You're talking with a coworker at lunch. She complains that she's tired of sitting in front of her computer all day. This reminds you of something you read on the Internet. You say:
I came across an article the other day about how sitting for long periods is supposedly horrible for your health.
You're looking at a website which sells books. You're reading the listing for a book. It says:
This item ships for free!
You're on an online shopping site. You're looking at a listing for a book that's on sale. In the information next to the item, there's a sentence which says:
Only 2 left in stock — order soon!
You're on a website that sells books. There's a button that will allow you to buy a book. It says:
Add to Cart
You read a news article about how much money record companies are losing because people steal music on the Internet. In the comments, some people are saying things against the record companies, but you don't agree with their opinions. You write:
The music industry has been completely crushed by piracy.
Internet, adverb, business, music, written English You're reading a news story that says that Starbucks Coffee stores will allow all their customers to use wireless Internet for free at their stores. While you're reading the story, you share the news with your husband. After getting his attention, you say:
Starbucks announced that they're going to offer free Internet access at all their locations.
To "announce" something means to let people know about it publically. Companies often "announce" things like new products, changes in their policies, good news about their sales, and so on:
The company announced plans to close factories and drop unprofitable product lines.
Companies can "announce" things in writing (with a "press release") or in a public presentation (a "press conference")
You use "going to ___" to talk about what will happen in the future. "Going to ___" is more natural than "will" for most situations where you're expressing someone's plans to do something:
They're going to meet us at the airport.
I'm just going to stay home and relax this weekend.
If you want to give or sell something to people, you first need to tell people that you will give it to them or ask if they want it. This is called "offering" something.
You usually use the word "offer" when the things you're giving or selling are good or exciting:
We're offering 20% off everything in the store, this weekend only.
"Internet access" is the phrase that we use to describe the ability to connect to the Internet. It also explains the services that people use to connect to the Internet:
How much do you pay per month for Internet access in France?
A store or restaurant company that has lots of stores in different places is called a "chain". Each store in the chain is called a "location". For example a representative from such a company could say:
We have over 300 locations across the U.S. and Canada.
You use the word "location" in this way when you're talking about the company as a business. In everyday life, when you want to talk about one store or restaurant in a chain, you just call it a "store" or a "restaurant".
Internet, access, announcements, companies, future You're teaching a group of people about good website design. You show an example of a bad website that you built when you were in college. You want to tell everyone that it wasn't a good website. You say:
This is a perfect example of what not to do when you're building a website.
You're chatting online with a friend of yours. Both of you are interested in technology and Internet-related news. You read some news this morning about an update to Google's "Google Docs" service. You want to talk about this news with your friend. You write:
Did you hear about Google introducing a new version of Docs?
Use this phrase to start a discussion about something that happened in the news or within your social circle. Here's an example of the second type:
Did you hear about Kylie getting engaged? I can't believe it!
You can use "Did you hear about ___" even if you strongly suspect that the listener has heard the news. But not if you know they've heard it.
When the news is someone's action, you use "someone doing something":
Did you hear about them getting arrested?
But you can also replace this part of the phrase with a noun:
Did you hear about the Nuclear Security Summit?
When a company "introduces" a new product, it tells the general public that the product will be available. You can use the phrase "introduced ___" if the product was made available to use, or also if the company just announced that they were going to release the product.
When you make some changes to something, you have created a new "version" of it. For example, if you draw 5 pictures of the same person at around the same time, each picture that you drew was a "version" of that drawing.
In the case of software, companies add new features and fix problems with their software. They release these changes to their customers as a new "version". The new version usually has a new name or a number (like "Microsoft Word 2007", "Adobe Photoshop CS4", etc.).
You think your teenage daughter is lazy because she spends too much time on the computer. You complain to your husband:
All she does is sit around on the Internet all day.
This phrase is used to show that a person only does one thing. It also expresses that you think they should be doing something else instead:
All she does is play video games.
All he does is work!
This means to do things that seem lazy or inactive. Watching TV, using the Internet, eating snacks, talking on the telephone to friends are all activities that can be done while "sitting around".
We use the word "on" to describe using the Internet or using a computer. You can think of it as similar to a train or bus, where you get on and off. If you are using a computer and someone in your family wants you to stop, they might ask:
Can you get off the computer please?
"The Internet" is always "the". You never call it "an Internet" or "Internet".
Internet, children (topic), complaining, determiners, family, lazy, phrasal verb, teenagers, the 