To boost & to boot

Pronunciation is one of the important factors in successful verbal communication as you will see from the explanations that follow. What would happen if you forgot to voice the 's' sound in the word 'boost" as we tend to do?

Here is the headline, which has led to today's topic: Gold glitters as dollar's slide boosts demand

"To boost", a verb, is to increase or improve something.

The ship captain allowed fresh meat to be cooked for the crew instead of dried portions to boost their morale.

 But when you "boost someone or something" for what they have done, you praise them to make them more well-known or popular.

His breakthrough research was boosted in a medical journal recently.

The noun "a boost", also spelled the same, is the fact of something being boosted.

The new PR plan will definitely give a boost to the image of the new education reform.

And this new PR plan in the above example is called "a booster" because it boosts (improves or promotes) the other thing, which in this case it is the image of the educational reform.

A booster is also an additional small amount of drug given to strengthen the effect of the one given before, such as a vaccine booster.

Our vet always mails us a reminder for our cat's booster.

Now what about "boot"? The noun "boot" refers to the kind of footwear that covers up the lower part of your leg. But if you get "the boot" you lose your job because you have done something wrong.

The coach got the boot because he could not bring our team through to the finals.

The boot of a car is a covered space at the back or the front where we keep our luggage and things.

Can you put these boxes in the boot for me? Here's the car key.

And what's it like when the boot (shoe) is on the other foot? This expression means that the situation is now the opposite to what it was, especially because the weaker of the two now has more power than the person who had the greater power in the beginning.

Who will you side with now since the boot is on the other foot?

And you can see now what I mean when I made a point at the beginning about the mispronunciation between the two words.

And "Gold glitters as dollar's slide boosts demand" means "gold is more attractive (to buy) because the drop in the value of the dollar has increased demand.

Complete the sentences using the expressions explained

1. Her first cook book was a great success and was ...... in the biggest health food magazine in Asia.

2. The boss' promise to give everybody a 20-per-cent raise is a real confidence ...... .

3. Napalai took a private English course to ......her confidence in speaking before attending a seminar overseas.

4. Paul was always very condescending to John; but since John got promoted to the higher position ...... .

5.Adrian got ...... because he leaked the boss' relationship with his secretary to his wife.

Answers: 1. boosted, 2. booster, 3. boost, 4. the boot is on the other foot, 5. the boot

By Parnsap Yomanage