English Vocabulary

Lesson #177: Appreciating a Medieval English Poem: William Langland’s ‘Piers Plowman’

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Every single language that is spoken today has undergone (gone through) many changes over the years, over centuries. This is also true of English, which could be described as having several phases or historical stages of development: đŸȘ” c. 500-1150 AD: Old English  This is made of the dialects of Anglo-Saxon tribes, with a very few words […]

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Mini-Lesson Monday: Lesson #176 (Part 2): ‘All the Mole’s lively language …’: Distinguishing Between Formal and Informal Registers in English

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In the last part of this lesson (see here), we covered the distinctive traits of the formal and informal registers in the English language. I recommend that you check this Part 1 first before reading this, since what we are going to addressed here builds on what was covered before! Through the help of Kenneth

Mini-Lesson Monday: Lesson #176 (Part 2): ‘All the Mole’s lively language …’: Distinguishing Between Formal and Informal Registers in English Read More »

Mini-Lesson Monday: Lesson #176 (Part 1): ‘All the Mole’s lively language …’: Distinguishing Between Formal and Informal Registers in English

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Another childhood favourite (I seem to be sharing a lot of these lately!) is today’s classic, The Wind in the Willows (1908) by Kenneth Grahame, a Scottish writer at the turn of the twentieth century. His children’s classic is a story about four animals with human characteristics and personalities (a kind of writing called anthropomorphism, when an animal or

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Lesson #175: Browning’s ‘The Pied Piper of Hamelin’ and the Magic of Prefixes

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The Mayor was dumb, and the Council stood  As if they were changed into blocks of wood,  Unable to move a step, or cry  To the children merrily skipping by —  Could only follow with the eye  That joyous crowd at the Piper’s back.   – Robert Browning, ‘The Pied Piper of Hamelin’ (1842) …  Once

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Lesson #174: Enriching Your Vocabulary With Synonyms: Reading from Radcliffe’s ‘The Mysteries of Udolpho’

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📚 If you are an intermediate or advanced level English language student, you have almost certainly been told that you should read more in English if you want to improve your command of the language. One of the reasons this rings true is that reading (especially literature) exposes us to new or choice words that

Lesson #174: Enriching Your Vocabulary With Synonyms: Reading from Radcliffe’s ‘The Mysteries of Udolpho’ Read More »

Lesson #172: ‘Let’s have no accusing of the innocent’ (‘Silas Marner’): Using the verb ‘Let’

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📙 ‘Ah, you’re fine and strong, arn’t you?’ said Silas, while Eppie shool her aching arms and laughed. ‘Come, come, let us go and sit down on the bank against the stile there, and have no more lifting. You might hurt yourself, child. You’d need have somebody to work for you – and my arm

Lesson #172: ‘Let’s have no accusing of the innocent’ (‘Silas Marner’): Using the verb ‘Let’ Read More »

Lesson #171: Words and Phrases that Indicate Time Sequences, through Defoe’s ‘Robinson Crusoe’

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đŸïž Robinson Crusoe (1719) has been widely acknowledged as the first novel ever written in English. Many of us, whether or not we grew up in an English-speaking culture, are long familiar with the storyline of Robinson Crusoe – an Englishman who gets shipwrecked (the ship is sunk by a storm at sea) and ends up

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Lesson #169: ‘For Auld Lang Syne’: An Appreciation of Robert Burns’ Famous Song

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Another poet for another Saturday post! As we are drawing close to Robert Burns’ Day, a celebration of Scotland’s poet around January 25th, the time is right to take a look at some of his most famous lines. đŸŽó §ó ąó łó Łó Žó ż And our family thimbles (small caps to protect the thumb from being pricked by a needle while

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Lesson #168: 3 Important Irregular Verb Forms in Dickens’ ‘The Old Curiosity Shop’

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Many English language students struggle with memorising the many different verb forms we have in our language. It can be difficult, especially when they are studied out of context.  So in today’s lesson, I hope to share 3 essential verb forms that are not only commonly used on a daily basis by native English speakers, but

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Lesson #167: Portrayals of Scotland in Robert Louis Stevenson’s classic ‘Kidnapped’ (Reading Comprehension Exercise)

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📗 ‘O!’ says I, willing to give him a little lesson, ‘I have no fear of the justice of my country.’ ‘As if this was your country!’ said he. ‘Or as if ye would be tried here, in a country of Stewarts!’ ‘It’s all Scotland,’ said I. – Robert Louis Stevenson, Kidnapped (1886) … We are approaching

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Lesson #166: Everyday English Idioms (From One of the Most Influential Books in English)

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If you have been watching the ceremonies to commemorate the inauguration of the U.S. president today, you will have overheard several references in their speeches and poems to one very influential book in the English language: the Bible. This is because for centuries, the English Bible – specifically the King James Version, first published in

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Mini-Lesson Monday, Lesson #164 (Part 2): Lamb’s ‘Tales From Shakespeare’ – Expressing Reason and Result

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📘 ‘The King of France … called the Duke of Burgundy in contempt a waterish duke, because his love for this young maid had in a moment run all away like water. – ​Charles ​and ​Mary Lamb​,​ Tales from Shakespeare â€‹(1807)​ If you have been reading and understanding these short lessons, chances are that you are

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