Words Janaury 2026 Week 4

She does not have dementia. (She is not senile.)

He fell asleep on the train and missed his stop. (He woke up in Hachioji but was supposed to change trains at Tachikawa Station heading for Kabe.)

She emailed me. (Email is used for long messages.)

She texted me. (Texting uses SMS for short messages such as using Line.)

The engineers had to brainstorm to find a solution to the problem. (They had to use their imaginations to put a round device into a square hole on the Apollo 13 spacecraft.)

My right eyelid was swollen. (It was caused by a reaction to the new medicine.)

The doctor prescribed a medicated lotion. (The lotion had special medicine mixed into it.)

I had to leave right away. (I had to leave early.)

She wore a squirrel headpiece. (They were singing songs about animals.)

He is childish. (He acts like a child.)

I have a small jaw. (A small jaw can cause teeth to grow crooked.)

I have partial dentures. (My mother had full dentures when she was in her 50s.)

I put off visiting the dentist for a long time. (Many people hate going to the dentist.)

I told my friend about it. (Don’t say, “I told about it to my friend” because when using the word “told”, the “to” is understood so “told about it to…” is redundant.)

You should read the FAQs first.  (FAQ stand for “frequently asked questions.”)

I trimmed my yuzu tree. (He wanted the branches to be shorter and the shape of the tree to look nice.)

I hurt my arm on the thorns. (Rose bushes, blackberry vines and yuzu trees have thorns.)

I give the fruit to my neighbors and relatives. (Relative refers to people connected to you by blood or marriage, such as aunts, cousins, or parents. Relations describe connections between people or things such as international relations but can also refer to family members.)

I gave him games that use numbers to keep his mind sharp. (He will be hospitalized for a couple of months, so she wanted to keep his brain active.)

She bought some nostalgic sweets. (They visited Kawagoe.)

“May” is used when there is a higher chance of something happening and “might” if there is a smaller chance. (In casual, everyday English, they both mean a 50 percent chance.)

There might be a tie-breaker sumo match. (If two wrestlers have the same win/loss record, they will fight each other to see who the champion of the tournament is.)

There was a contrail behind the plane. (The contrail is the vapor behind the plane that freezes and looks like a cloud.)

The plane flies about four times higher than My Fuji. (Passenger planes fly at about 33,000 to 40,000 feet, or about 10,000 to 12,000 meters above sea level. The temperature at that height is between minus 40 to minus 60 degrees centigrade.)

The company’s profits quadrupled this year.  (The profits this year are about four times greater than last year.)