How long does it take to really know something or learn something? One way to get good at something is to do it more than once. Repetition leads to “perfection” – or at least, great improvement. It’s the same with learning English. If you want to remember a word, or get more fluent, repeated practice… Read More
Sometimes, a “line” from a film becomes very popular and then everyone starts saying it. Here are ten famous film and movie quotes that have become “catchphrases” – phrases that you hear a lot in conversations. The quotes are from both classic (old) and newer films. Famous Movie Quotes Play it again, Sam. (Casablanca, 1942)In… Read More
English is a very flexible language, and one of the things we can do is to create nouns from verbs (and verbs from nouns!) See here for 25 common phrasal nouns. In this post, I’ve got twelve nouns formed with “down”. Be careful of the spelling – some of these nouns use hyphens. Nouns With… Read More
We use modal auxiliary verbs all the time in English. They’re simple ways to change the “mood” of a sentence and to show how we feel about a situation. For a review of their uses and the grammar, see the page here. But in this post I want to highlight three common modal auxiliaries that… Read More
What activities can you do to stay sane during these times – and how can you talk about these activities naturally? Here are six things that you can do to stay calm, focussed and productive while you’re in lockdown, or quarantine. Check out the phrasal verbs for these activities as well – when you use… Read More
This tense causes maybe the most problems in English. It’s very easy to confuse it with other tenses – particularly the Past Simple and the Present Continuous. So if you aren’t sure which tense to use, this quick review can help. The Present Perfect is a present tense Because we use the Present Perfect to… Read More
Animals represent different things in British culture, and we use them as symbols in advertising, films and television. Here’s a list of seven popular animals in British culture – and an explanation of what they mean to native speakers. The Easter Bunny “Bunny” is a popular word for “rabbit”, and we often say “bunny rabbit”… Read More
After three months at home (where we can only go out for essential food shopping, or exercise) we probably won’t look our best! Many of us go to the hairdresser every couple of months – but we might also have to miss non-essential dental appointments. Here are some of the things that we might rush… Read More
If you’re self-isolating at home, you probably feel a little bored and anxious. But there are ways to stay “sane” when the world is changing every second. In fact, there’s a lot you can do now, so that when we’re finally finished with the pandemic, you’ll be ready to face the world again! Here are… Read More
There are many words which start with the prefix “self”. We use the prefix “self” before nouns and adjectives, and it means “related to yourself” or “related to itself”. For example, “self-care” means “taking care of yourself”. Here are 30 expressions with the prefix “self”. Words with “self” in the news Self-isolate and self-isolation mean… Read More
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