On these beautiful long summer evenings, I often go for walks to admire the sunset. It is at these moments that I occasionally get nostalgia (remembering with fondness something that is past). I remember significant influences in my life – people I met and places I have been to – whenever I look at the […]
📗 But the effect of her being on those around her was incalculably diffusive: for the growing good of the world is partly dependent on unhistoric acts; and that things are not so ill with you and me as they might have been, is half owing to the number who lived faithfully a hidden life,
Lesson #287: Adjectives, Adverbs, And Intensifier Adverbs in Eliot’s ‘Middlemarch’ Read More »
It goes without saying (it is obvious) today’s literary author is a well-known figure, someone whom you have undoubtedly heard of before: William Shakespeare. You might have heard about his longest play, Hamlet. 📜 Additionally, you may well recognise the famous quote, ‘To be, or not to be – that is the question’, derived from
📙 The old man, contrary to expectation, seemed to be on the way to recovery, when one night Silas, sitting up by his bedside, observed that his usual audible breathing had ceased. – George Eliot, Silas Marner (1861) How would you describe something dramatic and memorable that happened to you ‘one night’, as happened to
The book was interesting and it was old and it was long and it was a French book too. This is a very odd sentence! ❔ Do you know how it could be improved? In a nutshell (in a few words), we could replace all the ‘and it was’ phrases with commas. So we would
Have you heard of negative prefixes in English before? 🧐 👩🏫 While the grammatical term is a bit of a mouthful, they are nothing to worry about. In fact, they are useful little syllables that we place at the beginning of a word (a noun, adjective, adverb, or verb) to indicate that its meaning has
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
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 »
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 »