Idioms Part 1 (Transport) Practice Games

I will be publishing a series on idioms with corresponding interactive games for practice! So, watch this space, and don't miss the boat!

To start off, here's one on transport idioms. If you aren't sure of the answers, that's an excuse to write!

Be sure to check out the rest in this series:

All posts with the label "idioms".

Electric, Electrical or Electronic?

Why do we say an electric shaver but an electrical engineer?

Although most native speakers use electric, electrical and electronic correctly most of the time, chances are that they will find it hard to tell you why! So, it's hardly surprising that non-native speakers sometimes make mistakes on these.

Electric refers to things that use electricity in order to make them work. Examples are an electric guitar, an electric blanket, an electric iron. The IEEE Standard Dictionary of Electrical and Electronics Terms defines electric as "containing, producing, arising from, actuated by or carrying electricity."

Electrical refers to things that are powered by electricity, especially when used with general nouns, for example, electrical equipment or electrical appliance. An electric iron is an electrical appliance.

When used in technical contexts to refer to the manufacture or use of electricity, we also use electrical: an electrical engineer, complex electrical wiring.

Electrical is defined as  "relating to, pertaining to, or associated with electricity but not having its properties."

So, the wires may carry electricity, but they themselves are not electrical.

Electronics as a plural noun suggests devices and equipment that use computer chips, transistors or other similar small parts:  James works in a shop selling electronics. As an uncountable noun or an adjective, it refers to the science and technology that uses or produces electronic equipment: He's been in the electronics industry for fifteen years. We have just installed an electronic surveillance system. He's always surrounded by electronic gadgets.

The E we see so much of these days, such as e-mail, E-world, E-books, etc, stands for electronic.

Needs Analysis for Business Students

If you're a business student of mine, please take a few minutes of your time to complete this survey. Click the image below to begin.

It will help me tailor to your needs more accurately. Thank you!

Means of Transport - Interactive Labelling Game

A simple interactive game to test on vocabulary on transport.

Countries & Nationalities - Another Game

Here's another game on countries and nationalities. The clue gives you the nationality and you'll have to find the country on the map.

You may also like these other games on countries:

Countries and Nationalities Arcade Game
The Best Countries
Flags of the World
Capitals of the World
Find these Cities

What do you call a group of...? (Games on animals and collective nouns)

Though 'a group of ladies' or 'a group of dogs', are both grammatically correct, 'group' is rather mundane, and often used when we don't know the collective noun for the object we're referring to. A collective noun is the word we use to refer to a group of things such as people or animals. Words referring to groups of animals are also known as terms of venery, e.g., a pride of lions, a pack of wolves.

Having said that, however, some collective nouns are not commonly used, and are considered fanciful or humorous terms, e.g., a blush of boys or a pity of prisoners, and some words can have more than one valid collective noun, e.g., a cohort/herd/zeal of zebra. Similarly, the same collective noun may be used for different objects, such as a flock of seagulls/sheep/camels/pigeons/etc..

I've created a few games here. The elementary learners can do the animal identification game quite comfortably, and if they are adventurous enough, they can try the others, too.

Identify these animals Part 1

Identify these animals Part 2

What are the collective nouns for these animals Part 1?

What are the collective nouns for these animals Part 2?

Chemical Elements Symbols: Fun Online Games!