There are a lot of phrasal verbs with ‘pop’ and most of them have a meaning related to ‘appear’. Here are a few. Pop up Appear suddenly or unexpectedly. A new bookshop has popped up in the town. Pop in/Pop by/Pop round Visit casually and usually quickly. Hello, Mum. I just popped in to see … [Read more…]
Today is a video post. Prefixes can help you understand words from the first few letters. You may also want to read the post on suffixes to help you understand words from their endings.
I’ve posted before about how learning word families can increase your vocabulary, and one of the easiest ways to learn word families is to look at suffixes, or word endings. The word endings give you an idea about the type of word you are looking at. Here are some examples for some of the most … [Read more…]
Describing patterns is harder than a lot of people think. Here are some examples in some of my old photographs. First, I am wearing a plain suit, a checked shirt and a striped tie. The stripes run diagonally. Next, the tunnel is made of a series of semicircular arches. The windows of this building are … [Read more…]
Which of the words in bold mean ‘get better’, ‘go up’, ‘at the top level’, ‘stopped changing’, ‘get worse’ and ‘go down’? Everyone wants to improve their English. They’d like to increase their vocabulary and develop their fluency. Not only that, they’d also like to build upon their existing grammar knowledge. They think about new … [Read more…]
All three words are similar and can confuse even native speakers. Here is a quick guide. Assume is used to guess and it is often, but not always, used to indicate a lack of knowledge about the situation. “I assume he was at the pub because he wasn’t at home last night.” Presume is used … [Read more…]
There are so many verbs of speech and so many ways to make mistakes with them. Here, I’ll look at some different examples. Say This should be easy. Say is often used as said. In direct speech it is PERSON/PEOPLE + said(and comma) + “whatever they said.” Example: He said, “It will rain tomorrow.” It … [Read more…]
Have you ever wondered what characters are talking about when you are watching TV shows or films, when they say things that don’t seem to match the rest of the script. There’s a high chance that it’s a cultural reference. Here are some examples: “Here’s looking at you kid!” Casablanca “Use the force, Luke.” Star … [Read more…]
Music is fantastic. It’s also a great way to study English but sometimes it can be difficult to talk about music. Instruments Most pop, rock, blues and country music is played on guitars, bass, drums and keyboards. The guitar may be an electric guitar plugged into an amplifier or an acoustic guitar. The keyboard may … [Read more…]
This is a suburban town on the outskirts of Tokyo. It is a residential area; there are a lot of houses and apartments. There aren’t many businesses here, but there are some. This is the urban centre of Tokyo. There are a lot of skyscrapers and other large buildings, and the buildings are densely packed … [Read more…]