ESL Blogs

One fine morning, I was checking out my plants and found this caterpillar devouring my caladium plant. I was astonished! How could this thingy, a tiny creature has almost eaten all of the leaves and stems of my plant in the blink of an eye?! Could this be the end of the world? Have we been taken over by aliens? For that I would have to arm myself… Chillax, Robbie!

‘What the heck is wee?’, you might ask. For the love of the English language, let us define this word in an easy peasy way. The adjective ‘wee’ simply means something small or little. It is a Scottish word but it is also used by many English speakers around the globe. I’m sure you have heard this word somewhere. You could use it this way;

• When I was wee, I used to sell plants for my school allowance. (This means when I was little or a child.)

Or

• Look at Roman, he was wee a couple of years ago and now he’s grown up as a six-footer man!

Take note though, its meaning is different if you use ‘wee’ in a phrase like ‘wee hours’ which basically mean the early hours after midnight. So for example;

• Ubbe drank and partied until the wee hours not mindful about his school exam in the morning.

Sometimes, we hear it paired with a noun ‘bit’ as in ‘wee bit’. For example;

• Olga would be a wee bit late in the conference because she has to attend the recital of her daughter. (This means that Olga would arrive a ‘little bit late’ in the conference.)
• Lagertha was a wee bit hungry and decided to drop by in the nearest food chain in Scandinavia.

Have you understood this word already? I really hope so!

Going back to the alien in my garden, I kept it in a container so I could monitor its growth. I would like to observe it a little bit further. I also hope it is another species of butterfly. For the meantime, I’m feeding it with my caladium leaves. It is harsh to my plant but I’m quite sure it will bounce back sooner.

I confess, I do not have the faintest idea what would this become in the coming weeks. Would this morph into a winged creature and eat us? Oh, no… Let us wait and see. I have my axe ready just in case it attacks me, ha ha. Or perhaps I would become a superhero if it bit me.

What do you think? I would be delighted if you could share some information about this wee alien on the comment box below. Thank you for learning with me!