Founded in
Today’s main lesson was long, so we’re going to do a quick and easy expression today. That is, “founded in.” And this is very simple. When an institution was established, it was “founded in” a particular year.
It’s easy to use “founded in.” You just say, “The institution was founded in” and then you say the year. That’s easy. The tricky part is knowing when to use it. I said we use it to describe when an institution was created. Here are some examples of institutions that you can use with the word “founded in”: universities, businesses, hospitals, non-profit organizations, museums, and clubs (including sports teams). You can also say a town, a city, a state, or a country was founded in a given year.
In today’s lesson, I used “founded in” several times. Harvard University was founded in 1636 and the Boston Red Sox baseball team was founded in 1901. Boston Common, a park, was founded in 1634. All of these are examples of institutions: a university, a team, a park. I could have also told you that Boston’s Institute of Contemporary Art, a museum, was founded in 1936. The Boston Public Library was founded in 1848.
Let’s take a closer look at those last two, the ICA and the library. Remember I said we use “founded in” to describe institutions. We don’t use “founded in” to describe buildings. We say a building was “built in” or “constructed in” a given year. For example, you heard that Fenway Park, a stadium, was built in 1912.
When I say that the ICA, a museum, was founded in 1936, and that the library was founded in 1848, I’m not talking about the buildings that host them. I’m talking about the museum and the library as organizations, as institutions. They’ve been in many buildings over the years; the ICA has moved 13 times in its history. The Boston Public Library has 24 branches. But the institutions are the ones founded in 1936 and 1848.
We say “founded in” when we state a year, we say “founded on” when we specify the date. For example, the Boston Public Library was founded on March 18, 1848.
The city of Boston is one of the oldest in America. Boston was founded on September 7, 1630. It’s one of, but not the oldest city in America. The very oldest city in what is today the United States is…drumroll please…St. Augustine, Florida. The city on the Atlantic coast was founded on September 8, 1565.
Quote of the Week
This was a travel lesson, so here’s a travel quote. Joan Didion was a writer and critic; she produced a wide range of writings over the years, from essays to magazine articles to novels. She died on December 23 of last year and in one of her obituaries, I read this quote. It’s about travel.
Before I give you the quote, I need to tell you what a “memento” is. A memento is like a souvenir, or any object that is supposed to remind you of a person, a place, or a time.
Here’s the quote from Joan Didion: “In theory, mementos serve to bring back the moment. In fact they serve only to make clear how inadequately I appreciated the moment when it was here.”
Finally! Someone gets me and how I travel! Every time I go to a new place, people tell me, “Take lots of pictures” and “Remember to bring back a souvenir.” And I’m sorry, but no, I don’t, I don’t want to. I don’t want to walk around a place with my phone out taking tons of pictures and going in and out of stores trying to find the “perfect” memento of a place. For me, it spoils the fun and stresses me out.
I get that most people like to take pictures and buy souvenirs; that’s totally fine and I’m not against it. Everyone should do what they want to do. But I want to not worry about taking pictures and I want to just enjoy the moment. So here is today’s quote again from the late author Joan Didion: “In theory, mementos serve to bring back the moment. In fact they serve only to make clear how inadequately I appreciated the moment when it was here.”
See you next time!
That brings us to the end of today’s lesson, number 432 for January 10, 2022. Remember, you can find the full lesson at PlainEnglish.com/432. The video lesson today is about how to describe proximity with the phrase “nearby.” And as always, we have quizzes, exercises, translated transcripts, and more at PlainEnglish.com/432.
We’ll be back on Thursday with a new lesson. See you then!
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