Wednesday, November 8, 2017
Friday, October 27, 2017
Tuesday, October 17, 2017
Wednesday, October 4, 2017
Tuesday, October 3, 2017
Sunday, October 1, 2017
Saturday, September 30, 2017
Friday, September 29, 2017
Friday, September 22, 2017
Can you learn a language just by listening?
Is it
possible for you to learn a language just by listening?
after
a while you do kind of understand what people are talking about, so you can
often guess from the situation. But You are not able to put a sentence
together, and join in the conversation. Because although you kind of understand
what people are saying, you just haven't developed the skill of moving your
tongue and saying the words of the other language.
So I
would say taking that approach is a very, very frustrating, and slow, and
ineffective way to learn any language. And that's based from my personal experience.
Sunday, September 17, 2017
Friday, September 15, 2017
9 English Contractions You Should Never Use and Why!
9 English Contractions You Should
Never Use and Why
An English contraction occurs when two words combine to make
one word—words like “don’t,” “I’ll,” and “let’s.” Contractions are nothing new.
In fact, they have been commonly used since 7th century Old English when writers still wrote using the
runic alphabet.
Contractions represent a more efficient way to write and to
speak. They allow us to convey our thoughts in fewer words. This is helpful
considering we live in an era of text messages and 140-character Twitter
updates. And, in days long past, before printing presses, English contractions
saved writers the pain of writing out every single letter of every single word
(Those quill pens must have been a real pain in the hand!).
While editing ESL papers at Kibin, I have found that many ESL
writers are uncomfortable with the concept of English contractions. These
writers misuse them, use them too liberally, or avoid them altogether.
In this post, I want to focus on the misuse of contractions.
I’m going to teach you the fundamentals of English contractions, discuss which
English contractions you should never use and why, and give you a heads-up on
some of the more common informal contractions (But, don’t use them in your next
English assignment…or else!).
The Important Apostrophe
First, let’s talk about how exactly you can create a single
word out of two words. It involves using an apostrophe. An apostrophe is the
punctuation mark found at the top of a letter.
This little punctuation mark has a big job to do when it
comes to English contractions. It stands in for the letter or letters you omit.
For example, the contracted form of “do not” becomes
“don’t.” As you can see, the apostrophe stands in for the “o” in “not.”
Similarly, the contracted form of “he will” becomes “he’ll.”
In this contraction, the apostrophe stands in for the “wi” in “will.”
And “they would” becomes “they’d.” The apostrophe does the
big job of standing in for “woul” in this contraction.
Warning! You Can’t Contract Just Any Word
Now that you know how to use the apostrophe to create
English contractions, don’t get too carried away. You can’t just go in and
contract any two words in the English language. The words you can contract are
pretty much set in stone (and I’ll be going deeper into that in a future post).
Wouldn’t it be fun if you could, though? I might write
something like, “Y’can’t just go’n an’contract jus’any’f t’words i’the
Eng’language.” But, I won’t, because then I would sound drunk, which I’m not.
While most writers don’t try to contract every single word in the English language, I
often see some commonly misused English contractions. With that in mind, here
are three English contractions that you should never use:
Amn’t
A lot of ESL writers make the mistake of thinking that since
you can contract “is not” and “are not” into “isn’t” and “aren’t,” you should
similarly be able to contract “am not” into “amn’t.”
The truth is, there is no contraction for “am not,” and
“amn’t” is not a recognized word…anymore.
Yes, I said “anymore” because apparently “amn’t” and its
cousin “an’t” were commonly used in the English language sometime in the
1600s. And, surprisingly, “amn’t” is still used in Ireland and Scotland
(no wonder those dialects are so difficult to understand for those accustomed
to U.S.
Today, in U.S.
And, even though Christina Aguilera uses “ain’t”
(incorrectly, I might add) in her lyrics, “ain’t” is considered highly informal
and should not be used in most writing. Check out this great article for more information on “amn’t,” “an’t,” and “ain’t.”
Willn’t
or Win’t
As tempting as it may be to use the apostrophe rule to
contract “will not” into “willn’t” or even “win’t,” you shouldn’t.
The contraction of “will not” is a weird exception to the
apostrophe rule, as it becomes “won’t.”
So, why is it an exception to the rule? The answer to this
riddle comes from Old English habits. The word “will” has gone through quite
the language evolution, including many spelling changes, one of which was
“woll.” A sensible contraction of “woll” could indeed be “won’t.”
In addition, “willn’t” was an accepted form of this
contraction for some time—even into the late 1800s. But, because the point of
contractions is brevity, the ultimate favorite, which is still commonly used
today, became “won’t.”
Read this post for more information about why “will not” is contracted as
“won’t.”
