Jetshing's Blog

The three words??mentioned have similar, overlapping meanings, but we use them in slightly different ways. See if you can work out what they are by looking at these example sentences: Do you enjoy travel? I love to travel. We???re travelling to London by car. Last year Alfie and I went on an amazing tour of Europe. We went to Rome, Vienna, the Alps and finished in Paris. On my trip to England this summer I aim to try lots of different beers. We have six hours before our connecting flight. Surely we have time for a quick shopping trip in town? The trip to the hospital was short but nerve-wracking. 1)Trip and journey are practically synonymous. Trip is more colloquial and used to be a slang word 150 years ago. Examples: He made a trip to China. He made a … Read entire article »

First of all, to make the difference between ‘under’ and ‘below’. Both of these words can mean ‘in a lower position than’, so there’s a sense in which they mean the same thing. But we use them sometimes in different circumstances, for example, if you’re talking about something being covered by something, we use ‘under’. So, ‘I hid the key under a rock’. Or, ‘officials said there was nothing under President Bush’s jacket’. You use ‘below’ when you’re talking about something that’s not physically immediately under, or not necessarily immediately under. So you say, ‘below the surface of the water’. That might be anywhere below the surface of the water, not necessarily just touching it. Or, ‘twenty miles below the earth’s surface’, definitely not immediately under it. And, by extension, we … Read entire article »

???in my hand??? has the straightforward, literal meaning that something is physically inside my hand, that I am holding something. However, the two phrases that you mention, namely ???at hand??? and ???in hand???, have metaphorical, rather than literal, meanings. If you have something at hand, you have something conveniently near you. This something might be a book, a tool or a piece of information. For example: Make sure the safety equipment is at hand when you start working, in case there are any problems. I don???t have Sarah???s number at hand, so I???ll tell you it later. We can actually use the phrase to hand with the same meaning, as in this example. Can you tell me how many items we sold last month? I???m afraid I haven???t got that information to hand. Can I tell … Read entire article »