Coinciding with Labour Day this month, our special “Back to Work” edition features common errors at the workplace. Return to the workplace armed with improved English to wow your colleagues!
1. Find out if you’ve been pronouncing ‘ colleague’ wrongly.

Your colleagues are people you work with so often, you ought to get the pronunciation of ‘colleague’ right!

Say cor-league, not ker-lick. Listen to the correct pronunciation of ‘colleague‘.

2. Why ‘revert’ does not mean ‘reply’.

When asking someone to reply to your mail, say “Please get back to me” or “I would appreciate your reply”.

Find out when ‘revert’ is wrongly used.

3. Discover why ‘please kindly’ is actually sarcastic.

If you are asking someone to do something for you, using ‘please’ is polite enough. ‘Kindly’ in  ‘please kindly’ is actually redundant, and not to mention, quite sarcastic. That’s because asking someone to kindly sign forms when they have to do it anyway is not asking for their help at all!

4. What’s the plural form of ‘staff’?

Words like ‘staff’, ‘feedback’ and ‘software’ are collective nouns. This means that staff is used to refer to one employee or all employees. So, don’t use staffs, feedbacks and softwares.

5. Why is a company providing five services not called a services provider? 

What’s wrong with ‘fruits juices’, ‘products placement’ and ‘services provider’? Well, in this case, fruits, products and services are actually used as adjectives and adjectives do not have plural forms. So, it should be ‘fruit juice’, ‘product placement’ and ‘service provider’.

6. Learn why verbs like ‘consider’ prefer to be alone. 

The preposition ‘about’ is not a good match with verbs like ‘consider’, ‘discuss’, ‘mention’ and ‘regarding’. So, just use them solo!

As we celebrate Easter this April, images of rabbits hopping and colourful Easter eggs pop up everywhere. Keep those images in your mind as you nibble on our quiz of Easter-inspired idioms.

Instructions:

1. You will be shown incomplete idioms with a missing word.
2. Choose the correct word.

Meaning:
It means to catch someone when they are not expecting it.

Example:
Tim thought he could skip school by feigning illness, but he was caught on the hop by the principal who spotted him at the arcade.

Did you know?
The hop is a flower used to brew beer. Back in the olden days, hop-picking was an activity that men often had to find an excuse to do. Occasionally, their employers would discover their lies and catch them picking hops, literally.

Reference
http://www.englishdaily626.com/idioms.php?012

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Meaning:  
To become involved in an activity that has gained popularity recently

Example:
I am going to hop on the bandwagon and upgrade my phone to a smart phone.

Did you know?
Circuses used to parade around town on a bandwagon to publicise their shows. Later on, politicians caught on this way of campaigning.

Reference
http://www.idioms4you.com/complete-idioms/hop-on-the-bandwagon.html

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What does ‘Kill the Goose that Lays the Golden Egg’ mean? How do you use it in a sentence?

Meaning:
To get rid of something that is profitable to you

Example:
Tearing down the top attraction in the theme park, “The Haunted House”, would be akin to killing the goose that lays the golden egg.

Did you know?
This idiom originated from Aesop’s Fables, in the tale of a greedy couple killing their goose who laid golden eggs, thinking that they would find more gold inside.

Reference
http://www.englishclub.com/ref/esl/Idioms/K/kill_the_goose_that_lays_the_golden_egg_649.htm

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Meaning:
Extremely angry

Example:
Milly was hopping mad after her sister borrowed her favourite dress and stained it.

Did you know?
One possibility of ‘hopping’ being paired with anger could be that it is an expression of rage similar to stomping off in a rage.

Reference
http://www.studyingonline.eu/idiom-hopping-mad/

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Meaning:  
A situation where you have to be extremely cautious

Example:  
Dealing with the media is like walking on eggshells, anything you say might be interpreted wrongly.

Did you know?
A synonym for ‘walking on eggshells’ is ‘walking on thin ice’.

Reference
http://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/walk-on-eggshells

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Meaning:
This is a piece of advice which means that one should not concentrate all efforts and resources in one area as one could lose everything.

Example:
Mr Tan’s financial adviser urged him to be careful and not put all his eggs in one basket by investing all his money on stocks.

Did you know?
This phrase was said to be first used in the novel “Don Quixote”, where it was written “It is the part of a wise man to keep himself today for tomorrow, and not venture all his eggs in one basket.”

Reference
http://www.goenglish.com/DontPutAllYourEggsInOneBasket.asp

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Meaning:
Savings set aside for future use.

Example:  
Roger worked hard when he was young so that he could retire with a substantial nest egg in his fifties.

Did you know?
This idiom derived from a method of encouraging a hen to lay eggs by putting eggs in her nest.

Reference
http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/255100.html

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Meaning:  
To urge someone to do something that is usually negative

Example:  
His friends kept egging him on, but Daniel refused to steal the watch.

Did you know?
‘Egg’ is actually a variant of ‘edge’, to edge someone forward. Both words are derived from the Old English term ‘eddja’.

Reference
http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/egg-on.html

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