Every month I try to make something easy, healthy, and delicious so that we can all cook and learn new English words together. This month is the Strawberry Avocado Toast. It tastes as delicious as it looks!

My brother-in-law (my husband's younger brother) lives on a beautiful island in Washington State called Whidbey Island. Last weekend, my husband and I took a drive from Seattle to visit him, his wife and meet their newborn baby, Mario (he is so adorable!). They have a beautiful garden with lots of vegetables, fruits, and chickens! We got a bag of delicious produce from them. If you follow me on Instagram, you would have probably seen it! Since we had some strawberries from his garden, I decided to make this super easy Strawberry Avocado Toast recipe. Follow this recipe and learn seven new verbs.

Slice (v.) cut something into pieces, usually into flat thin pieces
Drizzle (v.)pour liquid lightly over something
Soak (v.)place in liquid so it absorbs
Scoop (v.)remove something out with a spoon
Smash (v.) break something into smaller pieces
Spread (v.) layer something on an area
Squeeze (v.) press something together to release liquid or change the shape or make smaller

If you make this recipe or have another similar recipe, please share your delicious work with me!

Have you ever had a computer problem where you work very hard at something but your computer breaks down or fails to save your work? I still remember a time when I was in college, I spent days working on a final research paper. For some reason, just when I was proofreading my work on my computer, something terrible happened and I lost everything! I was so angry at my computer and scared that I wouldn't have time to redo this paper. After wasting a few hours crying, I started it again, stayed up all night, and managed to finish it. At that time it was a very serious and big problem. It was a MAJOR problem. But now when I think back, it was not as serious as I had thought. It was quite MINOR compared to many other things in life.

Can you guess the meaning of MAJOR and MINOR? It distinguishes something between serious or less serious, important or less important.

Let's talk about MAJOR and MINOR as adjectives. Place it in front of nouns to describe whether something is serious or not so serious.
MAJOR = serious, important, great in size (major exam, major sponsor, major client, major storm)
MINOR = not serious, less important (minor headache, minor issue, minor argument)

You might think a MAJOR problem is a terrible haircut, but someone else might think that's just a MINOR problem because hair will grow back in no time. This is an idiom we use to mean very quickly/ very soon ( "Don't worry, you'll feel better in no time.")

MAJOR and MINOR can also be used in the field of education as a noun. A college MAJOR is the main subject that you study in college. It is your main focus or concentration in school. A college MINOR is another subject that you might study in college but is less intensive than your chosen MAJOR. A student could select business as a MAJOR and economics as a MINOR.

Have you ever had a MAJOR problem that other people considered as MINOR?   

My husband and I were recently on a short trip to visit his family and his new nephew who is just two months old. During one of our days there, we stopped at a store for some gelato (Italian ice cream). All the flavors looked delicious and I couldn't decide whether I wanted single scoop, double scoop, or triple scoop. Triple scoop means I could try more flavors than single or double, but it would cost me more. I eventually went for double scoop, which is two scoops. I'm was pretty satisfied with my choice as triple scoop might have been too much for me!

This is another way we can talk about numbers. If you've watched the above clip, you'll understand that "single" means 1, "double" means 2, and "triple" means 3. There are also words for four and above, but are less commonly used (scroll down to the bottom to see all the numbers till 10!)

Some other examples of them being used in real-life:

(1) I only have a single key (meaning: I only have one key)

(2) Could you please double bag my groceries? (meaning: Could you please bag my groceries with two bags?

(3) Listen to my advice if you want to triple your reading speed! (meaning: Listen to my advice if you want to increase your reading speed by three times!)

You might have also seen these being used when talking about accommodations, for example, when booking hotel rooms. There may be single rooms, double rooms, triple rooms, or even quadruple rooms for families. Of course, it's probable that the higher the number of people you want to fit in the hotel room, the higher the cost will be.

Here are some other numbers!

1= single
2= double
3= triple
4= quadruple
5= quintuple
6= sextuple
7= septuple
8= octuple
9= nonuple
10=decuple

Summer is a popular time to get married or plan a marriage proposal. The weather is usually easier to predict and there's plenty of sunshine.

People usually propose marriage with an engagement ring. This confirms their engagement, they then have a wedding to marry each other and become a legal couple. In some cultures, it's not always necessary to propose with a ring first. Sometimes a couple just decides together to get married.

During the time a couple is engaged together, the man is known as a fiancé (masculine) and a woman is a fiancée (feminine). A lot of people get confused between these two words.

A fiancé is a man who is engaged to be married. A fiancée is a woman who is engaged to be married. These are words borrowed from the French language (we call these 'loan words'). Although both words are spelled differently, they are both pronounced in English as either fi-ahn-say or fee-ahn-say. I have heard both of these before.

I'm having some technical difficulties posting the pronunciation for these words so you can listen, but will have it up as soon as possible.
My husband proposed to me in 2011(As you've probably guessed, I said yes!). We were engaged and I became his fiancée and he became my fiancé for about one year. We planned our wedding and were married in November 2012 to become husband and wife! It's still hard to believe that we've been married for almost three years now. It feels just like yesterday!

How long were you a fiancée or fiancé for? Do you have such words in your culture?

 A few days ago I was helping my cousin proofread some of her work. She asked me why we have to use "a woman" instead of  "a women." This is clearly a confusing and easily mistaken part of English because in some languages, such as mandarin, there are no specific nouns to distinguish between one woman or many women.

There are so many singular and plural words in English, but my focus today is just on helping you understand the difference between WOMAN, WOMEN, MAN, MEN.

With one female or male, we always use 'a' - womAn and mAn
With two or more females or males, we use 'e' - womEn and mEn

Also remember to use the correct verb for each noun.
Since it's Father's Day today, I'm going to give an example related to this:
"He is a great man" - singular (uses the verb 'is')
"They are great men" - plural (uses the verb 'are')


Related Lessons:
Jean or Jeans
This or That
English is a Strange Language

Another way we can say this is "pros" and "cons." It basically means the same thing as "the good things" (which are advantages) or "the bad things" (which are disadvantages). Sometimes they may also be used as "for" and "against." This is seen and heard often in debates.

You may sometimes hear these kind of terms used in business or in school. Someone might say, "Let's weigh the pros and cons of having an office party this Friday" or "What are the pros and cons of opening up a new store?" 

There are so many pros and cons to everything in life:
The pros and cons to marriage/ getting a college degree/ buying a dog / buying lottery....

Can you think of any more pros and cons of driving?