English Vocabulary

Mini-Lesson Monday, Lesson #222 (Part 2): ‘At Home, In Days Gone By’ – 9 prepositions that express time

📙 ‘There was all the more time for me to hear old-world stories from Miss Pole, while she sat knitting, and I making my father’s shirts.’ – Elizabeth Gaskell, Cranford (1853) … ✏️ (If you missed the first part of this Lesson on prepositions of time, you can find it here). ✏️ … 📝 #5 […]

Mini-Lesson Monday, Lesson #222 (Part 2): ‘At Home, In Days Gone By’ – 9 prepositions that express time Read More »

Mini-Lesson Monday, Lesson #222 (Part 1): ‘At Home, In Days Gone By’ – 9 prepositions that express time

📙 ‘Miss Matty and I quietly decided that we would have a previous engagement at home: it was the evening on which Miss Matty usually made candle-lighters of all the notes and letters of the week; for on Mondays her accounts were always made straight— not a penny owing from the week before; so, by

Mini-Lesson Monday, Lesson #222 (Part 1): ‘At Home, In Days Gone By’ – 9 prepositions that express time Read More »

Lesson #219: ‘Annabel Lee’: Edgar Allan Poe’s Melodious and Melodramatic Poem

‘Annabel Lee’ (1849) It was many and many a year ago,    In a kingdom by the sea, That a maiden there lived whom you may know    By the name of Annabel Lee; And this maiden she lived with no other thought    Than to love and be loved by me. .. I was a child and she was a

Lesson #219: ‘Annabel Lee’: Edgar Allan Poe’s Melodious and Melodramatic Poem Read More »

Lesson #218: Learning From A Letter – Charlotte Bronte’s words to her Aunt

Since yesterday (April 21st) was the 205th anniversary of Charlotte Bronte’s birth, I thought it would be nice to have a look at some of the personal letters that she wrote during her lifetime. 📚 Most people remember her for her classic Jane Eyre (1847) or even Villette (1853), both of which considered what life

Lesson #218: Learning From A Letter – Charlotte Bronte’s words to her Aunt Read More »

Mini-Lesson Monday, Lesson #217 (Part 2): ‘I want an appropriate simile’: Popular Similes English Speakers Use

📗 “I am very glad to hear it indeed, and now I shall never be ashamed of liking Udolpho myself. But I really thought before, young men despised novels amazingly.” “It is amazingly; it may well suggest amazement if they do— for they read nearly as many as women. I myself have read hundreds and

Mini-Lesson Monday, Lesson #217 (Part 2): ‘I want an appropriate simile’: Popular Similes English Speakers Use Read More »

Mini-Lesson Monday, Lesson #217 (Part 1): ‘I want an appropriate simile’: Popular Similes English Speakers Use

📗 Thorpe told her it would be in vain to go after the Tilneys; they were turning the corner into Brock Street, when he had overtaken them, and were at home by this time. “Then I will go after them,” said Catherine; “wherever they are I will go after them. It does not signify talking.

Mini-Lesson Monday, Lesson #217 (Part 1): ‘I want an appropriate simile’: Popular Similes English Speakers Use Read More »

Lesson #216: Seven Nouns with Identical Singular and Plural Forms in ‘Adam Bede’

📗 Arthur had passed the village of Hayslope and was approaching the Broxton side of the hill, when, at a turning in the road, he saw a figure about a hundred yards before him which it was impossible to mistake for any one else than Adam Bede, even if there had been no grey, tailless

Lesson #216: Seven Nouns with Identical Singular and Plural Forms in ‘Adam Bede’ Read More »

Mini-Lesson Monday, Lesson #215 (Part 2): ‘Besides vs beside’, ‘Always vs alway’, ‘Forwards vs Forward’ – Different meanings and usages

📙 ‘I hope I shall always behave so as to be respected by every one; and that nobody would do me more hurt than I am sure I would do them.’ – Samuel Richardson, Pamela, or Virtue Rewarded (1740) In Part 2 of our Lesson, we continue to differentiate the differences between similar-looking words like

Mini-Lesson Monday, Lesson #215 (Part 2): ‘Besides vs beside’, ‘Always vs alway’, ‘Forwards vs Forward’ – Different meanings and usages Read More »

Mini-Lesson Monday, Lesson #215 (Part 1): ‘Besides vs beside’, ‘Always vs alway’, ‘Forwards vs Forward’ – Different meanings and usages

Have you ever wondered what is the difference between words like ‘beside’ and ‘besides’? 💡 Believe me, one little letter makes all the difference in what the word means and how it can be used! Today’s Lesson in two parts looks at 3 ‘mistakable’ pairs of words: Besides vs beside Always vs alway Forwards vs

Mini-Lesson Monday, Lesson #215 (Part 1): ‘Besides vs beside’, ‘Always vs alway’, ‘Forwards vs Forward’ – Different meanings and usages Read More »

Lesson #214: Appreciating April through Ancient Eyes (Chaucer’s poetry)

I have been looking forward to April for some time, knowing that these lines from the 14th century poet Geoffrey Chaucer would be perfectly seasonable! 🌼 This Lesson is in 3 parts: ✏️ A modern translation of Chaucer’s medieval poem’s opening lines (with a vocabulary list) ✏️ The original lines in medieval English (just for

Lesson #214: Appreciating April through Ancient Eyes (Chaucer’s poetry) Read More »

Lesson #213: On Anthony Trollope (and 3 Easily Mistaken Verb Forms)

📘 ‘Lady Carbury, having finished her third letter, threw herself back in her chair, and for a moment or two closed her eyes, as though about to rest. But she soon remembered that the activity of her life did not admit of such rest. She therefore seized her pen and began scribbling further notes.’ –

Lesson #213: On Anthony Trollope (and 3 Easily Mistaken Verb Forms) Read More »