A blast from the past...!

Hey everyone, today I am going to publish a lesson from my archives ^_- It's a blast from the past that I wrote way on September 15th, 2008! The reason I chose to publish this blog again is that I last month I thought I should teach about the opposites:

clean<------> dirty
neat <------>messy

Neat means tidy, things are organized and put away. According to the online dictionary it is like, 清楚 (せいそ) in Japanese.

But I felt like I had already talked about them before and when I checked my archives there it was! So I hope you enjoy this old lesson and I will add a few more examples today ^_^ Here we go:

-----------Sept, 15th, 2008-------------------------

Well, it's time to talk about learning some English ^_- today, I am going to go over some useful vocabulary and phrasal verbs that have to do with cleaning.

messy

This is an adjective meaning disorderly, untidy, etc. To me, it is not really dirty, more it is clean but things are all over the place, nothing is put away...

Look at this mess! How did you make our hotel room so messy? We've only been here 2 hours!?!?!

Wow, two hours after straightening up my room and it's already messy~!

dirty

This adjectives means the opposite of clean, there is dirt present... so to me, it is stronger than messy.

Billy was playing in the park, he got his clothes really dirty!

Kids' hands are almost always dirty...

clean up

This phrasal verb is telling you, make something or somewhere clean. You put things away and also get rid of any dirt.

Sorry guys, I can't go out tonight I have to clean up my room.

If I clean up my room once a week I get my allowance ^_^

tidy up

This phrasal verb goes with messy; "you have to tidy up your messy room". It means, to put away things, to organize them. Like Katadzukeru(片付ける,かたづける) in Japanese. It does not really mean getting out the mop and cleaning in a serious way... it is a more casual kind of cleaning.

Oh! My girlfriend just called, she's coming over. Hurry, help me tidy up!

Just give me 2 minutes to tidy up before you come in.

straighten up

This phrasal verb is very similar to tidy up, the main difference is that it is more formal and a bit of a higher level expression.

Smith, straighten up your office! Our clients will be here any minute!!!

I have to straighten up my room, this sucks!

Alright, I think that is it for now. If you have any questions, thoughts, comments or ideas for a lesson let me know!

Phil