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Root words: find the part that carries meaning
When you meet a long word, you do not always need to learn every letter as a new item. A familiar part inside it can give you a useful clue.
Open lessonRun on sentences: repair joined sentences
The doors opened everyone hurried inside. Each part is a complete idea, but the sentence does not show how the parts connect. It is a run-on sentence.
Open lessonSMS English: abbreviations, clarity, and when to use full words
A friend might text ‘I’ll be there in 10 mins’, while a message to a tutor may need ‘I will arrive ten minutes late.’ The information is similar, but the relationship and situation change the wording.
Open lessonSay and tell in reported speech
Nora called after the meeting. You can say, "Nora said that the meeting was moved," or, if you name the listener, "Nora told me that the meeting was moved." The message is the same. The grammar around it is different.
Open lessonSee, watch, hear, and listen: choose the right perception verb
You hear a phone ring because the sound reaches you. You listen to a voicemail because you choose to pay attention. The same difference helps with see and watch.
Open lessonSemi- and bi-: understand common meanings
A semicircle is half of a circle. A bilingual notice uses two languages. The prefixes look short, but the whole word tells you how the idea works in a sentence.
Open lessonSentence fragments: find and repair incomplete sentences
After the meeting ended. The team went for coffee. The first group of words leaves you waiting for the main message. It is a sentence fragment.
Open lessonSeparable phrasal verbs: place the object
You are leaving a room and want to ask a colleague about the lamp. Do you say turn off the lamp or turn the lamp off? Both can work. The choice changes when the object is a short word such as it.
Open lessonShall and will: understand modern English usage
Will you need an umbrella tomorrow? In ordinary conversation, will is usually the useful choice. Shall still appears in offers, suggestions, and some formal language.
Open lessonSimiles exercise 1: understand comparisons in context
After carrying boxes upstairs, Martin says his arms feel like jelly. He does not mean that his arms are food. The comparison tells you that they feel weak and unsteady.
Open lessonSimiles exercise 2: choose natural figurative comparisons
A simile can make a description quicker and more vivid, but it only works when the comparison sounds natural in English.
Open lessonSimiles exercise: understand comparisons in context
After a long walk, Noor says, "My legs feel like jelly." Her legs have not become food. She uses a familiar comparison to make the unsteady feeling easy to picture.
Open lessonSimiles: comparisons with like and as
A simile compares one thing with another using like or as. Two useful patterns are as plus adjective plus as plus noun, and verb plus like plus noun.
Open lessonSince or for: choose the right time phrase
Since and for can describe the same situation, but they give different time information. Since tells us when it started. For tells us how long it lasted or has lasted.
Open lessonSince or for: talking about time correctly
Two short words answer different time questions. Since tells your listener when something began. For tells them how long it has lasted.
Open lessonSleep, asleep, live, and alive: what is the difference?
A friend says, 'The baby sleeps early.' Later, they say, 'The baby is asleep.' Both sentences are correct, but they answer different questions. The first describes a usual activity. The second describes the baby's state now. The same pattern helps with live and alive.
Open lessonSo and such: show degree and result
So and such both make a description stronger. The choice depends on the word that follows: use so with an adjective or adverb, and use such with a noun or noun phrase.
Open lessonSo or such: choose the right pattern for emphasis
The two sentences carry the same feeling, but their grammar changes: The film was so moving. It was such a moving film. Look at the word that follows the emphasis word before you choose so or such.
Open lessonSpeak English or speak the English?
At a reception desk, a visitor asks, "Do you speak English?" The question is about the language. A literature teacher might instead discuss the English of a nineteenth-century letter. That phrase points to a particular kind of English.
Open lessonSpoken English exercises for everyday conversations
A useful speaking exercise should give you something you can say to another person today. Try one small conversation move, then repeat it until it feels familiar.
Open lessonSports idioms in English: meanings beyond the game
At a work meeting, someone says, ‘Let us get the ball rolling.’ No one needs a ball. The speaker wants the group to begin. Sports idioms borrow words from games, then use them for ordinary life.
Open lessonSports idioms: understand figurative English in context
A colleague says, "We are in the home stretch." The group is not running a race. They are close to finishing a report. Sports idioms carry an image from a game into an everyday situation.
Open lessonStationery or stationary: spelling, meaning, and memory tips
A pen shop sells stationery. A parked bicycle is stationary. The words sound alike, so the meaning has to guide the spelling.
Open lessonStative verbs: when English verbs do not take -ing
You want to say that a red bag belongs to you. My red bag is belonging to me sounds strange because belong describes a relationship, not an action in progress.
Open lessonWhat you will find here
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