Hello! This week on Ask a Teacher, we answer a question from Anora in China about the usage of three similar words.
Question
Dear teacher, I am confused by the three words “zest,” “drive,” and “desire.” I sincerely hope to know their differences.
Answer
Thank you for writing to us, Anora. I’m happy to answer this question.
While “drive” and “desire” can be verbs, in today’s lesson we look at their use as nouns. “Zest” is also a noun.
The words “zest,” “drive,” and “desire” can each describe a state of having strong or positive energy. The three words differ mostly by the words we connect to them.
Prepositions
We usually put the preposition “for” directly after the word “zest.” For example, we can say:
She has a zest for life.
With the nouns “drive” and “desire,” we put the preposition “to” after them, as in these examples:
He really has a drive to succeed.
She has a desire to do good.
Try to memorize words and their prepositions as a unit, such as “a zest for” and “a drive to.” That will help you improve how you use your vocabulary.
Noncount nouns
“Zest” is a noncount noun, so we cannot put the determiner “many” before it. Instead, we can say “so much zest,” “a lot of zest,” or “full of zest.” We also say we can do something “with zest.”
“Drive” is also a noncount noun. As with “zest,” we cannot use the determiner “many” before it.
More details
“Filled with” are words we put before “desire,” as in this example:
From a young age, he was filled with a desire to travel the world.
“Zest” and “drive” can differ slightly in meaning. Zest generally means having a lot of energy and enjoyment connected to activities you do. For example, you can have a lot of zest for playing a sport or for the work you do. But “drive” is more often used to describe a strong desire to reach a goal.
Knowing details about the words we commonly use with the nouns we have been talking about can help you use them correctly. And when you read and listen to English, pay attention to words that are commonly grouped together.
We hope this explanation helps you, Anora. We hope you have a zest for learning new things about English!
Do you have a question about American English? Send us an email at learningenglish@voanews.com.
And that’s Ask a Teacher.
I’m Andrew Smith.
Andrew Smith wrote this lesson for VOA Learning English.
_______________________________________________
Words in This Story
preposition –n. a word that usually connects a noun or pronoun with another part of a sentence, such as with, by, for, to, and the like
unit –n. one thing
vocabulary –n. the words that a person knows how to use in a particular language
determiner –n. a group of words that includes articles, possessive adjectives, demonstratives and others