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Lesson #272: Common Issues for Hebrew Speakers studying English (Part 2)

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 […]

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Lesson #239: Connecting with the past through memories: Thomas Hood’s famous poem ‘I Remember, I Remember’

One of the nicest aspects of preparing these Lessons is that I am always on the look-out for inspiration. In the last few days, I noticed how beautiful the laburnum’s flowers in our garden looked – the laburnum being a tree with drooping branches and yellow blossoms (flowers) that flower in May and June every

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Lesson #238: The differences between Sometimes vs Some Time, Anytime vs Any Time, Overtime vs Over Time

📘 ‘Altogether it was a perfect night, such a night as you sometimes get in Southern Africa, and it threw a garment of peace over everybody as the moon threw a garment of silver over everything.’ – H. Rider Haggard, King Solomon’s Mines (1885) … For many of you, reading adventure stories was an important

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Lesson #224: Reflecting on Emily Bronte’s Poem ‘Plead for Me’ (including new vocabulary list)

If you have been reading these Lesson posts for some time, you may remember how much I like Emily Bronte’s poetry. She was a poet I discovered only in the last few years, and I wonder how I could have been reading literature for so long and yet not have read her poetry before! I

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Mini-Lesson Monday, Lesson #188 (Part 1): Considering ‘Can’, ‘Could’, and ‘Be Able To’ through Dickens’ ‘Great Expectations’

If you are interested in classic English literature (and if you are reading these Lessons, why wouldn’t you be? 😊), you have surely heard of Charles Dickens’ Great Expectations (1861). 📘 “Well, then, understand once for all that I never shall or can be comfortable— or anything but miserable— there, Biddy!— unless I can lead

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Lesson #184: Describing A Process and An End Result: How to Correctly Use ‘Eventually’, ‘Finally’, ‘Gradually’, and ‘Ultimately’

Many students have struggled with understanding the differences between two essential adverbs: gradually and eventually. So in this Lesson I will try to define each with plenty of examples and synonyms where possible. I mentioned in yesterday’s Lesson (on Cecilia, by Frances Burney) that this week we would be looking at some novels that either

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

📙 ‘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

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