Posts Categorized: Learning English

How to Use Actual, Actually in English: A Top Ten Mistake for Spanish Speakers

One of the top 10 vocabulary mistakes in English made by speakers of Spanish, Italian, French, or other languages derived from Latin comes from confusing the English adjective actual or adverb actually with words that look or sound very similar in the Romance languages, words like actual in Spanish, actuel in French, or attuale in… Read more »

5 Tips for Making New Vocabulary Stick

When you take an English immersion course, you have a great opportunity to expand your vocabulary in English. But how do you make the new words stick in your long-term memory, so that you remember them not just tomorrow, but next week, next month, next year? Here are 5 tips for making new words part of… Read more »

Like vs. As: How to Choose Correctly

Like or as? For English language learners, this is one of the trickier questions. To choose the correct form, ask yourself: Is it followed by a verb?  If the answer is yes, use as. Examples: As I mentioned previously, the meeting will begin at 9 am. It sounded as though she would be late. In each… Read more »

Learn English Prepositions with Photos

Who is the English language student’s enemy number 1? Prepositions. Prepositions are small but pugnacious, refusing to fade into the background. Prepositions laugh at translation (that’s laugh at, not laugh with, because it’s not a friendly laugh). Depende de in Spanish. De = of or from in English. So, it depends of the context, right? Wrong. It depends on… Read more »

Learn English through Classic Songs: They All Laughed

Written by brothers George and Ira Gershwin for the 1937 film Shall We Dance, the famous song They All Laughed has been covered by so many great singers, it won’t be easy to choose your favorite: the original version with Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers? Or Frank Sinatra? Sarah Vaughan? Ella Fitzgerald, Stacey Kent, or… Read more »

Carried Away: What does it mean?

In a recent New York Times interview, iconic American writer and radio host Garrison Keillor was asked: Have you ever felt carried away by a particular place in America? The phrasal verb carried away, used in the passive with the verbs be, feel, or get, means delighted and enraptured, and can also imply getting a… Read more »

Between You and Me: Grammar Conundrums

Between you and me? Between you and I? Between me and you? Even native speakers of English confess to feeling perplexed when it comes to choosing the correct pronouns. In his entertaining podcast Lexicon Valley on the online news website Slate, Mike Vuolo presents a satisfyingly thorough and often funny discussion of the confusion provoked by… Read more »

Comic Strip English – Doonesbury

A great way to practice English is to read the comics – they’re short and funny, they feature everyday English vocabulary that you can really put to use, and like movies they give you plenty of visual clues to what’s going on. A classic American comic strip is Gary Trudeau’s Doonesbury. in circulation since 1970 and featuring such… Read more »

Who vs. Whom: Which is Correct?

Choosing between who and whom, either as a relative pronoun or question word, can be tricky for English language learners and native speakers of English alike. The quick test in choosing between who and whom is to substitute he or him. If he sounds better, who is correct; if him sounds right, whom is correct…. Read more »