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P.1 - Adult

Understanding Conditional Sentences

Average: 2.9 (28 votes)

Today's lesson is from Danica Steyn, teacher at EC Cape Town English school

Phrasal Verb - Back Up

Average: 3 (19 votes)

An English Poem

Average: 3.1 (18 votes)

On poetry

A couple of days ago we had a request for a lesson on poetry. I'm sure most of us have terrible memories of poetry-writing in school. I remember my teacher telling me to write a poem with no instructions on how to form one. "Just try" was her instruction...not very helpful. Can you imagine a piano teacher telling a student to "just try and play the piano' without any guidance on notes, keys or timing and expect a student to be magically able to play?

5 Clothes Idioms and Quiz

Average: 3.3 (14 votes)

Take a look at these idioms. They all use clothing vocabulary.

The Beatles - NOW sing English songs

Average: 3.8 (12 votes)

So it seems that there is a little disapointment that yesterday's exercise on singing songs in English did not actually include a song for you to sing. Let's put that right. Here is a classic Beatles song, suggested to us by Grivna, a regular user of this site (thanks, Grivna). The lyrics are included in the video.

Quick Tip - Sing English Songs

Average: 3.1 (25 votes)

I studied Spanish in high school and Japanese in college, so I understand that learning a foreign language is not easy. One thing that has always helped me is to memorize song lyrics. That way, you can learn new vocabulary and practice grammar while having fun. If there is a good melody, I guarantee you will never forget what you learned! I know that I will never forget Shakira's "Estoy Aqui" or SMAP's "Sekai ni Hitotsu Dake no Hana". So be sure to find the lyrics online if there is something you don’t understand.

5 British English idioms

Average: 2 (167 votes)

Here are some idioms that you will only here in the UK:

Bob's your uncle

Usually used after a set of simple instructions and has the same meaning as the phrase "and there you have it". It shows that something will be successful:

'To access the site, simply enter your password here and Bob's your uncle..'

cheap as chips

When something's very cheap, it is as cheap as chips:

'These shoes are only ten pounds a pair - cheap as chips!'

Write the introduction to a book

Average: 2.2 (6 votes)

We asked all the readers of our monthly newsletter to give us the first paragraph of a fictional novel. We didn't ask them to write the whole novel, only the introduction. Here's all the responses we received. Can you add your own entry?

Your Top English Questions Answered

Average: 3 (12 votes)

Every month we ask our newsletter readers to send in their questions to Tim, our teacher at EC Brighton, our English language school in Brighton, about the English language. Here are your questions:

 

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Star Question!

Thanks to Kate Kapustina for this question:

Ten common mistakes made by English learners

Average: 2.7 (23 votes)

Read through these ten example sentences. They all contain common mistakes made by English learners. Do you know what is wrong with each sentence?