Three Important Grammar Tips for New English Speakers

English grammar can be tricky even for native English speakers, so don't be surprised if you have trouble mastering it when English is not your first language. Here we will discuss three important grammar tips that every new English speaker should learn, accompanied by a free English lesson that helps to make the lesson clear.

1.) Know when and when not to use the articles "a," "an" and "the"

You may already know that you use the article "a" before an indefinite object that starts with a consonant, and the article "an" before an indefinite object that starts with a vowel (a, e, i, o and u). For example, you would say, "an" apple is growing on "a" tree, because the word apple starts with a vowel and the word tree starts with a consonant. However, new English speakers often have trouble distinguishing between an indefinite object and a definite object.

After all, not all English words require the articles "a" or "an" and definite objects often require the article "the." To help you differentiate when you need to use each word, you can take advantage of the following free English lesson by World English on English Articles. In this free lesson, you will get a tutorial on when and when not to use the articles "a," "an," and "the." You will also have access to five exercises that test the information you learned at different difficulty levels.

2.) Know what to do with irregular verbs

It's great when English verbs are regular because you always know what to do with them to make them fit in the past, present and future tenses. However, there are numerous verbs in English that are irregular and can trip up new English speakers because the verbs don't follow the regular rules. Some of those verbs include the following: eat, drink, sing, speak, sleep, teach, pay, say, come and go. You can't simply add an "-ed" to the end to make them past tense.

For instance, the correct way to conjugate the English verb "teach" to the past tense is not "teached." The correct conjugation is "taught." Regular verbs follow a much simpler pattern. For instance, to convert the English verb "kick" to the past tense, all you need to do is add an "-ed" to the end. To sharpen your skills with irregular verbs in English, you can take advantage of a free English lesson on Irregular Verbs from English Grammar Secrets. The lesson teaches students how to classify and remember the different irregular English verbs and provides eight exercises to help teach you the difference between the two.

3.) Know the difference between active and passive voice in English

There are two different ways you can say that a man is kicking a football. You can start with the man and say this sentence: "The man kicks the football" You can also put the football first and say: "The football is kicked by the man" Both sentences are correct, but the first sentence uses active voice and the second sentence uses passive voice.

You can learn more about the difference between active and passive voice by reading this free English lesson on active and passive verb forms on English Page. The lesson includes a helpful overview with numerous example sentences showing the differences between active and passive voice in English.

This guest contribution was submitted by Jamie Davis, who specializes in writing about masters degree. Questions and comments can be sent to: davis.jamie17@gmail.com.

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IELTS Task 1 - Describing a process

The illustrations show how chocolate is produced. Summarise the information by selecting and reporting the main features.

The process demonstrates how chocolate is made from the initial stage of plucking ripe red pods off the cocoa trees located in South America, Africa and Indonesia to the final stage of producing liquid chocolate.

Initially white cocoa beans are extracted from the harvested pods when they are ripe. Following fermentation, they are spread out in the sun and left to dry. Once the dry beans have been placed in sacks they are ready to be transported to a factory by train or lorry.

In the factory, the beans are roasted at high temperatures. They are then crushed in a rotating machine once their outer shell has been removed. Finally, liquid chocolate is produced by pressing the inner part of the bean with the help of large rollers.

To sum up, there are ten main steps involved in the production of chocolate and the transformation of a ripe cocoa pod into an edible form.

Question from Objective Ielts, Students Book p.19

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English Conversation Class Ideas

Speaking is one of the most difficult skills in English teaching. Because students can get so easily embarrassed or nervous, conversation exercises need to be mindful of just over numerous other activities. The most important thing to remember when running a course of conversation, is to always make the student feel as comfortable as possible. Give plenty of positive encouragement and not get caught up in correcting minor errors.

Role Play

Perhaps the year's most frequently taught speaking is the role play. This technique is useful in a class because it allows students to practice skills and words that should not normally be used in the classroom or in everyday situations. The idea behind the role play is simply to act. Two other students over to meet and pretend they are in a specific situation, as two tourists try to rent a hotel room, or someone who tries to make a good impression in a job interview .

Class Discussion

Class discussion is also useful when the conversation class teaching, but the trick is to choose a subject engaging. Selecting something that is in the interest of your students is key. Possible topics include: some countries, foods, cultures, laws, health, grammar and many others. Once you've chosen a topic, prepare specific questions about it to initiate and maintain discussion. For example, if your choice of bread. What is the bread? How can you do? Is white or brown better and why? How important is yeast? These types of questions help students reflect on the topic in detail and respond using the specialized vocabulary.

Bridging Gaps

The idea behind this exercise is that students have different information to match a number of categories. For example, categories could be: the films name, occupation, date of birth, hobbies and favorites. Each category contains information on at least five different people, but each student can have one third or one fourth of this information. The student must then ask my colleagues: "Who has a birthday on that date?" Or "What is John's favorite movie?" This encourages conversation in a small low pressure environment where students do not talk to the class.

