How Do I Get Good At English?

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A question I am often asked and the following are the same answers I tell my students. These are activities are for when you are not talking with a decent English speaker.



1. The Cambridge Dictionary Online. 

There are many online dictionaries like Longman, Miriam Webster and Dictionary.com BUT Cambridge not only has the meaning but the UK and American pronunciation of the same word.

2. YouTube

In the YouTube Search window, please type  (word you want to know how to pronounce) + "pronunciation" . You should get several choices how to pronounce the word,

3 . NPR ( National Public Radio)

It is just a 5 minute news show  that is updated every hour. If you are not sure  about what you heard the article is usually available in the website itself to help you fill in the blanks.   


4. Aesop's Fables 

Timeless stories with practical lessons often told through animals.  Almost every story is also available on Youtube  to help you check your understanding of the text. Often includes older English words that have faded out of the lexicon for more modern counterparts.

5. Read

Pick a topic you like/ love and read whatever they have in English about it. It does not matter if it is baseball, auto mechanics, hair dressing, politics or business. There are several reasons for this. Your interest in the topic not only motivates you to read the topic but it actually helps in learning new vocabulary and makes your brain more fertile to learning . While you read and read more about a topic you are interested in, you are absorbing the form or syntax of properly written English. This helps develop your "ear" for English. You will find yourself saying something then correcting it right after because your inner voice tells you that your initial sentence was grammatically wrong. That inner voice is developed through exposure to good English.




6. Watch and Listen

You are probably doing this already but I suggest you watch movies and TV shows where the dialogue is very important to appreciating the story. A trio of movies from the 1990s that I watch and listen to over and over again are: A Few Good Men, The Usual Suspects and The Hunt For Red October. A TV show I would recommend is the original Star Trek which is over 50 years old.



Of course the best tip is to always speak English preferably with somebody who can give you constructive feedback on what you are saying,

Perches and Purchase

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perch¹

/pərCH/

noun

plural noun: perches

1. 1.

   a thing on which a bird alights or roosts, typically a branch or a horizontal rod or bar in a birdcage.

   synonyms:

   pole, rod, branch, roost, rest, resting place "the chicken's perch"

   • 
     

verb

3rd person present: perches

1. 1.

   (of a bird) alight or rest on something.

   
   

   "a herring gull perched on the mast"

   synonyms:

   roost, sit, rest; More

pur·chase

/ˈpərCHəs/

verb

verb: purchase; 3rd person present: purchases; past tense: purchased; past participle: purchased; gerund or present participle: purchasing

1. 1.

   acquire (something) by paying for it; buy.

   
   

   "Mr. Gill spotted the manuscript at a local auction and purchased it for $1,500"

   synonyms:

   buy, pay for, acquire, obtain, pick up, snap up, take, procure; More

   antonyms:

   sell

   • ARCHAIC

     obtain or achieve with effort or suffering.

     
     

     "the victory was purchased by the death of Rhiwallon"
2. 2.

   NAUTICAL

   haul in (a rope or cable) or haul up (an anchor) by means of a pulley, lever, etc.

noun

noun: purchase; plural noun: purchases

1. 1.

   the action of buying something.

   
   

   "the large number of videos currently available for purchase"

   • a thing that has been bought.

     
     

     "she stowed her purchases in the car"
   • LAW

     the acquisition of property by means other than inheritance.

     synonyms:

     acquisition, buy, investment, order, bargain; More

     antonyms:

     sale

   • ARCHAIC

     the annual rent or return from land.
2. 2.

   a hold or position on something for applying power advantageously, or the advantage gained by such application.

   
   

   "the horse's hooves fought for purchase on the slippery pavement"

   synonyms:

   grip, grasp, hold, foothold, toehold, anchorage, attachment, support; More

   • a block and tackle.

Our Hour And Are

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our

/ˈou(ə)r,är/

determiner

possesive pronoun: our

1. 1.

   belonging to or associated with the speaker and one or more other people previously mentioned or easily identified.

   "Jo and I had our hair cut"

   • belonging to or associated with people in general.

     "when we hear a sound, our brains identify the source quickly"
2. 2.

   used by a writer, editor, or monarch to refer to something belonging to or associated with himself or herself.

   "we want to know what you, our readers, think"

hour

/ˈou(ə)r/

noun

noun: hour; plural noun: hours

1. 1.

   a period of time equal to a twenty-fourth part of a day and night and divided into 60 minutes.

