intermediate english

Lesson #124: Some Ways British English Expressions Can Differ From American Expressions

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Over the last few days I have been listening to several podcasts and YouTube videos while doing housework.  Almost all of these are hosted by English speakers from the U.S.A., and I noticed how many expressions are used in conversational American English that aren’t typically employed in the U.K. or Ireland. Many English language learners […]

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Lesson #123: Discovering a Writing Style or Voice That Reflects Personality (Part 2)

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In the previous post, we began looking at a passage by Jane Austen (continued below) to consider how she created distinctive voices for different characters: 📙 ‘Marianne was astonished to find how much the imagination of her mother and herself had outstripped the truth. “And you really are not engaged to him!” said she. “Yet

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Lesson #123: Discovering a Writing Style or Voice That Reflects Personality (Part 1)

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One of the most rewarding stages in language learning is when you begin to have your own STYLE or VOICE in the language you have been studying.  As a proofreader of various texts, I must exercise caution when correcting a text so that I do not end up changing the writer’s style, but rather know

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Lesson #122: Different Usages of the Subjunctive in George Eliot’s ‘Middlemarch’

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Perhaps the English grammar tense that learners (and even native speakers) struggle most with is the SUBJUNCTIVE. ✍️ It has various forms that can be used in different situations, as long as those expressions refer to either a demand, a wish, a suggestion or a hypothetical situation (a situation that could happen but hasn’t yet happened). ✍️

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Lesson #121: The Smallest Element in Writing That is Often Overlooked

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There are numerous factors that must be considered when writing well. Grammar. Vocabulary. Clear thoughts. But one of the most overlooked of all is PUNCTUATION. The right commas, semicolons and periods (along with the appropriate use of brackets, dashes, and hyphens) can ‘make or break’ a sentence.  In many ways, I believe that if you

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Lesson #120: Mini-lesson Monday (Part 2): How Frances Hodgson Burnett’s Children’s Book Illustrates Effective Writing

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Mini-lesson Monday (Part 2): ✨This passage by Frances Hodgson Burnett is noteworthy for how simply yet effectively it describes ACTIVITY: (both physical movement and internal thoughts).  It does this in two ways: ✒️ Firstly, by using SHORT SENTENCES that express some kind of tension and transformation. ✒️  Secondly, by including A SINGLE ADVERB in the whole

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Lesson #120: Mini-lesson Monday (Part 1): How Frances Hodgson Burnett’s Children’s Book Illustrates Effective Writing

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Mini-lesson Monday (Part 1):  I still have some childhood favourites on my bookshelf – books that I read and dreamt about so often as a young girl. One of those was Frances Hodgson Burnett’s A Little Princess (1905), which I am looking forward to sharing with you today (at least a small part of it)! Today I’d

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Lesson #119: Teatime Literary Reflections (and the Power of Good Storytelling) (Part 2)

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As promised, here are some observations on the passage from Elizabeth Gaskell’s Cranford, as referenced in the previous post: 🖋️ Gaskell’s approach here is more conversational than the style of other classic novels. This is because the story is told by one of the characters in the book.  🖋️ Gaskell uses the word ‘very’ several times

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Lesson #119: Teatime Literary Reflections (and the Power of Good Storytelling) (Part 1)

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Teatime! A light dinner eaten in the late afternoon or evening that is still popular in Britain and Ireland.  I’m at home alone this evening, so I decided to serve my tea and scone on my Grandmother’s china, an heirloom passed down through the years. However, teatime is traditionally a time for the family (and

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Lesson #118: Using Pronouns Correctly to Prevent Repetition in Your Writing (Part 1)

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Do you find it difficult, particularly when writing, to determine when to use English pronouns or the identified subject they are referring to? (Perhaps you can more easily indicate WHO you are talking about through your voice, simply by your body language or an obvious context).  As I have mentioned before, writing English is quite

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Lesson #117: More Vocabulary to Help with Reading Hardy’s ‘Under the Greenwood Tree’ (and Other Books!) (Part 2)

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As mentioned in the previous post, where I quoted from Thomas Hardy’s Under the Greenwood Tree (1872), here is a short list of vocabulary to help with understanding the same passage. 🍃A quick question: how did you find the text? Was it challenging in terms of vocabulary? Did you understand most of it? ✨Did you enjoy his

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Lesson #117: Starting to Read English Classics? (Part 1)

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In my previous post, I offered a few pointers to help English students get started with classic literature. Can I recommend some good classics to start with? Of course! When I conducted a bookshelf search, I immediately came across Under the Greenwood Tree (1872), one of Thomas Hardy’s early works and a good choice for most

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