Turn over a new leaf – start a new habit, change my behaviour etc

example: I’m turning over a new leaf, now I’m going to do my homework when I get home from school

Make a new year’s resolution – Make a promise to start a new thing for the New year

example: My New year’s resolution for this year are to do 10 minutes exercise every morning, to read some English every day

Begin afresh – Start again from the beginning

example: I started writing my school project but my teacher didn’t like it, so I began afresh using his comments

Begin how you mean to go on – Start doing something by working in the way you intend to continue.

example: My doctor told me I needed to do exercise. I’ve started doing 10 minutes stretching everyday and I go cycling 3 days a week. I’ve begun how I mean to go on and I’m already feeling better.

A little and often – Do something in small measures but frequently, not one day 2 hours and then no more.

example: John writes 30 minutes twice a day, he prefers to do a little and often to maintain the habit

Get some more ideas from the top articles from 2014

Learn how to put an English HABIT into your life

Thousands of years ago with the beginnings of simple agriculture our distant ancestors started to settle in an area and build houses. These places were usually in areas with good access to agricultural land and with good water. Some grew faster than others, they became more important in their region and started to offer other services to the people from the region. The settlements that grew the fastest were the ones in good strategic locations: river crossing, confluence of rivers, sheltered harbour, the centre of  a valley etc.

With time kings and queens (or their lords, dukes and earls)  started to give permission (Royal Charter) for certain settlements to hold a market where people in the area could take their vegetables, fruit, animals etc to sell. These became market towns.

The church also wanted to spread and organise its influence over the whole country. They allowed some towns to build a cathedral to serve a much larger area (diocese). The diocese each have a bishop who is the “head”  of the churches and parishes in that region. These became the cities.

Criteria for differentiating a City, a Town, a Village and a Hamlet

Over the centuries the criteria for a place having city status has changed.

More body parts vocabulary with HAND

Give somebody a hand

Essentially it means: help somebody

Examples of use:

• Can you give me a hand with this box, please? It’s quite heavy

• Do you understand the homework or do you want me to give you a hand.

Other expressions with HAND

A lot of English expressions come from the vocabulary of body parts.

Here’s another one using HAND

Come in handy (verb)

if something “comes in handy” it means that it is useful for something that you want to do.

•  – I always keep some pasta in the kitchen cupboard, it comes in handy if I want to make a quick meal.

• – Mobile phones come in handy for meeting up with friends when you go out at night

• – A little notebook in my pocket comes in handy for writing my ideas, before I forget.

See also >>> “handy”

Look here for more expressions with HAND

In our series of vocabulary expressions from body parts – two more with HAND

Handy (adj)

Meaning – (1) helpful, useful; (2) close, near, convenient; (3) skillful

1.  I always find a dictionary handy when I’m writing a report.

   A handy expression to use is “Could you speak more slowly, please?”

2.  My house is handy for the shops, they’re only 5 minutes walk away.

   Her mother lives next-door, which is handy for helping with the children.

3.  Roger is very handy around the house, he can fix everything.

   Mary is handy with a sewing machine, she makes all her children’s clothes.

See also “come in handy”

More English expressions and vocabulary with HAND , hands-on

Parts of the body vocabulary are frequently found in idiomatic expressions in English

Here’s another one using HAND:

Hand-me-down (adj)

meaning: used or owned by somebody else before you

often used to refer to clothes; jokes; anecdotes

– When I was little I often used to wear clothes that were hand-me-downs from my older brother.

– I used hand-me-down school books, before they were my uncle’s

More expressions with HAND

Hands-on experience

Hands-on

Hands off

Hand-me-down

Give a hand

Hand in

out of my hands

hand over

hand in hand

Handy

Come in handy

Hands-on (adj)

Involves a person actively participating, active not passive or theoretical.

• – Our company install and set up the machines and then we give hands-on training to all the operators. Each operator has 8 hours practical training on the machines.

Hand-me-down idiomatic expression , handy

Does “luck” play a big part in your life?

Click on these links to learn English vocabulary using the word “luck”

• Do you have Beginner’s Luck?

• With any luck

• One for luck

• Take pot luck

• By a stroke of luck

For more expressions go to Vocabulary Index

Click on these words to see how these expressions are used:

• That’ll be the day

• He’s 60 if he’s a day

• You don’t look a day older than the last time I saw you

• Take a day off

• Every other day

Another one would be:

• Let’s call it a day

We use this when you are tired and don’t want to continue doing something

John     – Have you finished all those reports?

Fred      – All the ones for tomorrow are done.

John     – Ok, let’s call it a day for now. We’ll continue in the morning.