Gingerbread
I will send out some handy tips and useful exercises for adults learning to navigate and use the English language each week. Please feel free to share this newsletter with friends and colleagues.
‘Tis the season for yummy things made of sugar and spices. I love gingerbread cookies, cakes, and houses. So, this week’s newsletter will take a deep dive into all things gingerbread.
And I had but one penny in the world, thou should’st have it to buy gingerbread.
—William Shakespeare, “Love’s Labor’s Lost”
Listening Tip
Language Level – B2
For the bakers out there, here is a video to guide you through making your own gingerbread cookies. Turn on the CC to read along as well.
Grammar Tip
Language Level – B1
We use quantifiers before nouns when we want to give information about the number or amount of something.
For countable nouns we use: both, each, either, a number of, few, a few, fewer, neither, several, a couple of, hundreds of, thousands of, millions of
Example: You have a couple of minutes to finish the exercise.
For uncountable nouns we use: a little, little, less, much, a bit of, an amount of, a great deal of, a good deal of
Example: The criminal had a large amount of cash on him.
We use these quantifiers for either countable or uncountable nouns: all, any, enough, a lot of, lots of, more, most, no, none of, some, plenty of, heaps of, a load of, loads of, tons of
Example: None of the boys could speak English.
Tips:
We use few to emphasize that there is a lack of something and a few to mean enough of something:
- There were few people at the party so we left right away. (= a lack of people/not enough people)
- There were a few people at the party so we decided to stay. (= some people)
We use little to emphasize that there is a lack of something and a little to mean enough of something:
- Hurry up! There’s little time left. (= a lack of time/not enough time)
- We have a little time left, so let’s continue our conversation. (= some time/enough time)
Let’s Practice!
Complete each sentence with an appropriate quantifier:
- There’s no need to hurry. We have______ time left.
- I’m sorry, I have very_______coins on me. I’ll have to get some more change.
- Thanks for inviting us to your party. We had______fun.
- We’re still hungry. They served us very______food on the plane.
- It’s going to get cold this winter, so I suggest you buy________sweaters.
- After taking a shower, I got dressed and had_______slices of toast for breakfast.
- I like milk in my coffee, but I don’t take _______sugar.
- Jack was so bored at the party last night. He had________ fun.
Vocabulary Tip
Language Level – B2
We continue to add to our vocabulary words from the Oxford 3000.
A list of 3000 words someone should know if they are taking the CEFR (Common European Framework Reference) language tests.
- Evil (adj, n)
- Examination (n)
- Excuse (n,v)
- Executive (n, adj)
- Existence (n)
- Expectation (n)
- Expense (n)
- Exploration (n)
- Expose (v)
- Extend (v)
Use this quizlet to study this vocabulary (it’s free!)
Each week new words are added to the same quizlet, so all of the B2 level words will be in one list for practice.
Writing Tip
Language Level – B2
Use the vocabulary words to practice your writing skills and use each word in a sentence. Check your spelling and punctuation and make sure you have a subject and verb in every sentence.
Reading Tip
Language Level – B2
Gingerbread is a baked sweet containing ginger and sometimes cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, cardamom, and anise, and sweetened with any combination of brown sugar, molasses, light or dark corn syrup, or honey.
Gingerbread can take the shape of thin, crisp cookies like snaps, Polish pierniczki, Czech pernik, Russian pryaniki, Croatian licitars, Scandinavian pepparkakor, and Dutch speculaas cut into hearts or other fanciful shapes.
Gingerbread also can be a dark, spicy cake-like Polish piernik or an American version served, sometimes, with lemon glaze.
Finish reading the article here: https://www.thespruceeats.com/the-history-of-gingerbread-1135954
Weekly Challenge
Language Level – B1
Asheville, North Carolina, hosts the annual National Gingerbread House competition. Explore this website to learn more about this beautiful American city and the competition:
https://www.exploreasheville.com/article/2024-national-gingerbread-house-competition-omni-grove-park-inn-reimagined-gingerbread
Questions?
