2012/01/14

「doubt」と「suspect」の違いパート2、「allege」の意味


This question came up in class this week, particularly because we ran across the word "allege".

  • run across ~に偶然会う (definition from Eijiro on the Web)
  • allege【他動】〔~が事実だと〕断言{だんげん}する、主張{しゅちょう}する; 《法律》〔証拠がないか提示される前に~を〕申し立てる、陳述{ちんじゅつ}する (definition from Eijiro on the Web)

For example, America and Israel allege Iran is making nuclear weapons.

So someone said:
× America doubts Iran is doing that. <- America thinks Iran is not making nuclear weapons.
○ America suspects Iran is doing that. <- America thinks Iran is making nuclear weapons.
We talked about this difference about one year ago:
http://upgradeenglish.blogspot.com/2011/02/doubtsuspect.html
After this difference was clear, the next question was "what's the difference between 'suspect' and 'allege'?"

"Suspect" means that you think something is true, but "allege" means that you say what you think. First America suspects Iran is making nuclear weapons, then they allege Iran is making nuclear weapons.

America alleges that, but Iran denies it. Either way, I hope that war will not break out.


  • deny 【他動】〔~が事実{じじつ}でないとして〕否定{ひてい}する (definition from Eijiro on the Web)
  • If a war broke out, it would be like hell on earth. 戦争が起こったら、生き地獄を見ることになるだろう。(definition from Eijiro on the Web)


There have to be better ways to solve these problems than fighting.

Last year's radish cakes (大根モチ) (the ones in the post above) didn't turn out great, but this year my skill has increased a lot. Look at this beautiful radish cake! I doubt that I could work in a real Chinese restaurant yet, but I suspect you would think this radish cake is delicious if you tried it. You might allege that I am boasting, though.

  • boast 自慢{じまん}する、誇る、鼻にかける、豪語{ごうご}する (definition from Eijiro on the Web)
Here's the recipe. You can try making it yourself:
http://www.renickbell.net/doku.php?id=luo_bo_gao_recipe

2012/01/10

去年の人気ある検索キーワード


People find our blog looking for all kinds of things.

For example, somebody found our blog while searching for "スキルアップ 英語で". The answer is "improve one's skills", as in "my Japanese reading ability is still really weak. I need to improve my skill at Chinese characters."

Here's the top five English-related search terms that brought people to our blog.

5. because of 使い方
4. look look like 違い
3. パーカー 英語
2. as to as for 違い
1. パプリカ 英語

For "because of", we wrote this blog post: http://upgradeenglish.blogspot.com/2010/08/becausebecause-of.html

The difference between "look" and "look like" was explained here: http://upgradeenglish.blogspot.com/2010/05/looklook-like.html

Like I wrote the other day, the post explaining that パーカー in English is "hoodie" is here: http://upgradeenglish.blogspot.com/2010/01/blog-post_20.html

Distinguishing between "as to" and "as for" was done in this post: http://upgradeenglish.blogspot.com/2009/10/as-toas-for.html

Finally, I talked about peppers (パプリカ) in this post: http://upgradeenglish.blogspot.com/2009/09/blog-post_12.html

The other day, some people commented about the photo I had posted of my self. They said that I looked like a strange gnome.


  • gnome【2名】〔大地{だいち}の精の〕ノーム◆地中に住むとされる伝説上の小人で、伝統的に色鮮やかな、先のとがった丸い帽子をかぶり、ひげを生やした老人の姿で描かれる。ゴブリン(goblin)と異なり、おとなしくまた自然を慈しむとされる。(definition from Eijiro on the Web)

Since they thought I looked strange, they suggested that I put a better picture of myself. Because of that, one student took this picture of me in my hoodie. After taking the picture, she said "you look normal". Maybe you think I still look strange to be wearing the hood indoors!

Did you notice those popular key word searches above? As for peppers, I haven't cooked with them recently. However, because of this post, I have now realized it has been a while since I've eaten green peppers. I think I'll cook such a dish soon. 

2012/01/06

去年の人気があるポスト


Happy New Year!

I hope you all had a pleasant break. I didn't finish reporting about the popular posts from last year before the break, so I want to finish up that before talking about new things.

Among the posts from last year, this one was the third-most viewed: 「久しぶり」は英語で何?

Coming in second place was the post titled "忍耐は美徳である。Patience is a virtue."
  • come in __ place = _位[番]になる◆_には序数が入る。(definition from Eijiro on the Web)
The most popular post was about "the week before last".

Next time, I'll write about what people were searching for in 2011 when they found our posts.

フォロワー