Hokudai/Cast 77: Vacation Gone

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Vacation, Vacant, Vacate, and Vacuum are all related. Their root is vacare which is Latin for empty or to empty. A vacation, of course, is when we are free to do what we want; we are empty of responsibilities. American high school students just finished their summer vacation. They started back to school in the first week of September after being free of school for June, July, and August. (But not all of June.)

Vacant is also empty. Vacant is usually used with a house; for example -

"That house is vacant. Nobody lives there." or

"The vacant lot next to my house has a lot of nice trees and flowers."

Another word related to vacant and houses is Vacancy. If you see a sign on a house or apartment that says "Vacancy" it means the house is for rent. It's empty now.

If you need to tell someone to get out of a building you can say, "Please vacate the building." Vacate is a verb that means  leave or make the building empty. 

Finally, we have Vacuum. Of course we use this word when we clean our rooms with a vacuum cleaner. A vacuum cleaner empties a room of dirt. Space, beyond the earth, is sometimes called a vacuum because we sometimes think of it as empty.

Pound Bend by Russ Aimz

We're so happy today 

Passing time in the shade 

There's a blue sky painted above 

It reminds us to give more love 

More love 

More love 

We stand beside the riverside 

I can't deny your air supply you give to me 

You're so tall and slim when we breathe in deep 

We live a little more 

A 360 view of sticks and eucalyptus 

Crisp brown leaves 

Feel the rivers strength push around Pound Bend 

We're so happy today 

Passing time in the shade 

There's a blue sky painted above 

It reminds us to give more love 

More love 

More love 

We stand beside the riverside 

I can't deny your air supply you give to me 

You're so tall and slim when we breathe in deep 

We live a little more 

A 360 view of sticks and eucalyptus 

Crisp brown leaves 

Feel the rivers strength push around Pound Bend 

We're so happy today 

Passing time in the shade 

There's a blue sky painted above 

It reminds us to give more love 

More love 

More love 

More love

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Hokudai/Cast: Your fun-service podcast for learning Japanese, English, and Chinese.