1. Education

English Can Be Confusing!

If you study or teach English you know this: English can be confusing! Should you use 'accept' or 'except'? British English or American English? Perhaps you find English spelling rules, irregular verbs, and phrasal verbs confusing.

Confusing English Problems
English as 2nd Language Spotlight10

Are the Bags in the Boot?

Monday June 17, 2013

If you speak American English, you might find the question strange. British English speakers, however, recognize the question right away (translation for American English: Are the bags in the trunk?) The differences between British and American English can be confusing, but aren't that many. It's mainly a matter of pronunciation and a number of different nouns and verbal expressions. If you'd like to "translate" between British and American English, you can use this cross reference tool.

Patterns in English

Friday June 14, 2013

The English language follows six specific sentence patterns in construction.

Understanding these six patterns will help you move on to more advanced sentence writing that is used for text organization when writing essays, business reports, or other important documents.

Tricky Punctuation

Wednesday June 12, 2013

Using a period at the end of a sentence and a question mark at the end of a question are easy. However, there are a number of other types of punctuation that are a little more confusing. Learn how to use quotation marks in your writing with direct speech or literary quotations. How to use an apostrophe can be confusing based on whether you're showing possession with a singular or plural noun. Finally, commas can also be used in a variety of ways.

How Reading Can Improve Your English

Monday June 10, 2013

Reading can improve your English in a variety of way. You can certainly learn a lot of new vocabulary through reading, as well as improve your fluency, but you can also use these suggested exercises:

Reading Tips to Improve Your Conversation Skills
Reading Tips to Improve Your Pronunciation
Reading Tips to Improve Your Vocabulary
Reading Tips to Improve Your Conversational Skills
Reading Tips to Improve Your Grammar
Reading Tips to Improve Your Listening Skills

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