I’s
You can contract “she has” and “she is” to make “she’s,” and
you can contract “he has” and “he is” to make “he’s,” as well as “I am” to make
“I’m,” and “I have” to make “I’ve.”
But, “I’s” is not a word.
I’m not sure why people use “I’s,” but I suspect it has
something to do with misinterpreting the following two rules.
First of all, you can’t contract “I is” because “I is” has
improper subject-verb agreement. “I” does not go with “is.” It’s just not
right. The correct agreement is “I am,” so the correct contraction is “I’m.”
Second, and I think this is the more common problem, “I was”
cannot be contracted into “I’s.” In English, you can’t contract verbs in simple
past tense.
That being said, there are certain U.S.
Aside from these three contraction no-nos, there are some
that are technically legal, but that you shouldn’t use anyway.
Watch Out for Contractions that Native English Speakers Don’t Commonly Use!
These six contractions are grammatically legal, but they are
not commonly used in either speaking or writing.
- Where’d
(where had)
- Why’d
(why had)
- When’d
(when had)
- Why’d
(why would)
- What’d
(what would)
- When’d
(when would)
These six contractions are uncommon for a simple reason. U.S.
- Where’d
(where did)
- Why’d
(why did)
- When’d
(when did)
- Why’d
(why did)
- What’d
(what did)
- When’d
(when did)
So, when you ask, “Where’d you go?” native English speakers
will think you are asking, “Where did you go?” and not “Where would you go?”
The answer to these two questions would be very, very different (“I went to
school in Missouri , but I would prefer to go
to Hawaii
By playing favorites, English speakers avoid a lot of
confusion in communication. However, please note that these contractions with
“did” are highly informal and should only be used in speaking and informal
writing.
You may have noticed that native English speakers like to
mush a lot of their words together in informal speaking and writing.
Wednesday, September 13, 2017
Top 50 misspellings
Top 50 misspellings
- accomodation > accommodation
- adress > address
- accomodate > accommodate
- wether > whether/weather
- rehersal > rehearsal
- commited > committed
- persue > pursue
- occurence > occurrence
- lenght > length
- strenght > strength
- seperate > separate
- appaling > appalling
- tought > taught/thought
- throught > through
- commision > commission
- comission > commission
- recieve > receive
- collegue > colleague
- desease > disease
- compell > compel
- bizzare > bizarre
- concious > conscious
- advertisment > advertisement
- succint > succinct
- rythm > rhythm
- wich > which/witch
- wheather > whether/weather
- percieve > perceive
- occure > occur
- enterpreneur > entrepreneur
- aquire > acquire
- convinient > convenient
- devide > divide
- agressive > aggressive
- enviroment > environment
- supress > suppress
- embarassed > embarrassed
- miniscule > minuscule
- occured > occurred
- strech > stretch
- embarrased > embarrassed
- responsability > responsibility
- assesment > assessment
- akward > awkward
- endevour > endeavour
- belive > believe
- wierd > weird
- achive > achieve
- greatful > grateful
- biogrophay > biography
Tuesday, September 12, 2017
Saturday, September 9, 2017
Tuesday, September 5, 2017
Sunday, September 3, 2017
Saturday, September 2, 2017
Monday, August 28, 2017
Sunday, August 27, 2017
Friday, August 25, 2017
Tuesday, August 22, 2017
Thursday, August 17, 2017
Wednesday, August 16, 2017
Tuesday, August 15, 2017
Monday, July 31, 2017
Monday, July 24, 2017
Friday, June 30, 2017
Wednesday, June 28, 2017
Tuesday, June 27, 2017
Thursday, June 22, 2017
“I couldn’t care less” meaning & usage.
Question
What does “I couldn’t care less” mean, and which is correct, couldn't or could? — Judith,United States
Answer
When you say that you couldn’t care less about something, it means that you are not at all concerned about it; it doesn’t matter to you. Here is an example:
- Tom says he couldn't care less if he gets fired. (=Tom says he doesn’t care if he gets fired; it won’t matter to him.)
But you will also hear people use this expression withcould instead of couldn’t, like this:
- I could care less what happens.
Is this correct, and what does it mean?
The answer depends on whom you ask. According to most grammarians, this expression is logical and correct only withcouldn’t. If a person says, “I couldn’t care less” about something, it means that the amount of care and concern they have about something could not be any less, any lower. This makes sense. Therefore when someone says I could care less, it should mean the opposite, that they are concerned.
However, if you listen to native speakers, you will hear people saying “I could care less,” and you will know from the context and tone of voice that they mean they are not at all interested or concerned. So while the expression with could may not be as logical, it is used. And if you’re interested in understanding actual usage, like many linguists and learners, you should definitely be aware of both forms.
