If you have been learning English for some time, you may have listened to speeches given by politicians, actors, or artists. A common trope (literary or artistic feature) you will notice in such speeches is that of repetition – the repetition of some words or phrases for effect. English literature also has plenty of examples […]
In the days approaching Christmas, my thoughts have turned to some of the Christmas Carols (songs sung at Christmas) and the stories behind how they were written. If you have ever spent the Christmas season in an English-speaking country such as Britain or Ireland, chances are that you have heard a Christmas carol being sung
Lesson #276: ‘Music on Christmas Morning’ Read More »
📗 “I will honour Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year. I will live in the Past, the Present, and the Future. The Spirits of all Three shall strive within me. I will not shut out the lessons that they teach.” – Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol (1843) What better
📗 ‘So she was considering in her own mind (as well as she could, for the hot day made her feel very sleepy and stupid), whether the pleasure of making a daisy-chain would be worth the trouble of getting up and picking the daisies, when suddenly a White Rabbit with pink eyes ran close by
Lesson #274: Easy Antonyms in ‘Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland’ You Already Know Read More »
Welcome to the last section of our Lessons on common mistakes learners of English make (and Part 2 of Lesson #273). With the help of Virginia Woolf’s first novel, The Voyage Out (1915), we are analysing the main mistakes that Spanish students make when learning English. … 21 COMMON MISTAKES (CONTINUED) 📝 #11 ‘TH’ SOUND
Lesson #273: Mistakes Spanish Speakers tend to make in English (Part 2) Read More »
This is our last Lesson in our 5-part series looking at common mistakes English language students tend to make. If you have been following these since the start of November, you will have noticed that there are always some points that challenge more than one group of students (for example, affecting Russian as well as
Lesson #273: Mistakes Spanish Speakers tend to make in English (Part 1) Read More »
Welcome to Part 2 of our Lesson in which we look at some passages from Anthony Trollope’s wonderful short novel, Nina Balatka (more on it in Part 1) as well as several challenging points for Hebrew speakers learning English. … 📝 #6 ‘CONGRATULATIONS’ (vs ‘good luck’) for ‘mazaltov’ מזל טוב Perhaps one of the most
Lesson #272: Common Issues for Hebrew Speakers studying English (Part 2) Read More »
If you have been following our Lessons since the start of November, you will have noticed that we are taking a look at some common mistakes made by students from different language backgrounds. I always mention that these Lessons are not a criticism of your mistakes! I hope instead to offer some helpful points on
Lesson #272: Common Issues for Hebrew Speakers studying English (Part 1) Read More »
Last Friday we looked at Anne Bronte’s first novel, Agnes Grey (1847), as a story on morality and education, women’s careers in the Victorian age, and personal character development. (Please read 👉 that Lesson first to get a good picture of what the novel is really about – you wouldn’t like to miss it!) Today
Lesson #271: Understanding ‘While’ vs ‘When’ through Anne Bronte’s ‘Agnes Grey’ Read More »
Here we will continue our Lesson by looking at common issues that Italian students of English often make. (If you missed Part 1 of our Lesson, have a look at it first 👈 – I shared in it more about the novel by Charles Dickens, Dombey and Son, on which we are basing our Lesson).
Lesson #270 (Part 2): Some Mistakes that Italians make in English Read More »
If you have been following my Lessons over the past couple of weeks, you will have seen that we are looking at the most common or typical mistakes that students make when learning English, with a special focus on how different mother tongues influence your English studies. In Lesson #267 we looked at the common
Lesson #270 (Part 1): Some Mistakes that Italians make in English Read More »
📙 ‘All true histories contain instruction; though, in some, the treasure may be hard to find, and when found, so trivial in quantity, that the dry, shriveled kernel scarcely compensates for the trouble of cracking the nut.’ ― Anne Brontë, Agnes Grey (1847) One of the books I turn to whenever I want a short, light, and