THE DICTIONARY

Today Saiya asked me what the difference was between glimpse and glance. I started to answer him but soon found that this was impossible for me. I know how to use the words correctly and in the appropriate situations, but I simply could not form the right words to explain the difference between the two! It's like trying to define "the" or "of."

These students are learning English and it's hard! I think the worst enemy of the English-learning student is the Preposition. The most common mistake that I hear coming out of my students' mouths is mixing up these short little two and three-letter words. "I ride in the bus on my way at school." Stuff like that.

p.s. Want to know the difference between glimpse and glance?

"The nouns usually combine with different prepositions: I got a glimpse of her. I took a glance at her. The verbs differ in that glimpse is usually transitive, as in She glimpsed the mountain briefly through the clouds (although very rare intransitive uses also occur, as in She glimpsed at the mountain), whereas glance is almost always intransitive, as in He glanced at her as he went by; The stone glanced off the windshield." (from the Columbia Guide to Standard American English, 1993)

I still don't know either!