Wednesday, June 21, 2017
Sunday, June 18, 2017
Saturday, June 17, 2017
Thursday, June 15, 2017
07 Bad English Speaking Habits.
07 Bad English Speaking Habits that everyone should avoid.
Free Advanced English Lesson.
Free Advanced English Lesson.
Friday, June 9, 2017
http://fraze.it/ the most advanced platform for sentences on the net.
Improve your writing skills, learn from professional writers. With more than 100 millions sentences, this is the most advanced platform for sentences on the net. Useful to the writing community, from professional writers to college and ESL students & teachers http://fraze.it/
Wednesday, June 7, 2017
Friday, June 2, 2017
Friday, May 19, 2017
Watching movies with delayed subtitles
Watching movies with delayed subtitles (Additional
Information)
Hello there. Thanks for watching my YouTube video (How to Learn
English with Movies). On this page, you’ll find additional information to help
you get started using the technique I share in that video.
How to Delay Subtitles in Movies
The easiest way is to use a media
player called VLC.
With VLC, you can delay subtitles by pressing the H key on your keyword.
Each time you press the H key, the subtitles are delayed by 50
milliseconds. So, to delay the subtitles for 2 seconds, just press the H key 20
times (until it shows 2000 ms).
If you’ve accidentally delayed the subtitles too much (say 2200
ms), just press the G key to make them appear faster.
How
to Read Subtitles Quickly
When you begin to learn English with this approach, you’ll find
that, sometimes, you can’t keep up with the subtitles (especially if you’re not
very good at reading in English).
But don’t worry. I have a few tips on how to deal with this
problem.
Tip #1: simply ignore the subtitles.
When you watch a movie, there will be some sentences that
don’t contain any important information.
It doesn’t matter if you don’t understand these sentences.
They aren’t important to the overall plot and can be ignored.
Let me give you an example.
Suppose you’re watching a scene where a helicopter is about
to crash, and the pilot and the passengers are yelling something to each
other; something you don’t understand. In this case, it’s not a big deal if you
don’t know what they’re saying because:
1.
You can easily guess what
they’re talking about. (They’re probably talking about how
to prevent the helicopter from crashing, the reason the helicopter is
crashing, or something along those lines)
2.
Even if you don’t know what they’re saying, it will
not affect your understanding of the overall plot.
In a scene like this where visuals are more important than
dialogues, you don’t have to read the subtitles. Just focus on
the visuals and the audio.
Tip #2: read only the words you don’t
understand.
This one is self-explanatory. Sometimes, you’ll miss just one or
two words in a sentence. In this case, you can simply glance at
the word(s) you missed while ignoring the rest of the sentence. You don’t
have to read every word from left to right.
But what if you don’t understand the whole sentence? What do you
do?
In this case, read tip #3.
Tip #3: skim the subtitles.
Skim means to read something quickly to note only the
important points. This is what some people do unconsciously when watching a
movie with subtitles.
Here’s how to do it: instead of reading every single word from
left or right, you scan the subtitles quickly to gather as
much information as possible.
It’s a bit hard to explain, but what I mean is to quickly look
at the words on the screen and let your brain recognize the most important
words. Usually you just need to see 4 words out of
7 to understand the meaning of the sentence without reading all the
conjunctions, prepositions, and so on.
With this technique, you’ll be able to read the subtitles with a
lot less time. It’s a little hard to do at first, but once you get past the
learning curve, reading subtitles this way will become natural.
Tip #4: pause only when necessary.
If you’re watching a movie with a complicated plot, you might
have to pause sometimes to read the subtitles and think about the meaning.
However, I suggest trying to avoid pausing/rewinding as much as
possible. Don’t pause or go back unless it’s important. This way, you’ll
have to force yourself into reading faster so you don’t miss anything.
Tip #5: practice a lot (watch a lot
of subbed movies).
This is the most important tip of all. Reading subtitles quickly
is a skill. And just like every other skill, it requires practice. If you want
to get good at it, you simply have to watch a lot of subbed movies.
In fact, if you practice a lot, you don’t even have to remember
the previous four tips. You’ll unconsciously develop those techniques
without even realizing:
§
You’ll get better at locating the words you miss on the
screen (while ignoring the rest).
§
You’ll get better at getting the gist (key information) with
just a quick look at the text on screen.
§
Most importantly, your listening will improve and you’ll get
used to some common words, phrases, idioms, etc. You will understand them
without needing to read the subtitles. That’s how you learn a language!
Frequently-Asked Questions
The text sometimes appears before
the actor finishes the sentence. What should I do?
This is normal. Oftentimes, the text will appear before the
actor finishes talking. When this happens, try to resist the temptation to look
at the text.
