En esta mini lección te explico como pronunciar correctamente la palabra “water”.
Atención: La pronunciación que aquí te enseño es Canadiense. La palabra water se pronuncia de diferentes formas dependiendo del lugar. Por ejemplo, el sonido de la T es diferente en Reino Unido, Australia, India, Nigeria y otros países cuya lengua oficial es el inglés.
Ve este video con todos los detalles para que aprendas a pronunciar con seguridad esta palabra tan confusa para muchos.
The word like can have many meanings in English depending on the context. According to the Cambridge Dictionary there are more than 10 different definitions for the word like. It can be a noun, verb, adjective, preposition or conjunction in English.
Most English learners, whether beginners or advanced, struggle when they have to answer questions that include the word like or look like. I’ve found that if we identify the key points about these kind of questions you’ll be able to answer correctly and confidently.
Let’s analyze the following questions:
| 1. What (noun) do you like? |
| 2. What do you look like? |
| 3. What are you like? |
Although all the sentences have the word like, the meaning and function of the word like is different in each sentences.
First of all, let’s identify the main verb in each question.
| Question | Verb |
| 1. What (noun) do you like? | like |
| 2. What do you look like? | look |
| 3. What are you like? | be |
Now, let’s analyze what part of the speech the word like is in each sentence.
| Question | Part of speech |
| 1. What (noun) do you like? | verb |
| 2. What do you look like? | preposition |
| 3. What are you like? | preposition |
| Question | Meaning |
| 1. What (noun) do you like? | Tell me about your preferences |
| 2. What do you look like? | Tell me about your physical appearance |
| 3. What are you like? | Tell me about your personality * |
*We can also use the same pattern to ask about animals, food, cities, countries, and the weather. For example: What’s the weather like in your country? What was the food like at the party last night? What is your cat like?
| Question | Answer |
| 1. What kinds of movies do you like watching? | I love watching romantic movies |
| 2. What was the movie like? | It was boring! |
| 3. What does your teacher look like? | She’s short. She has short wavy dark hair. She wears glasses. |
| 4. What is your teacher like? | She’s fun, patient, kind and helpful. |
| 5. What will be the weather tomorrow? | It’ll be cloudy and cold. |
Need more practice! Watch the following video.
Canada is a famous for its winter sports and maple syrup. However, Canada is home to a wide variety of beautiful animals.
In the video below you will find a list of 10 animals native to Canada. Watch the video, listen to the pronunciation of each animal and repeat.
Happy practice!
If you want to learn more about the Canadian biodiversity visit Environment and Climate Change Canada YouTube channel.
Lately most of us have been attending virtual meetings. Zoom has become one of the preferred platforms for working and learning remotely. In one hand virtual meetings have become an effective way to communicate with colleagues, teachers and classmates. On the other they have become a source of stress and anxiety especially for non-English speakers.
This quick guide will offer useful vocabulary and phrases to improve your communication skills online.
First of all you need to become familiar with the icons and their functions. It’s important that you learn how to pronounce their names in English. Some words are universally used around the world but the pronunciation varies according to the language.
Here is a list of words that can help you for your next virtual meeting/ class.
Here are some common phrases used during virtual meetings. How many of them have you heard before?
Money has different names depending on the context. Below there is a list with synonyms, slang and idiomatic expressions to talk about money.
alimony: money given to one spouse by the other for support after a legal separation or divorce
bill: a piece of paper money
bribe: money or favor given or promised in order to influence the judgment or conduct of a person in a position of trust
cash: ready money
check: a written order directing a bank to pay money as instructed
debt: money that needs to be paid in return for something received
dowry: money, goods or properties that a man or woman brings to her wife or husband in marriage
donation: money or gifts given to charity or public institutions
fee: money paid for a service
fine: a sum of money imposed as punishment for an offense
fund: a sum of money or other resources whose principal or interest is set apart for a specific objective
loan: money lent at interest
ransom: money demanded for the release of someone or something from captivity
salary: fixed amount of money paid to someone for regularly their work or services
tax: money imposed by authority on persons or property for public purposes
tip: a sum of money given for a service performed. It’s a synonym of gratuity
wage: money that is paid for labor or services usually according to contract and on an hourly, daily, or piecework basis
bucks: dollars
dough: money in general
chip in: to contribute, to pay for a part of something
cough up: pay or spend an amount of money that you would prefer not to
loaded: wealthy, having a lot of money
it’s on me: the person speaking will pay the whole amount
splurge: spend money freely with no remorse usually on things that you do not need
Canadian Slang:
loonie: one-dollar coin
toonie: two-dollar coin
A penny saved is a penny earned: it is as useful to save money that you already have as it is to earn more
Money doesn’t grow on trees: it requires effort to earn money and it is limited so you must be careful how you spend it
Money makes the world go round: money is extremely important so many ordinary events could not happen without it
Money talks: money gives power and influence to those who possess it
An excellent way to improve your English fluency is by reading extensively. It doesn’t matter if you are a beginner, an intermediate or an advanced student, extensive reading is one of the most effective ways to improve your fluency. Extensive reading is also known as free reading or reading for pleasure. It is widely believed that extensive reading facilitates the acquisition of new words through inferencing and improves comprehension either in your mother tongue or in a foreign language.
