#814 So Vs Such, Twitter, Japan PM Quits

Show 814 Wednesday 3 September
Watch today’s show at YouTube or BlipTV.

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

The other day I was talking to someone from Europe and I noticed that they were using so a lot when they should have been using such.
So I thought that today I’d talk a bit about the difference between so and such.

So and such usually mean the same thing. For example they can both make the meaning of an adjective or an adverb stronger.

Like this:

She’s nice. She’s so nice. She’s a nice person. She’s such a nice person.

You can’t say: She’s such nice.
And you can’t say: She’s so a nice person.

So the meaning of the words is the same, they are just used differently.
In this case, the pattern is: so + adjective.
And in this case, the pattern is: such + adjective + noun.

There are other patterns too, so please study the patterns and try writing some examples yourself. I’ll put some links to some pages where you can practice.

So and Such at a4esl
So and Such at English Page
So and Such at Using English
So and Such at BBC

And why don’t you try writing some comments under this video using so and such?

click here

The site I recommend today is called Twitter.

What is twitter?

Wikipedia says: Twitter is a free social networking and micro-blogging service that allows its users to send and read other users' updates … (which are) up to 140 characters in length.

So it’s micro-blogging … which is like blogging, but not writing as much.
It’s quite a strange website in a way … because people write stuff like exactly what they’re doing at the moment. For example: I am eating a tomato sandwich for lunch. And it’s like, hmm, who cares?
But I think it could be good practice for writing English. You could set yourself a goal, for example: I’m going to write 5 twitter updates about what I’m doing, every day. And it could be good for getting you in the habit of writing English every day.
And it all stays there, of course, so you can look back at what you’ve written in the past and see how your English is improving. And you could also get your teacher or a friend to check out your twitter profile and point out any mistakes.
And if you feel like following me on twitter, I’m tdes, not that I ever write anything interesting … but you never know, I might do, one day.

STICK NEWS

Kia Ora, this is Stick News. Yesterday the Prime Minister of Japan resigned.

Fukuda Yasuo is 72 and has been the prime minister of Japan for less than a year. He’s not very popular. The Associated Press reported the latest poll showed him with only 29 per cent support. Yesterday he decided to quit. LDP secretary general Aso Taro is widely expected to replace Fukuda as the next prime minister of Japan.

And that was Stick News for Wednesday the 3rd of September.
Kia Ora.

Word of the Day

Today’s word is resign.

voluntarily leave a job or position or office

She resigned from her job.
She left her job, means the same thing.
And so does: She quit her job, except that quit usually has a negative connotation – so it sounds like she left because there was a problem.
She was fired from her job, means she had to stop working probably because she did something bad.
If you say: she lost her job, she might not have done something bad, she might have lost her job for another reason.

conversations with sarah
#500 Did you actually buy that?

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

Tiffany Does that say YouTube on your jacket?

Sarah Yeah.

Tiffany YouTube as in the website.

Sarah Yeah.

Tiffany Did you actually buy that?

Sarah No, they sent it to me.

Tiffany Why?

Sarah Because they love me.

Tiffany Seriously, why?

Sarah Because … I participated in something that they were doing.

Tiffany What was that?

Sarah They were asking people to make them videos to give them feedback about the site and so I made one.

Tiffany I still can’t believe you’re wearing a YouTube jacket.

Sarah Why? It’s awesome. I love it. Don’t be jealous!

links

today's news
today's STICK NEWS pictures

music

show start
artist: Boom Tschak
album: Indietronic CCBit.
track: More Chocolate, Please
from: Former Yugoslavia
MySpace

WOD start
artist: DJ iPep's
album: Home Mix 2007
track: Game Toy
from: EVREUX, France
album at Jamendo
artist at Jamendo
artist site

cws start
artist: Wolfgang S.
album: Indietronic CCBit.
track: Dynamite
from: Belgrade, Serbia, Former Yugoslavia
artist site
MySpace

qa start
artist: ioeo
album: triptracks
track: triptrack2
from: Saint Raphael, France
album at Jamendo
artist at Jamendo
artist site

qa bgm
artist: Atomska Sarma
album: Indietronic CCBit.
track: Superbetmen
from: Beograd, Former Yugoslavia
MySpace

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