Go

Source: Speak Up

Standard: British and American accent

Language level: Basic

Go words!

GO! GO! GO!

The English Language loves to take a simple Word and give it multiple meanings. Take go, for example, which doesn’t only mean to leave or travel from  A to B.

We meet a man in the street who complains his car won’t go! That means he can’t start the engine. The man is very angry; in fact, he goes bananas, that is, he becomes crazy. That’s just the beginning: a bomb goes off, or explodes, and yet fires go out, or stop burning. Food goes off, too, but that means it’s rotten. A young man can ask a girl to go out with him (be his girlfriend). They then go steady (have a long term relationship). Unfortunately, things go wrong. The girl goes off with another man (leaves him). So the boyfriend goes to pieces (has a mental breakdown). Yet life goes on (continues), even though it’s touch and go (an uncertain situation) for a while.

BURN, BABY, BURN!

Burn is another example: you burn wood or coal on a fire. The fire burns out when there’s no more wood or coal. Life is very stressful today and many people suffer from burnout: they are so exhausted, they don’t have the energy to go on.

Record companies are also stressed out: they’re losing money because so many people are illegally downloading music from the internet and burning their own CDs.

Finally, a piece of advice: if you are thinking of making big changes in your life, don’t burn your bridges – that is, don’t eliminate the possibility of a return.