   "an extra hour of daylight"

   • a less definite period of time.

     "during the early hours of the morning"
   • the distance traveled in one hour.

     "Ocean City is less than an hour away"
2. 2.

   a point in time.

   "I wondered if my last hour had come"

   • a time of day specified as an exact number of hours from midnight or midday.

     "the clock in the sitting room struck the hour"
   • a time so specified on the 24-hour clock.

     "the first bomb fell at 0051 hours"
   • the time as formerly reckoned from sunrise.

     "it was about the ninth hour"
3. 3.

   a fixed period of time for an activity, such as work, use of a building, etc.

   "shortened working hours"
4. 4.

   (in the Western Church) a short service of psalms and prayers to be said at a particular time of day, especially in religious communities.

are¹

/är,ər/

1. 2nd person singular present and 1st, 2nd, 3rd person plural present of be.

are²

/er,är/

noun

HISTORICAL

noun: are; plural noun: ares

1. a metric unit of measure, equal to 100 square meters (about 119.6 square yards).

Origin

late 18th century: from French, from Latin area (see area).

be

/bē/

verb

3rd person present: are

1. 1.

   exist.

   "there are no easy answers"

   synonyms:

   exist, have being, have existence; More

   • be present.

     "there is a boy sitting on the step"
2. 2.

   occur; take place.

   "the exhibition will be in November"

   synonyms:

   occur, happen, take place, come about, arise, crop up, transpire, fall, materialize, ensue; More

   • occupy a position in space.

     "the Salvation Army store was on his left"

     synonyms:

     be situated, be located, be found, be present, be set, be positioned, be placed, be installed "the bed is over there"

   • stay in the same place or condition.

     "she was here until about ten-thirty"

     synonyms:

     remain, stay, last, continue, survive, endure, persist, prevail; More

   • attend.

     "the days when she was in school"
   • come; go; visit.

     "he's from Missouri"
3. 3.

   having the state, quality, identity, nature, role, etc., specified.

   "Amy was 91"

   • cost.

     "the tickets were $25"
   • amount to.

     "one and one is two"
   • represent.

     "let A be a square matrix of order n"
   • signify.

     "we were everything to each other"
   • consist of; constitute.

     "the monastery was several three-story buildings"

Except And Expect

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ex·cept

/ikˈsept/

preposition

1. 1.

   not including; other than.

   
   

   "naked except for my socks"

   
   

   synonyms:

   excluding, not including, excepting, omitting, not counting, but, besides, apart from, aside from, barring, bar, other than, saving; More

conjunction

1. 1.

   used before a statement that forms an exception to one just made.

   
   

   "I didn't tell him anything, except that I needed the money"

   • 
     

verb

FORMAL

1. 1.

   specify as not included in a category or group; exclude.

   
   

   "he excepted from his criticism a handful of distinguished writers"

   
   

   synonyms:

   exclude, omit, leave out, count out, disregard;  exempt "lawyers are all crooks, present company excepted"

   ex·pect

   /ikˈspekt/

   verb

   verb: expect; 3rd person present: expects; past tense: expected; past participle: expected; gerund or present participle: expecting

   1. regard (something) as likely to happen.

      
      

      "we expect the best"

      
      

      synonyms:

      anticipate, await, look for, hope for, look forward to; More

      • regard (someone) as likely to do or be something.

        
        

        "they were not expecting him to continue"

        
        

        synonyms:

        suppose, presume, think, believe, imagine, assume, surmise; More

      • believe that (someone or something) will arrive soon.

        
        

        "Celia was expecting a visitor"
      • look for (something) from someone as rightfully due or requisite in the circumstances.

        
        

        "we expect great things of you"

        
        

        synonyms:

        require, ask for, call for, want, insist on, demand "we expect total loyalty"

      • require (someone) to fulfill an obligation.

        
        

        "we expect employers to pay a reasonable salary"
      • INFORMAL

        used to indicate that one supposes something to be so, but has no firm evidence or knowledge.

        
        

        "they're just friends of his, I expect"

   
   

Two Different Meanings Of Concentrate

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Two meanings of concentrate:

1) Think intensely.

Concentrate on your golf swing on the 17th hole.




2) Flavor compressed into a small place and you need to add water to make your drink taste normal.

Example : concentrated orange juice.