Wait until the actor finishes talking, and if you don’t
understand, then look at the subtitles. If the actor is talking fast, you can
use the speed reading techniques I’ve shared earlier (or you can simply pause
the movie).
Now, I have to admit that this is quite difficult to do because
our eyes tend to read text on screen automatically. So, don’t worry if you
can’t follow this advice from time to time. Just do your best.
I’ve practiced listening using this
approach for a long time. But I still have to rely on subtitles. And I still
can’t understand native speakers sometimes. What’s wrong with me?
There’s nothing wrong with
you. Even native speakers have trouble understanding movies sometimes. In
fact, some native speakers like to watch movies with
subtitles because it helps them understand better.
What makes English difficult to understand is that
there are various English accents. Even in the same English-speaking country,
people who live in different regions have their own regional accents. So, it’s
not uncommon for native speakers from one part of the world to have trouble
understanding native speakers from another part.
My point is this: if native speakers have trouble understanding
each other, there’s no reason for you to feel bad about it. Focus on progress,
not perfection.
This technique sucks! It’s more
effective to watch each movie many times. If you don’t repeat, you won’t
remember new vocabulary. Learning new information requires a lot of repetition.
First of all, I never claim that this is the most effective way
to learn English. I came up with this technique simply because it allows
me to learn English through movies without getting bored.
Sure. I’ll probably get better results by watching the same
movie many times. But I’m not going to do that. Why? Because it’s sad and
boring. My life is not just about learning English. I have other interests and
hobbies to pursue. I’m not going to spend hours each day learning English that
way.
So, if you have a lot of free time to spend, feel free to ignore
this technique. It’s up to you 
In one of your old videos, You told
us not to practice listening with movies. But in this new video, you’re telling
us how to improve our listening with movies. Are you contradicting yourself?
I can understand the confusion. But you have to understand that
when I made that old video, I had not come up with this delay-subtitles
technique yet. That’s why I said in the old video that watching
movies with subtitles is a terrible way to improve your listening (because you
aren’t listening, you’re simply reading the subtitles).
But now that I’ve discovered this
technique, everything’s changed. Now it’s OK to practice listening with movies as long as you delay the subtitles.
What are the titles of the movie
clips in your video?
1.
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
2.
Flipped
Thursday, May 18, 2017
Wednesday, May 17, 2017
Tuesday, May 16, 2017
Expressions Vocabulary lessons Part 1
9 types of English Expressions namely For words like get, mind, no, let, lets, right and wrong, do and make etc.
Monday, May 15, 2017
Sunday, May 14, 2017
Wednesday, April 26, 2017
Tuesday, April 25, 2017
Friday, April 21, 2017
How to Link Words
Linking in English – Pronunciation Video Lesson
Do you sometimes find it difficult to understand spoken English? Understanding spoken English (especially native English) can be difficult because we don’t pronounce each word separately. In English, we link words together, so two or more words can sound like one word. In this lesson, you can see some common examples of linking in English pronunciation. You can also see how learning about linking can help your English listening and improve your spoken English.
Thursday, April 20, 2017
Saturday, April 15, 2017
Thursday, March 16, 2017
General Listening Quizzes.
| Basic Listening Quizzes [ Short Listening Activities for Beginning and Intermediate Students ] | ||
| Easy Calendars and Dates Conversation Starters Directions Around Town (1) Introductions Names: Meeting People New Clothing Shopping and Prices Telling Time | Easy Clothing and Fashion Directions Around Town (2) Family Relationships Hobbies Phone Numbers Restaurants Sick Day Shopping Center Telephone | Medium Apartment Living Bus Travel Directions Around Town (3) Dinner Ideas ESL Programs Job Hunting - Quiz 1 Job Hunting - Quiz 2 Movies School Schedule Travel and Numbers |
| 20-Minute ESL Vocabulary Lessons [ Click HERE to build your vocabulary and pronunciation of key vocabulary ] | ||
| Medium Airplane Travel Beauty Salons Best Dating Ideas! Car Rental Renting Apartments Restaurant Guide | Medium Computers and the Internet Education: Online Degrees Train Travel Dating and Marriage Dental Care Supermarket | Medium Hotel Reservations Movies and DVD Rentals Renting Apartments Travel>>>>>>>>> MORE |
| Language Learning and Life Tips [ Listen HERE to More Language and Life-skill Tips with Discussion Questions ] | ||
| Medium iPod and MP3 Players Student Health Insurance Web Conferencing Finding Friends on the Internet Airplane Travel | Medium Student Credit Cards Free Email Accounts Accent Reduction Online University Degrees Renting Apartments | Medium Free Email Accounts Voice and Text Chat Online Movie Rentals |
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)