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THE LANGUAGE PAGES
Welcome to the language pages
Over the next dozen or more pages, we give you the opportunity to practise
grammar and vocabulary in an up-to-date context. We start off here with a
column that takes a lighthearted look at English in popular culture.
ENGLISH EXPLAINED
A question of love
Our columnist does enjoy the occasional meal at
McDonald’s — though maybe not enough to bend
the rules of English grammar.
Fotos: privat; WHITE RABBIT 83, Prostock-Studio/Shutterstock.com
MEDIUM US
I cannot remember the very first time I ate at
McDonald’s. However, I do have recollections of eating at the fast-food restaurant when I was a child in
the 1980s. I always got two hamburgers, French fries,
and a Coke. And I remember thinking that Happy
Meal toys were amazing.
Another thing I remember about the McDonald’s
of my childhood is a rather unusual promotion it
once ran. With your purchase, you received a small
record. Yes, a record — a proper one made out of vinyl. And on that record was the “McDonald’s Menu
Song,” a fast-moving tune that listed all the restaurant’s edible offerings. I even remember the first line
of the song: “Big Mac, McDLT, a quarter-pounder
with some cheese, filet-o-fish, a hamburger, a cheeseburger, a Happy Meal.”
The gimmick behind this promotion was that if
the chorus of people singing the song on the record
sang it correctly, in its entirety, without making any
mistakes, you would win a million dollars. Needless
to say, the singers on my record didn’t get through the
song very well at all.
So that was one memorable marketing campaign
back in the day. But McDonald’s also marketed itself,
as it does today, with slogans. In fact, at the time the
famous “Menu” song came out, the company’s slogan was “Mac Tonight,” a play on the widely known
song “Mack the Knife.”
Since the early 2000s, its slogan has been “i’m
lovin’ it.” Well, eating at McDonald’s can indeed
feel joyous at times, but the line (even accepting the
ENGLISH EXPLAINED
lowercase “i” in “i’m”) is grammatically incorrect. It
should really be “I love it.”
Why? “Love” is what’s called a stative verb. Stative verbs express a state, or condition, rather than
an action, and are seldom used in the continuous, or
“-ing,” form. Correct, for example, is “I know where
the nearest McDonald’s is”; definitely not correct is
“I’m knowing where the nearest McDonald’s is.”
That said, in recent years, it has become more and
more popular, especially among American teenagers, to use stative verbs in the continuous form.
It wouldn’t be totally unusual these days to hear a
young person in Philadelphia or New York, for example, say, “I’m needing that new iPhone! It just has
the coolest features.”
The question, of course, is whether McDonald’s is
getting away with using an ungrammatical slogan
because young people no longer feel that the structure is ungrammatical — or whether young people
think the structure is grammatically sound because,
after all, it is used in a slogan you see everywhere. You
might want to think about that the next time you’re
having a Big Mac and loving it.
after all [(Äft&r O:l]
schließlich
,
back in the day
[)bÄk In DE (deI]
,
zu jener Zeit
edible [(edEb&l]
essbar, verzehrbar
,
entirety [In(taI&rti]
Gesamtheit
,
gimmick [(gImIk]
, Gag
joyous [(dZOIEs]
erfreulich
,
memorable
[(memErEb&l]
unvergesslich,
einprägsam
,
offering [(O:fErIN]
Angebot
,
purchase [(p§:tSEs]
, Einkauf
rather than [(rÄD&r DEn]
anstelle, und nicht
,
recollection
[)rekE(lekS&n]
,
Erinnerung
sound [saUnd]
hier: korrekt
,
CHAD SMITH
Originally from New York City, Chad Smith is a
freelance journalist and English teacher who now
lives in Hamburg.
stative [(steItIv]
, Zustandstune [tu:n]
Melodie
,
2/2019 Spotlight
47
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8
7
6
5
3
4
1. fancy sb. [(fÄnsi] UK ifml.
have a crush on sb.
[)hÄv E (krVS Qn] ifml.
2. fall in love with sb.
[)fO:l In (lVv wID],
date sb. [deIt]
3. be jealous of sb.
[bi (dZelEs Ev]
4. propose to sb.
