by Mia Della Pietra (native New Yorker)
Mia teaches TOEFL Preparation and other courses at NYLC's Upper West Side location. She was born and raised in NYC and lived in Thailand for two years training Muay Thai (Thai boxing) and teaching English. Now she enjoys meeting students from a wide variety of cultures and backgrounds and loves finding the humor in the challenges of learning English. In her free time, she watches mixed martial arts, hangs out with her two cats, and eats as much boxed macaroni and cheese as she can.
Am I missing class, or am I losing class? Am I
learning English, or am I studying English?
These words have similar meanings, but they are not the same! Here are some of the most common verbs I hear
switched by my students, and here’s how you can tell them apart!
Lose /
Miss
These two I hear confused all the time! A good way to remember the difference is that
when you lose something, it is physical, or an object, or an idea. You can lose your keys, you can lose your
place in a line, you can lose your motivation and you can even lose your
mind! But when you miss something, it’s
physically not there. When you miss
class, you are physically not in class.
When you miss your family, your family is physically not with you at the
time. When you lose your keys, your keys
still physically exist! You just don’t
know where. And when you miss your
family, you do actually know where they are, but you are not with them.
Learn /
Study
To answer the earlier question, you are both
learning English and studying English, but there is a distinction between the
two! When you learn something, you have
understood and and now can either use it or explain it. When you study something, you are continually
developing your understanding of it. You
can learn new vocabulary words, and you can learn a new verb tense. But once you had learned that new verb tense,
present continuous for example, you would study it to prepare for a test. You learn a piece of music, and you learn the
names of the different chemical elements when you are at school but you study
music, and you study chemistry.
Hear /
Listen
When you’re in class, you are listening to the
teacher (of course!) But what else can
you hear? You can probably hear cars
outside on the street, an ambulance driving by, the other students turning the
pages of the books, and lots of other sounds as well. If you are listening to something or someone,
you are paying attention to them. If you
hear something, this is just noise that your ears are open to, including what
you are listening to. So listening has
intention, while hearing is passive.
Test yourself!
Choose the correct verb and put it in the correct form!
1.
I always __________ my family when I hear this song. It’s my mother’s favorite singer.
2. What did you say? Sorry, I wasn’t paying attention, I was __________ to music.
3. Today I __________ the difference between passive and active voice in my English class.
4. I can’t find my metrocard! I hope that I haven’t __________ it!
5. For the last few months I have been __________ English in the morning.
6. Can you __________ the birds outside? They’re quite loud today!
