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learning English. By tuning in every day of the working week from Monday to Friday, you will slowly but surely start to feel more comfortable and more confident when communicating in English.
So without further ado, let's do as we always do, lots of do's and start with a snapshot of what's to come.
My generous grandmother bestowed onto me an 18 -carat gold pendant.
She told me it had belonged to her mother and that it would keep me safe during my three -month trip to Japan.
I was astonished that she was trusting me with this precious item of jewellery after I clumsily broke the clasp on the last necklace she gave me.
She had engraved my name onto the back of that that one.
My grandma is so sweet.
Okay, without further ado, let's dive into our vocabulary.
Number one, bestow.
Bestow. This is a verb.
Say it with me. Bestow.
Bestow. It's not a brand of gravy.
The brand of gravy is bestow.
Bestow. This is slightly different.
Listen to the stress.
bestow bestow this means to give something as an honor or a present so if i bestow upon you something then i've given you something like a gift or an honor i always think of royalty and aristocracy when i hear this verb because the queen will often bestow something for example you You might say, the queen bestowed upon him the honour of a knighthood.
Okay, so it's a very, it's a very, I don't want to say the word posh, but I'm going to say the word posh because I've said it now.
It's quite a posh word, meaning to give.
So to bestow upon someone something.
Okay, next on our list is a noun and it is clasp.
Say that with me, clasp.
That nice long R vowel in the middle.
Clasp. What is a clasp, Anna?
As a noun, a clasp will refer to a metal device that fastens a belt or a bag or a necklace or a bracelet, perhaps.
So the clasp is the bit that fastens, the little mechanism that fastens it.
okay you might have heard clasp as a verb to clasp something and that means to hold something tightly so think of a clasp as a device that holds for example the dog jumped up at the young woman catching his paw on her bracelet and breaking the clasp i always find the clasp on like necklaces or particularly on bracelets actually quite difficult to do by myself particularly on a bracelet because you're actually holding one hand still as you put the bracelet on that hand and so doing a clasp on a bracelet can be quite tricky you often need someone to come and help you okay number three on the list is pendant
pendant so a pendant as a noun is an item of of jewellery that often hangs around your neck and it consists of a chain and an object.
Okay, so it would be like a necklace that has an object hanging on a chain.
That is a pendant. For example, I want to wear my silver pendant tonight.
It goes nicely with the neckline of my dress.
Next, we have the word engrave. Engrave. This is a verb and it means to cut words or symbols into metal or stone.
So it's like writing permanently on metal or on stone.
Obviously, it's very difficult to write on stone.
I guess you could with a permanent marker.
You could write with ink on it but if you want the symbol or the words that you write to last for a long time then you would engrave you would physically cut the words into the stone now we often have our jewelry engraved if you are bestowing a gift upon a an employee who's worked for your company for a long time you might engrave it with their name and a message and perhaps the date or the the length of time that they've served the company so that they can remember their time and remember what that item signifies i had a ring given to me once that was engraved i mean it's amazing how they can engrave
such a teeny tiny band of metal but i think machines do it mostly now but in the past things were hand engraved i would be terrible at that job because because I'm always making spelling errors.
I can imagine if I was an engraver, I would just lose so much money in materials because I'd have to start again and start again and start again.
But just, yeah, not a good job for me.
So let me give you an example sentence.
We have discovered a watch with the name Edward engraved on the back.
Okay, last on our list is an adjective and the adjective is 18 carat gold.
Now, this basically describes the purity or the finesse of gold or gemstones.
It's like a measurement.
So if I'm going to go and buy a gold pendant or a gold ring you might ask me what carat are you going to you know spend a lot of money and get a really good gold ring so it would be you know a higher carat of gold or is it going to be lower quality lower purity so it would be a lower carat of gold 18 karat gold is quite good I think I'm not an expert when it comes to jewellery but yes it's a measurement for the purity of gold or gemstones now carrot can be spelled with a k or a c in the UK we often use a c carrot but both are acceptable spellings in this country here's an example sentence my husband gave
me an 18 karat gold necklace for our anniversary And there were our five.
I'm going to repeat the list. Repeat them after me.
We had bestow, clasp, pendant, engrave, 18 carat gold.
Bestow means to gift or to give an honour to someone.
Clasp is a noun for a device that holds golds and fastens, things like belts.
A pendant is an item of jewellery that hangs around the neck consisting of a chain and an object.
Engrave is the action of cutting words or symbols into metal or stone and 18 karat gold is an adjective that is a measurement of the purity of gold or gemstones.
Let's listen to our snapshot once again.
My generous grandmother bestowed onto me an 18 -carat gold pendant.
She told me it had belonged to her mother and that it would keep me safe during my three -month trip to Japan.
I was astonished that she was trusting me with this precious item of jewellery after I clumsily broke the clasp on the last necklace she gave me.
She had engraved my name onto the back of that one.
My grandma is so sweet.
eat. Fantastic. So now let's bring all of those words together in a story.
The old woman clasped the pendant in her hand.
It was a simple piece of jewellery made of 18 carat gold and engraved with the initials of her beloved husband.
He had given it to her on their wedding day and she had worn it every day since.
Now as she lay dying she wanted to bestow the pendant on her granddaughter.
She knew that her granddaughter would cherish it as much as she had.
She called her granddaughter to her bedside and handed her the pendant.
This is for you, she said.
I want you to have it.
The granddaughter took the pendant and held it in her hands.
Thank you, she said.
I will never take it off.
The old woman smiled.
I know you won't, she said.
The old woman died a few days later and her granddaughter wore the pendant every day after that and it served as a reminder of her grandmother's love.
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Until next time, take care and goodbye.
