Dial it back

To dial it/something back is to reduce the amount of it.

You might see this expression in a recipe, for example: "If you don't like it too spicy, just dial back the amount of chill pepper."

Or I might write in an email, "I'm dialling back my business travel for the next few months."

This expression is easy to visualise: you can think of turning a dial to reduce the volume of music. I realize that this pretty analog for today, when you will usually see a slide bar for volume on your iPhone, etc. But back in the day, radios and stereos had a round knob for the volume. You would turn it to the right to make it louder, and to the left to "turn it down."

Autumnal: adjectives of seasons

Autumnal is an adjective to say that something is like Autumn. For example, we might comment that the weather is autumnal; we could also use it for food, clothing, or mood.

I suppose that autumnal could mean very diffident things to different people. For some, autumn is a grey, rainy time of year, whereas other might experience it as vibrant and colourful.

The other seasons also have their adjectives: wintry, summery and springlike.

So, how are things where you are?

In the midst of

In the midst of is pretty much the same as in the middle of, with one important difference.

We say in the midst of about activities, and it means that we're busy doing something at the moment.

Whereas in the middle of can also refer to location, as in "La Boqueria market is in the middle of Barcelona."



Here are a few examples of how they are similar, and how they're different:

You: Hi, do you feel like meeting up?
Your friend: I'd love to, but I'm in the midst of packing.
You: Really? Where are you going?
Your friend: Rio...


Your boss: Are you in the middle of something right now?
You: Not really. What's up?

You: Where's that bookstore you were telling me about last week?
Your colleague: It's right in the middle of town, on College Ave.

So, what are you in the midst of right now?

Summer English idea: Read some comics in English

Hi! I hope you're having a really good summer so far, enjoying whatever means summer to you.

If you're working on improving you English, what about reading some comics?

This will be especially helpful if you can find some of your favorites. Since you've read them in your native language, you'll already be familiar with characters and story lines. This makes learning on the language level much easier!

Here are a couple of links: Yahoo comics and GoComics

Enjoy!

-ism and -ist

-ism usually appears as a suffix, and relates to "a distinctive practice, system, or philosophy, typically a political ideology or an artistic movement."

You can see this in words like feminism (being pro-women's rights), racism (discriminating against people because of their race), etc.

-ist refers to a person who embraces one of these practices or beliefs. Feminist, racist, etc.

In this TED talk, Joi Ito argues against being a futurist (someone who focuses on the future as a means of innovation) and for being a "now-ist".

I found this talk inspiring, and I hope you will too.

A nice surprise

I've been away from Thinking in English for a couple of months, so it's been a very nice surprise to find that people are still visiting and finding something valuable.

It's also been great to read some comments on an earlier post in which I questioned whether or not to continue. Knowing that some of you would like to keep reading is very inspiring!

I'll work on coming up with some new material. Thanks for your great support.

To be or not to be...

The quotation above is probably the most famous one from Shakespeare. It occurs in his play "Hamlet, Prince of Denmark" and expresses Hamlet's questioning of his own existence. In short, he's wondering if life is worth continuing.

This blog is wondering the same thing. To be or not to be? Keep going the same way or change into something else?

If anyone has any input on this, it would certainly be appreciated. Thanks for reading and keeping in touch!

Move the needle

To move the needle is to change something, usually in a positive way. The needle in this case is the indicator which measures something. In the photo here, you can see that the needle is at 120.

We often use this expression in business. For example:

"Our efforts to move the needle with regard to getting new customers in Asia didn't have any effect until we hired a local sales rep to help us."

"The last marketing campaign really moved the needle. Our new sign-ups rose by 18%."

Epic!

Epic can be a noun or an adjective. As a noun, it refers to a long story or poem, usually containing a lot of adventure.

As an an adjective, it can have two meanings. When it describes a story or film, it gives you the sense of an epic: long and full of adventure. But it has also come to mean "really great or amazing." Below you can see some examples:

Advertisement: "Warship II continues the epic tale of the battleship Armageddon and its courageous crew members. Don't miss this thrilling continuation of a story you'll never forget!"

***
You: How was your trip to Paris?

Your friend: Epic! We found this great neighbourhood on Saturday and spent the whole night there!

***
This image comes from Etsy, and you can find the item here.