Questionnaires

Questionnaires are just like they sound. They usually contain a list of questions centered around a different category such as sports or recreation. Students must then go around the room and ask questions to a number of his peers and then note the answers. It is a good exercise to combine speaking, listening and writing. When finished, each student can choose one interviewee and read his answers to the class.

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Essay Writing Exercises

"Essay" The word comes from "exigere, the Latin word which means to test or hunt. This gives an overview of what teachers expect of high school and college newspapers. Tests are a means of assessment that allows teachers to assess a student's ability to critically examine and present their ideas on a given topic. Essay writing exercises should help students in both writing and critical analysis.

Pre-writing

Pre-writing exercises help students to formulate their concept and start the analysis of their ideas. Pre-writing is to choose a topic, generate ideas, gathering information, narrow your focus and organize your main ideas. Use brainstorming and pre-writing exercises emphasizing that. Give students a topic and ask them to write all the ideas they may imagine. This allows them to test their current knowledge and reflect on their subjects. So, let them make a plan that includes a thesis, at least three main points and supporting evidence.

Describing exercises help your students learn to structure their ideas into a coherent whole. They use a graphic organizer or a traditional pattern structure, each section of their plan should take account of paragraph structure, with a main point and sufficient development. It teaches them to think logically and will save them time when they write and revise their essays.

Thesis

A lot of student’s effort to write a thesis, as it involves analysis, synthesis and relationship. An excellent thesis is generally given in the introduction answers the unspecified question behind the subject of the essay. It gives the main argument, organizes ideas and provides the reader with a general guide for the test. Students need practice to properly convey this information in a succinct sentence or two.

Help your students to practice writing theses by providing a list of topics. Ask them to find ideas in silence on the subject, then write two or three arguments for each topic. Ask them to review their list of arguments, noting in the margin beside each argument if it contains their main argument, and briefly mentions their support points in the order they are to follow when writing the test. Collect these exercises and provide written comments, helping to identify theses have been more effective and why.

Introductions and Conclusions

The most essential parts of the test are the introduction and conclusion, as they connect readers to the subject. The introduction is the very important to make an impression to the readers to decide whether or not they continue to read. The conclusion that the last expression, determines the impression they leave with and whether or not it will control their thoughts and events. Because these items are so important, your students need to practice regularly and learn to integrate basic information with techniques that engage readers.

Take a topic that your students have already considered and outlined. Ask them to write several listings on the same subject using different LADES, or "hook" to attract the attention of their readers. They can experiment with statistics, questions, quotes, anecdotes and descriptions. Ask them to choose the introduction they think is most effective. Have them practice writing different conclusions for the same subject and choose which is most effective. Read some of their introductions and conclusions aloud and discuss what makes them effective and how they might be improved.

Revision

Students must learn to revise and edit their essays. It helps them improve their ideas, be sure to test them effectively treats the subject and eliminate grammatical errors or stylistic. Identify errors and weaknesses of his own test is more difficult than identifying someone else's test. Many textbooks and resource sites online to provide samples for testing students revise. Either give one of these sample tests to your students for them to revise, or cause to revise documents and test a classmate. After they reviewed the work and someone else's editing, publishing have their own practice.

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VocaTube - Learn how to say many different places in English

Knowing how to say different places like the airport, the bus or train station, the cafeteria, the supermarket, the school, the theme park, the library or many other is key in English. In many occasions you have to go to a specific place and have to let people know or need to ask how to get there.

On this new episode of the VocaTube series, we’re bringing you a list of videos sorted according to the levels of difficulty with which you’ll learn the most relevant English vocabulary related to several places.

Remember that vocabulary can only be improved with practice and listening through repetition. It’s difficult for everyone to understand from the beginning but you’ll notice that the more hours you listen, the better your understanding.

Very good subtitled video that describes many places – elementary English



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Places around town – elementary English



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How to say more places in English – elementary English



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Places in your neighbourhood – elementary English



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Places in my town that includes a description about each place – elementary English



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Good video with questions and answers to learn places around town – intermediate English



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Excellent subtitled video that shows several departments in a market – intermediate English



Link to the video on YouTube

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Secret of Successful English Writing - Write as You Speak!

English writing is not a big issue if most writing you have to do is work-related. Sending e-mails describing various issues and communicating with your colleagues and superiors is pretty straightforward and you don’t have to be creative to pull it off.

When it comes to writing something more specific – like doing college tests, writing letters or even a short story, things can get on top of you and you can suddenly start feeling as if you’re required to write in a certain way, but you just can’t delivered that writing style!

The key to successful English writing is as simple as it might sound a bit confusing to some – you have to speak first, and then write!

To write successfully in English you need to have a clearly formed thought in your head, and it’s not a surprise anymore that so far you haven’t been able to write good enough. When we think, we don’t have clearly formulated sentences floating in our minds. All we have is abstract concepts, flash-like notions and work-chunks. There’s not much to write if want to duplicate your mind’s content on paper!

You need to create meaningful English content even before you start writing something, and that simply means to speak first, and then put it down on paper. It may sound childish at first, but remember that your aim is to be effective and if you can achieve 100% improvement of your English writing skills, should you really care about how it’s achieved?

