We are coming to the end of 2020 and what a year it has been! There have been so many changes in our lives that it is hard to recognise the “real us” anymore. Not only are our masks protecting us, but they are hiding us as well
Past time phrases can be confusing for ESL learners as there are so many! We use them to say when something happened in the past and they are always used with the Past Simple. They include expressions such as in 2019, last week, one month ago, on Monday, etc.,
Apart from the daily topic of Covid-19, a typical news story will start with a crime of some sort. It may be petty, stealing someone’s handbag or it may be more serious i.e. killing a person in a bar fight. Each crime carries a punishment which can be serious depending on the level of the crime.
Employees are as vital to any business as worker bees are for their queen, but people do not serve any employer or company with blind loyalty. They are more discerning than that. They are far more likely to consider the following factors to assess the level of job satisfaction they have achieved so far.
A company has key performance factors that it needs to achieve to remain viable. These are specific and measurable and can indicate the success or failure of a company. The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) will be accountable for the following eight factors.
The word and is said to be the most common word in English to add information both for natives and non-natives alike. We see it in schools ´Read and Write´, we see it in car magazines ´Buy and Sell´, we see it in bars ´Gin and Tonic´, we see it in condiments ´Salt and Pepper.´ So how can we add information to avoid having to monopolise this little three little word and?
Error correction is a well-worn topic and much has been written about it. In this blog, I don´t intend to reinvent the wheel but maybe throw some fresh light on it. In truth nobody likes to be corrected but unfortunately in language learning it is all part of the process. It is impossible to advance without learning from our mistakes.
There is no doubt that we can all identify with this need after so many weeks of confinement! Our hair has become unmanageable with blonde highlights turning dark and tints turning grey. Once Phase 1 came into operation, the hairdresser became the priority of the day!
The word ‘collocation’ sounds like a clumsy word and sometimes hard to pronounce for non-natives but unfortunately in English we cannot get away from them as they come up everywhere! Simply put, collocations are words that are found together.
Language is simply a means of communication. It is our way of conveying what it means to be human.
World Mental Health Day started in 1992 and is observed on 10 October every year, with the overall objective of raising awareness of mental health issues around the world and mobilizing efforts in support of mental health.
English teachers can be compared to Channel Managers whose job is to develop, service and grow relationships with their Channel partners. They are also responsible for training and developing their team.
Let’s step back in history a moment. In 1066 the Normans invaded England and brought their French language with them. Since French is a Romance language descended from Latin, this gave Latin an indirect influence on the English language
We are all very modest when it comes to describing ourselves. We naturally like to deflect attention away from ourselves and focus on others. When describing other people, the words just fall off our tongue so easily. We think of a family member and immediately conjure up an image of their personality
Are you the tourist who normally goes on holiday for a short period of time to relax in holiday resorts with full board or half board included?
Or are you the traveller who goes for the experience and a longer stay avoiding tourist traps to discover new horizons?
Neither is used to show agreement with negative statements. It is similar to using either at the end of a sentence, although Neither is more commonly used, especially in spoken English.
Using idioms can help you sound more fluent in English. As these fixed expressions are not literal, they can be quite difficult to understand. For example, it’s raining cats and dogs does not mean that dogs and cats are falling out of the sky but rather it is raining very heavily!
Most people would agree that a strong Spanish accent is usually easier to understand than a similarly strong French or Portuguese one. However, the pronunciation can cause considerable strain for the listener and seem somewhat harsh and flat. To get a clearer understanding of why Spanish speakers erroneously pronounce English, it is important to look at where these errors stem from.
According to Wikipedia a stative verb is one that describes a state of being, in contrast to a dynamic verb, which describes an action i.e. play, cook, run, etc. The difference can be categorized by saying that stative verbs describe situations that are static or unchanging throughout their entire duration, whereas dynamic verbs describe processes that entail change over time
Learning English can be very difficult and frustrating at times but using technology can make life a lot easier and take the pain and strain out of learning. Here are a few tried and tested methods that we at Carole Brown Idiomas find helpful: