So many students ask me how to tell the difference between the teens (13-19) and multiples of ten (20, 30, 40, etc.) when they are listening or trying to pronounce or intone them correctly. This podcast will help you listen to and pronounce numbers more easily. The quick way to remember them is: thirTEEN and … [Read more…]
A couple of months ago I was teaching a student at a company class in Tokyo. “Can you help me prepare for a meeting tomorrow, please?” she asked. Her company had arranged a meeting with a machine salesman from Korea who spoke no Japanese. My student, an intermediate speaker of English – the best in … [Read more…]
One of the best ways you can study English in a hands on way is through cooking. Think about it: you read a recipe and try to make the dish. If you make a tasty dish, you understood the recipe. If you don’t understand the recipe, you make a mistake and the food tastes bad. … [Read more…]
A lot of people have problems with using transitive verbs correctly. I often hear things like the following errors: I didn’t enjoy. Yes, I like. He needs. The reason these are wrong is that they are transitive verbs. This just means that they need an object to make sense. Some of the biggest sources of … [Read more…]
The words ‘see’, ‘look’ and ‘watch’ are often confused by students of English because they are so similar. Here are a few examples of each one to help you out. See Used for ‘meet’: I’ll see you tomorrow. Instead of ‘meet’ for animals: I saw a nice dog on my walk. Used to mean … [Read more…]
Word cards are one of the most useful ways to study vocabulary, in my experience. You can take them with you easily, and remove cards with known vocabulary from the list so you are studying only what you need. I think it is best to study vocabulary in English only, as much as possible. The … [Read more…]
I believe music is a very important way to study English. You can remember sentences from simple songs. Here are some adverbs of frequency in songs. Not all the songs are my favourites but they are useful. Always Sometimes Never
Today people use email for business and pleasure. It’s slightly different to the traditional letter; it’s occasionally perceived as a little less formal than a letter. However, that doesn’t mean you should ignore the standard form of the letter. In this post I will show you how to improve your email writing. If you want … [Read more…]
One thing a lot of people have problems with when describing time and action relationships is choosing the right preposition. Here is a quick guide. on + date or day I will arrive on 26th September. Could you meet me on Thursday? in + time period, such as seasons, times of day and months Let’s … [Read more…]