When I go out shopping on the weekend here in Korea I often see the following English signs at new businesses:
Grand Open! (WRONG!)
New Open! (WRONG!)
Renewal Open! (WRONG!)
Unfortunately, these signs are NOT standard English! There is a reason you will not see these signs in the U. S. They are not grammatical. In all of these signs, “Open” is a verb. The only time you see verbs on signs written in English is when the verb is a command, such as “STOP”, “YIELD”, or “WATCH FOR FALLING ROCKS”. Most signs in the U.S. are nouns or adjectives. The signs above should say:
Grand Open –> Grand Opening! [a noun - an event; this store is celebrating a grand opening]
New Open! –> Newly Opened! [adjective - what kind of store; this store is newly opened]
Renewal Open –> Grand Re-opening (after a store has remodeled) [a noun - an event; this store is celebrating a grand re-opening]
Here are a few other signs you might see:
Closed for Remodeling (the store is changing it’s layout)
We Have Moved to ________
Going Out of Business (the store is closing - this is a sign that everything in the store is on sale)
(for the sake of simplicity I only talk about “girlfriends” and “wives” in this post, but everything also applies to “boyfriends” and “husbands” as well)
Many ESL speakers make the mistake of using the verb “make” with girlfriend or wife. English speakers do use the verb “make” when talking about platonic (not romantic) relationships:
It is important to make friends when you move to a new school.
It is difficult to make close friends.
However, we do not use the verb “make” when talking about romantic relationships:
I want to make a girlfriend. (WRONG!)
When will you make a wife? (WRONG!)
Instead, we use the verbs “find” and “get”. (”Find” is more common.)
I need to find a girlfriend.
Where can I find a wife?
It is easy to get a girlfriend, but hard to keep one.
It is hard for some divorced men to get new wives.
“Find” is also sometimes used when talking about platonic friendships.
If you are willing to meet people, you can always find new friends.
There are many questions in English that start with “what do you do?”
What do you do for fun? (What are your hobbies?)
What do you do for exercise? (How do you exercise?)
What do you do after work?
What do you do on the weekend?
All of these questions ask about a person’s habits or routines. However, the most common “what do you do” question is:
What do you do?
This question has a special meaning: what is your job? In my last post, I called phrases like this hidden idioms - common phrases that have been shortened and have a different meaning than expected. (The full phrase is “What do you do for a living?”)
How should you answer this question? The most common answer is to reply with your job title:
I am a professor.
I am a businessman.
I am a hairdresser.
We do NOT say “My job is a professor.“ Another way to answer the question is to describe your job duties:
I teach English at Korea Nazarene University.
I sell accounting software to local businesses.
I cut hair at a salon.
Finally, if you are unemployed, a common euphemism is: “I’m between jobs.”