And here’s another factor why we, foreign English speakers, find it a bit more difficult to write in English. When we think, there’s much of our own language’s content in our minds. Speaking the words out helps us to create meaningful English sentences, simple as that!

When I write articles for my blog, I always speak during the process to help myself write the actual sentences. I’d come back later to correct mistakes, change words and proofread the article; in the first draft I don’t care so much about the article’s technical quality.

So when you create a piece of written English material, your task number one is to verbalize your thoughts into a sentence, and number two – put it down on a paper or a word processing software on a computer.

You don’t need to speak very loud; all you actually need to do is speak quietly at yourself so that you can focus your mind! You probably wouldn’t believe that such a simple technique would result in a radical English writing improvement; nonetheless, it works very well for those who’ve always perceived writing to be something special.

The reality is that you have to perceive English writing as a tangible form of spoken language and all of a sudden it will become much easier to produce a nice, easy-to-read piece of English text!

Guest post from English learning enthusiast Robby Kukurs. Robby writes about improving spoken English on his blog EnglishHarmony.com. He also regularly posts videos about improving English fluency on his YouTube channel.

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VocaTube - learn hundreds of adjectives in English using YouTube

Adjectives are one of the key elements that determine the richness of a language. It’s important getting to know a big variety of adjectives so you’re able to describe things without having to keep using “good”, “bad”, “nice” and “ugly”.

In this post we have gathered several YouTube videos that contain many adjectives in English to help you increasing and improving your vocabulary.

Remember that vocabulary can only be improved with practice and listening through repetition. It’s difficult for everyone to understand from the beginning but you’ll notice that the more hours you listen, the better your understanding.

Starter video for adjectives in English – elementary English



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Basic adjectives in English, part 1 – elementary English



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More basic adjectives in English, part 2 – elementary English



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A good photo story with some adjectives – elementary English



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Adjectives to describe animals – intermediate English



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Excellent video that explains the adjectives through a story, part 1 – intermediate English



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The story continues to explain the four principal functions of adjectives, part 2 – intermediate English



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Third part of this story that explains how to use adjectives to compare – intermediate English



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Interesting song to practice the adjectives in English – intermediate English



Link to the video on YouTube

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How to Vitaminize Your English Grammar and Boost Your Communication Skills

Whether you’re studying English individually or you randomly meet with a group of students, there are many tips you can take and practice to improve your communication skills.

They say that the first impression is a lasting impression. Grammar imperfections are not acceptable and give off a sloppy understanding of the person’s knowledge of the language. The wrong idea can get across causing an erroneous belief of something. Here are some suggestions to help you sweep away those haunting errors and improve your grammar skills.

First things first, there’s nothing like studying home alone because you have absolute concentration. Some people may find this boring but if you’re taking English lessons in Toronto, learning the language alone has its benefits. You should use a good grammar book and mark yourself daily lessons. As you go through each lesson take notes of particular inquiries that may come up and use today’s best learning tool, the Internet, to help clarify your doubts.

Some common mistakes in grammar are using “your” versus “you’re”. “You’re” is the contraction form for the words “you are” and “your” shows possession of something. Go online and search for examples of ways these words or any other words you have questions about, are used. You can then exchange notes online with students taking Spanish classes in Washington and compare your comprehension of the language.

The most important obstacle to overcome when adapting a new language is identifying everyday bloopers and learning not to repeat them. When you’re searching the Internet, look for regular mishaps other students like yourself do and accustom yourself not to repeat them. Eventually you will come to realize not to reuse that word or phrase when you have to write or communicate orally with someone. Practise makes perfect so the more you practise that better you’ll get your thoughts across.

Make sure the grammar book you are using has the answers in the back unit. This is a great item to use for self test and checking. After you’ve gone through a lesson, make yourself a checklist and go over each skill you’ve learned. Then use the answer key in the back of the book to put your apprentice to test. This is very self-satisfying and rewarding. You can also take advantage of online exercises and quizzes.

Reading out loud is a great way to not only rehearse your writing skills but also to help your memory. It’s important to hear yourself speaking out loud because it’ll help you identify if you’ve structured a sentence incorrectly. Reading silently what we’ve written helps us mentally picture what we’re trying to communicate but speaking out loud helps focus on the idea we’re trying to get across. The more you repeat things the more you’ll register these grammar points and they’ll come out of you naturally in future conversations.

If you have the chance to talk with a native speaker of the language, great! Meet at a nice coffee shop and conversate in English or whatever language you’ve decided to learn, and have them listen and identify your speaking habits. If you don’t know of any native speakers you can always join forums or chat rooms and talk to someone online. This is a great possibility because you can be tested on your writing and oral skills if you speak through Skype. Most importantly, you should have fun learning a new language. The more comfortable you feel with the language, the more flexible your learning habits will become.

Guest Post written by Ivana. Ivana is a freelance writer who specializes in Languages. Her passion for writing has given her the chance to write for blog spots in a variety of subjects.

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Intensity of adverbs and adjective

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