There are a lot of words in English! In fact, English has more words than most other languages, although there are languages with more, like Chinese and Arabic. This makes vocabulary learning quite challenging for English learners. But how many words are there in English and how many do you need to learn?
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Do you think that people’s ideas about what’s polite and what’s not polite are the same all over the world or do you think that it depends which country you are in?
In today’s post, I’m going to tell you what I’ve discovered by working with international learners, living abroad and a bit of reading. I wouldn’t call myself an expert but I love learning from my students and followers! I’ve been having some interesting conversations on Facebook over the last few days about mistakes in English and who makes them. Do native speakers make mistakes when they speak English? And what about English teachers?!
Today’s post is another one in my series about confusing words. What words do YOU find confusing in English? Tell me in the comments and I’ll see if I can help you. I might even include your question in a future post.
Whenever I give advice on how to improve speaking skills, the most common response I get is “But I have nobody to talk to.” So what can you do if you're in this situation? In this post, I’m going to give you some possible solutions.
People ask me all the time how they can improve their English speaking skills. I’ve also noticed that some people think they are working on their speaking but actually, they are not doing the right things. That’s what today’s newsletter is all about.
In the classroom and on social media, I’ve been called Katie, Teacher, Teacher Katie, Miss Katie, Mrs Katie, Miss, Mrs, Madam, Ma’am, Sir, Mam, Mom, Mommy, Sister, Aunty, dear, honey, darling and many more!
I’m happy for my students and followers to call me “Katie”. I also accept most other names because I understand that there are cultural differences and I know that people want to be respectful. Some of the names in the above list are better than others and a few are unacceptable in the UK. I wonder if you can guess which ones! Keep reading to find out! My Facebook posts about confusing words continue to be popular so here are some more for you. If there are any words that you find confusing, you can write them in the comments and maybe I’ll include them in my next post!
I’ve had some interesting conversations on Facebook recently about accents, standard English and whether it is or isn’t OK to use “ain’t”! So today’s newsletter is all about what standard English is and what learners should learn and use.
Some of my most popular posts on my Facebook page recently have been about pairs of confusing words so I thought I would share some of these with you here.
If you’d like to learn more, go to my Facebook page, find “search” in the menu and look for “confusing words”. I’ve seen a couple of interesting posts on social media recently about the most important tenses in English. Also, in the past, learners have asked me which tenses are the most commonly used and which they should learn first. That’s what we’re going to talk about today.
One of my favourite things about teaching English is the opportunity to meet people from all over the world and learn about different cultures. I’ve been teaching English for 23 years now and I wonder how many nationalities I’ve met! Over 50 face-to-face, I think, and maybe 100 if I include conversations on social media!
Learners often ask me what the difference is between British and American English. The biggest difference is probably in the vocabulary. We have different words for quite a lot of things, especially when talking about food. So today, I’m going to give you a list of some of these words. If you like watching films and TV shows, this information might be helpful!
I told one of my one-to-one students recently that she has a Turkish accent and she was really embarrassed. I had to reassure her that her pronunciation is good and that I can understand everything she says!
Also, I see so many people on my Facebook page saying things like “I want to speak like a native speaker!” or “I want to have a British accent!” But why?! What’s wrong with having a non-native accent? I’ve seen some interesting conversations about British and American English on social media recently, including on my Facebook page, so I thought I would put all my thoughts together in a post, along with some answers to common questions, which you can find at the end.
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