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Do you ever feel like you only half know a word? Maybe you sort of know what a word means but not completely. Or maybe you understand the word but you’re not sure how to use it. Did you know that this is true for native speakers as well?
In this post, I’ll show you the different ways you can know (or half know) a word, and how to move words from passive vocabulary to active vocabulary. It's 2025. But how do you say it?
Two thousand twenty-five? Two thousand and twenty-five? Twenty twenty-five? Keep reading to find the answer and learn how to say years and dates in English. How do you feel about phrasal verbs? I know a lot of English learners hate them! They can be difficult to learn and remember. And even worse, one phrasal verb can have different meanings, depending on the context. Today’s blog post will give you a few common phrasal verbs and their different meanings.
A quick quiz! Are these words nouns or verbs?
🔹friend 🔹text 🔹medal 🔹action Now keep reading to check your answer! Has this ever happened to you? You’re having a conversation in English and suddenly you realise that you don’t know a word that you need. Or perhaps you do know it really but you just can’t remember it at that moment. You freeze and don’t know what to do or say next. Then either there’s a long, awkward silence or you just change the subject because you can’t finish saying what you want to say.
So how can you fix this problem? Today’s lesson is about vocabulary but it's also about life in Britain. I’m going to explain the difference between cities, towns and villages in the UK and what it’s like living in these places.
Did you know that at least 80% of English vocabulary actually comes from other languages? This is because of the history of Britain. The main influences on English are Latin, French and Germanic languages, but today, I’m going to share with you some words which come from Spanish.
Some people might read the title of this post and think “Why is Katie writing about this? Does she think we’re stupid? I already know how to use a dictionary!” Please keep reading and let me explain!
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?
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.
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!
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”. 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!
Today’s lesson is all about countable and uncountable nouns. These are not always as easy as you might think. Have a go at my quiz and test your knowledge!
Did you know that there are quite a lot of words in English which are actually borrowed from French? These are called loan words. Do you know the meaning of faux pas, cliché or tête à tête? Keep reading to learn more!
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