[prE(pEUz tE]
5. get married [get (mÄrid]
6. go on your honeymoon
[)gEU Qn jO: (hVnimu:n]
7. start a family
[)stA:t E (fÄmli]
8. grow old together
[grEU (EUld tE)geDE],
celebrate your golden
wedding anniversary
[)selEbreIt jE )gEUldEn
(wedIN )ÄnI)v§:sEri]
1
2
VOCABULARY
Love and
romance
The 14th of February is
Valentine’s Day. What better
time to talk about love?
ANNA HOCHSIEDER
presents the language of
romance.
MEDIUM PLUS
48
Spotlight 2/2019
Old love, new love
Emma: Sana, congratulations! I just heard you’ve got engaged. When did Rafi pop
the question? Did he get down on one knee? Tell me all about it!
Sana: Well, actually it’s not Rafi. My fiancé’s name is Nasir.
Emma: Oh! I thought you and Rafi were an item. I know for sure he’s got a crush on
you. So, how long have you and Nasir been dating?
Sana: A month or so.
Emma: A month?
Sana: We met online, on a matrimonial site. We’re a 98 per cent match.
Emma: Shouldn’t you get to know him better first? Sean and I lived together for five
years before even thinking about marriage.
Sana: Well, yeah, but then you broke up soon afterwards, didn’t you? Don’t worry.
It’s not an arranged marriage, and he’s not marrying me for my dowry,
either. We’re in love.
Emma: Of course, Sana. I didn’t mean to imply anything. I’m happy for you. I wish
I could find Mr Right. Apart from the odd fling, I’ve been single ever since
my divorce. Whenever I fall in love, it’s either unrequited, or my new boyfriend starts cheating on me after a few weeks. Worse still, he leaves his hair
in the bath and his dirty socks on the floor!
VOCABULARY
Illustration: Martin Haake
Unter www.spotlight-online.de/
teachers/picture-it finden Sie
Übersetzungen und das gesamte
Vocabulary-Archiv.
"What's News" VK.COM/WSNWS
PRACTICE
Now try the exercises on this page to practise talking
about love and romance.
Exercise 1
Exercise 2
E
Order the following lines (A–H) to create a short story.
Number them from one to eight.
Match the phrases on the left (A–F) to those that have
the same meaning on the right (1–6).
A. May. For our honeymoon, we flew to Mauritius. It
was
B. boyfriends. So in the end, we broke up. Apart from
C. We met online and fell in love on our first
A. fancy someone
1. be an item
B. propose to someone
2. have a fling
C. date someone
3. have a crush on
someone
D. have an affair
D. a spring wedding, so we got married the following
E. be unfaithful to
someone
E. date. We got engaged on Valentine’s Day. We
wanted
F. have your first baby
F. the odd fling, I’ve been single ever since.
G. he was terribly jealous of all my previous
H. heaven! We were determined to grow old together.
But
Exercise 3
M
A
Complete the definitions below with words from the
opposite page.
marriage is a marriage for
A. A(n)
which the parents choose their child’s future husband
or wife.
4. pop the question
5. start a family
6. cheat on someone
I’m in love!
Here are some more expressions you can use to talk about being
in love:
To show that you love someone very much, you can say that
you adore a person or that you are devoted to him or her.
If you can’t stop thinking about someone with whom you
are in love, you can say you are infatuated or besotted with
the person or that you are mad or crazy about him / her.
If you are keen on (UK ifml.) or smitten with someone, you
feel strongly attracted to that person.
And finally, if you are lovesick, you spend all your time
thinking about a person you love, but who does not love
you.
⋅
⋅
⋅
⋅
site is a website that connects
B. A(n)
people — from the Indian community in particular —
who are looking for a husband or wife.
love is love that is not returned by
the person to whom you are attracted.
VOCABULARY
[Vn(feITf&l]
,
untreu
arranged
matrimonial
Unrequited
anniversary
dowry
unfaithful
Answers
3.
A.
B.
C.
D.
E.
is money or property that a
E. A
woman’s family gives to her husband when they get
married.
determined [di(t§:mInd]
, fest entschlossen
2.
A–3; B–4; C–1; D–2;
E–6; F–5
is the celebration of the
D. A wedding
number of years since two people have been married.
1.
A–4; B–7; C–1; D–3;
E–2; F–8; G–6; H–5
C.
2/2019 Spotlight
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