Hi friends,

Here's what you can choose from in this week's email. As always, just pick and choose whatever interests you the most. Enjoy!

What you can learn from weightlifters
Article of the week: The Harrowing True Storey behind Society of the Snow
Common Misconception explained: Less versus Fewer
Bonus vocabulary

1. How learning about weight training can help you learn English 🏋️‍♂️

I’ve started lifting weights recently in an attempt to be more healthy 💪

As a result, I’ve encountered a concept called ‘progressive overload’ which I think can help you learn English vocabulary.

In the context of resistance training, progressive overload refers to gradually increasing the difficulty of the exercises you are doing.

So if you can lift a 10kg weight for 10 repetitions this week, see if you can do 11 repetitions next week. Then try 12. Once you can lift the weight “easily” for 15 repetitions (reps), increase the weight to 15kg and go back to lifting it for 10 reps.

The guiding principle of progressive overload is that you constantly look to put the muscle you are training under increased pressure by increasing the number of reps, increasing the weight or doing more training sessions. This is what makes the muscle grow bigger and stronger - not continually lifting the same weight for the same number of reps etc.

How does this relate to learning English vocabulary?

It’s one thing to learn the meaning of a word like diminish (reduce in size or quantity). It’s another to be able to use it in a sentence correctly, such as:-

The more you rest, the more the pain will diminish.

However, it’s something else to be able to use that word as:-

part of a fixed phrase
in a conditional sentence
in a modified form (e.g. convert it from a verb into a noun) such as in these examples:-
1. There are diminishing returns from the second cup of coffee of the day.
2. If your savings had been invested in the stock market, they would have diminished less.
3. The diminishment of the army has had terrible consequences.

What is for sure is that if you progressively overload your brain in connection with how to use a new word, your understanding of and ability to use that word flexibly and naturally will massively increase.

The most important thing is that you should progressively overload your brain with the new word.

Don’t choose a word you’ve just learned and try to use it in 3 different conditional sentences. Content yourself with using it correctly in a simple sentence first. Then try writing it in a complex sentence, then as part of a phrasal verb, then in a conditional and so on.

So give progressive overload a try when learning new vocabulary. I’d love to hear how you do it. Just leave a comment below.

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2. Article of the week 📚: The Harrowing True Story behind Society of the Snow

Have you seen Society of the Snow?

It’s a magnificent Spanish film, nominated for Best International Picture at this year's Oscars. It tells the true story of the Uruguayan rugby team whose flight crashed in the Andes mountains in 1972 and the extraordinary lengths to which they went to survive.

This article, from National Geographic, gives some more details of this harrowing story including quotes from some of the survivors.

It’s an interesting companion piece for anyone who’s already seen the movie. If you haven’t, the article might just help you decide whether this film is for you or not.

Highly recommended.

3. Common misconceptions explained 😕: Less versus Fewer

Here’s a misconception that even many native speakers of English don’t get right: when to use ‘less’ versus ‘fewer’?

Both these comparative adjectives mean the same thing: an inferior amount of something. So can you use them interchangeably?

No.

See if you can work out when you should use each one from the following sentences:

There was less milk in the fridge than I realised.
There are fewer parks in this neighbourhood than the next one.

If you need a clue, look at the nouns that each adjective describes.

‘Milk’ is an uncountable noun. It would be incorrect to talk about one milk, two milk etc; we simply talk about more or less milk. For this reason we say “less” milk, not fewer milk.

By contrast, ‘parks’ is a countable noun. It is correct to talk about one park, two parks etc. That’s why we use ‘fewer’ and not ‘less’.

So, to be absolutely clear: we use ‘less’ with uncountable nouns and ‘fewer’ with countable nouns.

To make sure you really understand the difference, have a go at filling in the gaps in these sentences with either ‘less’ or ‘fewer’. Make sure you can identify if the noun in the questions is countable or uncountable.

This line is for shoppers with 10 items or ____________ .
If you get 80% or _________ in the exam, you’ll have to take it again.
If you have __________ than half a tank of fuel, you won’t make it.
If you have __________ than 15 litres, you won’t make it.
Make sure you put _________ salt in the soup next time.

Leave a comment with your answers and I’ll reply.

Don’t forget you can join more than 500 English-language learners who receive a mini-English lesson from me every day on X.

This week, I taught my followers 5 advanced adjectives to describe people.

Are you vivacious? Or are you a little too complacent about your English vocabulary? Follow me to find out!

Have a great week everyone! 😀

Andrew

4 Bonus: did you know the meaning of these words used above?

resistance training (noun) another term for weightlifting

harrowing (adj) acutely distressing

companion piece (noun) a literary or musical piece of work that’s closely related to another

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