A few days ago, on my early morning walk, I noticed these nice daisies that grow so plentifully by the roadside near my home. 🌼 I took a photograph of them to remember them by when they would be withered away. I was glad that I did, because when I returned a few days later, […]
This is Part 2 of our Lesson covering useful pairs of antonyms (words expressing contrast, opposition) and synonyms (words expressing similar meanings) as found in A Little Princess, Frances Hodgson Burnett’s famous children’s classic. We have covered some antonyms in Part 1, and are focusing here on 8 pairs of synonyms that you will find
A Little Princess is a 1905 classic by British author Frances Hodgson Burnett, who also wrote the famous Little Lord Fauntleroy (1886) and The Secret Garden (1911). I found my old copy of it recently, and while reminiscing (remembering with pleasure) how much it meant to me as a child, I saw how Hodgson Burnett’s
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
📗 ‘It was in this scene of strife and bloodshed that the incidents we shall attempt to relate occurred, during the third year of the war which England and France last waged for the possession of a country that neither was destined to retain.’ – James Fenimore Cooper, The Last of the Mohicans: A Narrative
Welcome to Part 2 of our Lesson on homographs! In Part 1 we already looked at what homographs mean (quick reminder: they are words that are spelled the same but have different meanings and often different pronunciations). We also covered some key homographs in the English language, starting with those word pairs that share the
How familiar are you with homographs? 🤔 You might not recognise at first what a homograph means, but you have probably been using them (or at least noticing them) without even realising it! Homographs are basically words that are spelled the same but have different meanings. ✍️ Sometimes these word pairs are related because they
As you may remember, every second Saturday we take the time to look at a poem from English or American literature. This week I am sharing with you a poem by the American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (whose poem, ‘Paul Revere’s Ride’, we looked at in Lesson #187). 🖋️ As I thought about this poem
Lesson #229: Reading for Appreciation: ‘A Psalm of Life’ by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Read More »
I recently rediscovered a book on our shelves that my mother bought when we were children, and which I had been intending to read many times – only beginning now at last! 🗝️ 📗 This book, Charles Kingsley’s The Water Babies (1863), is about a chimney-sweep, that is, a little child who used to sweep
We continue our Lesson on the differences (and similarities) between the expressions ‘be going to [verb]’ cf. ‘will [verb]’ to talk about the future in English. (If you missed it, we looked primarily at ‘be going to …’ in Part 1 of our Lesson) … 📝 ‘WILL [+ VERB]’ (SIMPLE FUTURE) In Part 1 of
📗 “We will go—you and I alone, Caroline—to that wood …” “We are going to see Miss Shirley Keeldar.” – Charlotte Bronte, Shirley (1849) … 🔎 In what ways is the future tense in these two sentences different? This is a question that baffles many students – understandably, since the differences are very subtle! This
Welcome to Part 2 of this Lesson, where we have been looking at expressions of place and movement in English (mostly adverbs which English speakers use on a daily basis). … 📝 #15 DOWN THE [PATH, ROAD, WALK, STREET, ETC] 📘 ‘[Fanny] was again roused from disagreeable musings by sudden footsteps: somebody was coming at