1. Look for graded reader series.
A graded book series are books that increase in difficulty depending on the level. Books for beginners have short texts and use more common words while books for advanced learners have longer texts with less common vocabulary.
The most popular graded reader series are
Most of the grades reader series have been produced by British publishers and only one small series have been published in the United States.
Click HERE to find a list that I have created with the most popular books for Beginners, Pre-Intermediate, Intermediate and Advanced English learners.
2. Follow the 5 finger rule
If you are not sure if you are going to understand a book or not, follow the five finger rule.
3. Read, relax and enjoy
Remember that one objective of extensive reading is reading for pleasure and fun. There won’t be any tests or quizzes about the reading. You can read at your own pace and re-read a the paragraphs as many times as you want.
The more you read extensively the more confidence and motivation you gain. That in turn will help you improve your fluency and become a more effective language user.
A fellow teacher, Cris Nishimura from Brazil, recently asked me to talk to her students about the five finger rule for extensive reading. If you want to learn more about it, watch the videos below.
If you speak Spanish here you can watch the video in Spanish
Happy reading!
A great way to improve your pronunciation and fluency is by saying tongue twisters as fast as you can. Tongue twisters are great to exercise your English muscles. Are you ready to complete this fun challenge?
Have you completed the Tongue Twister Intensity level 1? If not, click the button below.
If you are an intermediate/ pre-advanced student, you can use Intensity Level 1 as your warm up.
Let’s warm up
Say each of the following tongue twisters five times as fast as you can. If you are not sure about the correct pronunciation you can play the audio first and repeat after me. Then you can say the tongue twister slowly and when you feel confident about your pronunciation you increase the speed.
2. Flash message
3. Black back bat
Let’s increase the intensity
Say each of the following tongue twisters five times as fast as you can
4. Eleven benevolent elephants
5. Good blood, bad blood
6. Truly rural
7. Red lorry, yellow lorry
8. A big black bug snoozed on a big black rug
DOWNLOAD the worksheet with audio to practice anytime, anywhere.
Try out this tongue twisters and let me know how it went. Which was the most difficult one? Leave your answers in the comments below.
Happy practice!
What does already/ yet mean? Well, it’s not easy to talk about their meaning if we remove them from sentences. For words like already and yet we need to rely on grammar to understand the context and meaning.
Already and yet are time words. More precisely they are adverbs that are commonly used with present perfect.
Present perfect + already/ yet is used to show how a past event relates to the present.
We use already to say that an action has been completed some time in the past, sooner than expected.
Example: I’ve already finished my homework.
We use yet to say that something hasn’t happened when we expected it to happen. It often means that you have the intention to do something but you have not been able to complete the action.
Example: I haven’t studied for my test yet.
We also use yet to ask questions about things that were completed in the past.
Example: Have you called your mom yet?
*We use already to ask questions about things that we already know or to express surprise. We don’t expect an answer we only want to confirm the information.
For example, your mom hears you telling your friend on the phone that you have already studied for your final test. When you hang up, your mom tells you:
“Have you already studied for your final test? I can’t believe it! Back on my days we spent hours studying for the final tests”
Your mom is surprised. She only wants to verify the information that she just heard.
For more examples watch this mini lesson.
More lessons that can help:
The ‘s contraction: Apostrophe + s
If you are looking for a great gift for someone who’s learning English, you should consider looking for a language-focused present. Examples of language-focused gifts are books, audio-books, gadgets and games. These kinds of gifts are great resources designed to help students improve their skills, and enjoy their learning process.
Here you have a list of cool gifts for less than $30 CAD that English learners will love and actually use. These gifts are good for any occasions such as birthdays, graduations, Christmas or any other special holiday.
Apostrophe + S
In English the apostrophe is used to make contractions. It is easy to use contractions when we are in the classroom studying grammar. The problem is when we come across with the same contractions while watching a movie or speaking with other people. In English there are different contractions and one of the most confusing one is the ‘s contraction.
The apostrophe + s or ‘s contraction can represent three of the following situations: is, has or possession.
Look at the following example:
My sister’s husband, who’s an English teacher in Vietnam, speaks three languages. He’s studied Vietnamese for five years and French for one year. Currently, He’s working in a high school in Hanoi.
Can you identify the full form of each of the contractions? If you can, share your answer in the comments below.
If not, watch a mini lesson where I explain the different meanings of ‘s. After you watch it download a guide with more examples to practice on your own.
Useful tips and examples to improve your grammar.