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The power of reading old exercises
On my post about what to do with old ESL textbooks, one of my suggestions was to scan old, favorite exercises, print them out, laminate them, and place them on your coffee table so you can read them as often as you can for practice. Incidentally, you can do the same thing with your notes…. Read more »
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What to do with old ESL textbooks
If you’re a student or have ever been one, you know that textbooks can pile up quickly and can easily end up in huge disorganized stacks that require time to sort through and tidy up. If you’ve been studying English for awhile, for example, chances are you’ve acquired a small library of ESL textbooks. Several of… Read more »
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TT4BS – /e/ and /eI/
In this TongueTwisting4BetterSpeech, we’ll help you practice the /e/ and the /eI/ sounds together. To practice each of them separately, go to our July 31, 2001 post for the /e/ sound and to this window off the small guide site for the /eI/ sound.Let’s practice the following words first:Brain, trail, gait, late, lakeLess, digress, confess,… Read more »
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Using even though/although
Even though and although, like despite, in spite of, and albeit, convey contrasting ideas or situations. To use even though and although correctly, we need to add a clause immediately following. A clause always has a subject and a verb. like this: 1. Even though he was tired, he did the dishes. 2. Although… Read more »
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have got to hand it to someone
A good idiom is worth teaching again, so here are a few more examples of an idiom we’ve taught here before. We first taught this two years ago, on Nov. 9, 2009. 1. I’ve got to hand it to Sue; she knows how to find good deals when she’s out shopping.2. Jim finished the project… Read more »
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Using despite/in spite of
Here are some examples of how to use DESPITE and IN SPITE OF. . 1. They continued to work despite their exhaustion. 2. He supported the President’s policy in spite of strong opposition. 3. Despite being told not to take a taxi, he did. 4. In spite of the constant rattling of the trains outside… Read more »
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at the drop of a hat
1. Careful not to anger the boss; he’s been known to fire people at the drop of a hat.2. In the summer, they’ve thrown a party or two at the drop of a hat.3. Our neighbors love to get in their car and drive for hours at the drop of a hat. Sometimes they call… Read more »
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Happy National Punctuation Day!
To commemorate National Punctuation Day, here are a few basic rules to live by when you write.1. Don’t use a comma between two independent clauses. You can either end the first sentence with a period or a semicolon if the two sentences have a clear connection.a. They love the beach. Surfing is their main hobby…. Read more »
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Be blown away
1. The performers were all amateurs, but they blew us away with their amazing performance.2. We were blown away by the quality of the exhibit.3. The manager was blown away by the applicant’s wide range of experience.4. The food critic must have been blown away; he gave the restaurant a rousing review. 5. The passengers… Read more »
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GR – reported speech part 5
In this fifth and final post of this GrammarReminder series on reported speech, we’ll look at a conversation between two people and see how both of them report what the other said. For a quick review on how to shift tenses, check out part 1 of this series. . the conversation: Tom: Hi Sue. How’s your new job going? Sue: It’s going really well. There’s a lot to… Read more »