The Daily English Show.

The other day I was watching a video on the internet and I heard someone say this:
I know there are many here who have been loyal since many, many years.

That since should have been for.

It should have been like this: I know there are many here who have been loyal for many, many years.

So what is the difference between for and since?

They both mean how long something has been happening.

For is used for a total period of time, like:
two minutes, five hours, ten years, many, many years, a long time

And since is used for the start of a period. So, it’s a specific time or day.

For example:
5 o’clock, 2006, Tuesday, the 10th of June

Here are some examples:

I’ve been living in Japan for quite a while.
I’ve been living in Japan since 2001.

I’ve been working since 9 o’ clock this morning.
I’ve been working for ten hours.



STICK NEWS

Kia Ora, in Stick News today, according to a survey reported in the New Zealand Herald, 27 percent of New Zealanders clean their shoes with their kitchen sponge.

A survey of more than 1200 New Zealanders has revealed some filthy habits.
According to the results of the survey 27 percent of New Zealanders clean their shoes with the kitchen sponge.
They then return the sponge to the sink for use on dishes and the bench top.
Furthermore, 22 per cent of people wash pet bowls with the kitchen cloth and 39 per cent mop up spills on the kitchen floor with their sponge or cloth before returning it to its home by the sink.
But not all Kiwis are willing to put up with the filth.
Six per cent of respondents said they’d broken up with a partner because of their kitchen hygiene habits.

And that was Stick News for Wednesday 23rd of July.
Kia Ora.



Word of the Day

Today’s word is puku. Puku means stomach in Māori and New Zealand English.
In New Zealand English puku is often used in quite a light hearted way, for example: I think I need to do some more exercise, I’m starting to get a bit of a puku.
One of my favourite books when I was a child was about a boy whose name was Pukunui and he was really fat because he ate too much. But he was really cute and he had a moa for a friend which I thought was pretty cool.
Nui means big, so Pukunui means big stomach.



conversations with sarah
#495 Who is Maui?

Step 1: Repeat Sam’s lines.
Step 2: Read Sam’s lines and talk to Sarah.

Sam What other books did you like when you were a kid?

Sarah We also had these books about Māui, which I really enjoyed.

Sam Who is Māui?

Sarah He’s a character in Māori stories. He does lots of amazing things … like tame the sun and fish up New Zealand but he’s also kind of mean sometimes …

Sam What do you mean?

Sarah Well, in this one book we had, he starved his grandfather, or it might have been his grandmother … so he could steal a jawbone.

Sam Why did he want the jawbone?

Sarah Because it was a magic jawbone. I suppose the point was that he was persistent and he didn’t give up on trying to get what he really wanted … but I just remember thinking it was really mean.

links

today’s news
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10522983

for and since quiz
http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/verbs-m_for-since_quiz.htm