Expressing sympathy

The most common way to show that you are sad for someone when something bad has happened is to use I’m (so) sorry. or I’m sorry to hear … Diana told me about your brother’s accident. I’m so sorry. I heard that Charlie had lost his job, Sara. I’m sorry. Read More

Gill (Jyl) Francis 1945 – 2024

Gill Francis (she later used the spelling Jyl) was one of the pioneering team who worked on the Collins Cobuild English Dictionary (CCED), published in 1995, and led a small team that compiled the Grammar Pattern series published in 1996 and 1998. In this she was… Read More

Talking about your health

After saying hello to someone, especially someone we know, we usually ask about their health, by saying How are you? You can also ask about someone else’s health in the same way. Hello, Jan. How are you? It’s great to see you, Anna. How are you? Hi, Emma, how is… Read More

Pizza, Pasta, Parole

The ninth of February marks World Pizza Day. A day to celebrate that quintessentially Neapolitan dish which has become, er, quintessentially everywhere, but perhaps particularly in the US, where it sometimes morphs into ‘pizza pie’, and in the UK, where it’s become part of our cosmopolitan – some might say… Read More

Learning Italian: Wining and dining

If you want to sample Italian cuisine, be it at a local trattoria, a fancy restaurant or a vinoteca (a wine bar), learning some key phrases in Italian will give you the confidence to chat to the waiter and prepare you for the kind of things they could ask you. Read More