Spoken English

Lesson #271: Understanding ‘While’ vs ‘When’ through Anne Bronte’s ‘Agnes Grey’

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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 […]

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Lesson #270 (Part 1): Some Mistakes that Italians make in English

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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

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Lesson #269: Anne Bronte’s ‘Agnes Grey’: A short retelling of the novel (including 10 keywords you should know)

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📙 ‘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 BrontĂ«, Agnes Grey (1847) One of the books I turn to whenever I want a short, light, and

Lesson #269: Anne Bronte’s ‘Agnes Grey’: A short retelling of the novel (including 10 keywords you should know) Read More »

Lesson #268 (Part 2): Mistakes Russian speakers tend to make in English

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📗 Welcome to Part 2 of our Lesson in which we look at difficult areas for many Russian students of English in particular. You may find it helpful to check 👉 Part 1 first to understand why we chose Henry James’ excellent novel, The Portrait of a Lady (1881), for this Lesson, as well as

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Lesson #268 (Part 1): Mistakes Russian speakers tend to make in English

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This month I am writing a series of Lesson posts covering the most common mistakes that students make. Today I am focusing on confusing English issues for native Russian speakers and hope very much it will help anyone who struggles with these areas. As I mentioned in my previous Lesson, there is no need to

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Lesson #267 (Part 2): Common Issues French Speakers Struggle With In English

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This is the second part of our Lesson, in which we look at some challenging points for French students studying English with the help of British author Frances Burney’s writings. 👉 If you haven’t read Part 1, please do read it first – everything will make more sense once you do! … 📝 #12 THE

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Lesson #267 (Part 1): Common Issues French Speakers Struggle With In English

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As someone who has been studying French for years and still make mistakes, I have become more aware of the kinds of pitfalls that native French speakers often experience while studying English. You might say I have a kind of ‘sympathy’ for their mistakes since those are often areas that native English speakers like me

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Lesson #266: Some English Words That Are Difficult To Translate In Other Languages

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Whenever you learn a new language, there are always words that you find challenging in themselves but also difficult to translate into your own language (or vice versa). I searched recently for some such words in English, and then realised that one of the very first works of English literature that I ever read as

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Lesson #265: ‘from Eton pears to Parliamentary pairs’: 10 English Homophones

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It has been a while since we turned to Charles Dickens for educational inspiration! On the other hand, I have just finished reading the last chapters of my favourite Dickens’ book, Little Dorrit (1857), and am paying tribute to it (acknowledging it respectfully) in today’s Lesson on homophones. You might be asking: what are homophones?

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Lesson #264: ‘Girls, such as me and Miss Snowe, don’t need treats’: Understanding the differences between ‘Such As’ vs ‘As Such’

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Every now and then, English language students mention how they are confused by the difference between ‘such as’ and ‘as such’. Are they the same? đŸ€” No. As I was reading through Charlotte Bronte’s psychologically deep novel, Villette, I realised some of its lines could help illustrate the difference between these two expressions. 📘 Villette

Lesson #264: ‘Girls, such as me and Miss Snowe, don’t need treats’: Understanding the differences between ‘Such As’ vs ‘As Such’ Read More »

Lesson #257 (Part 1): ‘Oh I do see …’ Analysing the many ways Henry James used ‘do’ in English (and how you can too)

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📗 “Live all you can; it’s a mistake not to. It doesn’t so much matter what you do in particular so long as you have your life. If you haven’t had that what have you had? I’m too old— too old at any rate for what I see. What one loses one loses; make no

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