When you give presentations you might need to describe graphs. You also need to describe graphs in TOEFL and IELTS tests sometimes. Bar Charts Let’s look at bar charts first. This is the most common type of graph to appear on tests and in business or news media. It’s normal to compare the figures for … [Read more…]
Some things are so difficult that you need a solution for them. Here are some different words and phrases that can be used to talk about the answer to your problem. answer “One answer to the energy crisis is simply using less energy.” cure “Most of the medical research budget is spent on looking for … [Read more…]
Regrets are difficult for students to talk about. What’s a regret? It’s wishing you could change the past by doing an action you didn’t do or by not doing an action you did do. You can express regrets by using the verb ‘regret’ in the following way. Using a gerund (‘~ing’ verb) and object: “I … [Read more…]
Everybody knows the ordinary ‘I’, ‘we’, ‘you’, and ‘me’ pronouns. However, there are other more colloquial pronouns that native speakers use which can be a little tricky for non-natives. The first-person singular ‘us’ This is pronounced as /uz/ and is used in place of ‘me’. It is used throughout Britain, though not as much in … [Read more…]
Today’s post is about astronomy, the study of the night sky, stars and such. All the pictures come from NASA. Most people know what stars are. The Sun is a star; in fact it is our nearest star. However, there is more to space than stars. Many of these things orbit (travel around) other things. … [Read more…]
This post has the Business English graphic but really, it’s for anybody who needs to use banks in English. Vocabulary open an account When you want to start using a bank you have to open an account, which is a section of a bank database that says how much money you have available. close an … [Read more…]
So many of my students, mainly college students, keep reaching for dictionaries. Every time they see a word they don’t understand or get into a situation where they don’t know the perfect word in English like they do in their first language out comes their smartphone for the dictionary or their Casio Ex-Words. Every language … [Read more…]
The British love to talk about the weather, probably because it’s so changeable in our country. Today, I’m going to give you some weather vocabulary. Sunny If the weather is sunny, we often say that it is bright. If there is going to be a change in the weather, we may also say that there … [Read more…]
Sometimes nouns (words for things) are used as verbs (words for actions). They are rather easy to understand although some of them really get on my nerves due to the fact that there are existing verbs that can be used for the same job. I also prefer the sound of the longer expression of the … [Read more…]
Last week I showed you some phrasal verbs with ‘pop’. Today I’ll show you some phrasal verbs with ‘drop’. Drop off Fall asleep I can never fall asleep at night but I have no problem dropping off in college classes. It takes me an hour before I drop off to sleep at night. Take someone … [Read more…]