Top articles

• dépaysement

  07 novembre 2009 ( #Vocabulary )

  Madagascar A student, just back from a holiday, said that it had been a real "dépaysement". Not easy to express the same thing in English... Of course you could say "It was a real change of scenery", but I think that "dépaysement" is more than that. The...

• Why do the French drive on the right?

  24 septembre 2011 ( #Culture )

  The other day I was listening to the radio, and they talked about why the English drive on the right. I had never heard an explanation for this, and I guess most of you haven't either, so I thought I will publish a short article about the subject.. "In...

• Uncountable nouns

  27 juillet 2011 ( #Grammar )

  I really like teaching this subject. So, let's start: What do you have to know about "uncountable nouns"? Well, you cannot count them. So - not "a" or "an" or "one" + noun - not 2 , 3, 4, etc. plus plural noun - no plural verbs. Example: "news" is uncountable....

• Phonetics

  08 juillet 2018

  Some information about phonetics... This is from the blog LANGUAGE BASE CAMP: "Language Base Camp’s mission is to be a community-based hub where language learners and language lovers can connect and help each other along the path to learning languages....

• Reddit: English fluency = intelligence ???

  07 décembre 2014

  1771 points et 157 commentaires sur reddit On Reddit the picture above was published today. In a funny way it shows the problems that non-native speakers of English have: the fact that their English is not perfect might give people the wrong impression...

• past simple: doubling of final consonants

  14 septembre 2010 ( #Grammar )

  That really amazes me: even after teaching for so many years, I'm still discovering new things... For instance, last Friday I was teaching a student about the past simple, when he asked about when you have to double the consonant. In the course book it...

• gradable / non-gradable adjectives

  24 janvier 2012 ( #Vocabulary )

  This is a subject I had managed to avoid teaching until last week, when I was 'forced' to have a closer look at it. I really don't think that it is a very important subject, but as I have all the information I might as well share it with you. So you have...

• Furniture vocabulary

  18 janvier 2012 ( #Vocabulary )

  First of all "Happy New Year" to all of you! I will start the year with a vocabulary list. I know, I know, not very exciting. But in fact lots of students don't know this kind of vocabulary. So here is a list of furniture: living room: sofa = canapé sofa...

• Zéro

  06 janvier 2010 ( #Vocabulary )

  Now it would have been easy if in English you could just translate it by zero. Well, you can, but not always. 1) You say "zero": for the number: 0 "the number zero" for temperature: -5°C "Five degrees below zero" 2) you say "nought" before the decimal...

• "sans privé" ?

  11 novembre 2009 ( #Vocabulary )

  Yesterday I was reading an article on a website about the flu vaccine. Someone had written a comment, saying something like "Le vaccin est disponible, pourquoi sans privé?" Sans prive? It took me a few seconds to understand that he meant: "pourquoi s'en...

• difference between 'of' and 'off'

  20 janvier 2011 ( #Grammar )

  One of my students asked me what the difference was between 'of' and 'off'. While looking for a suitable answer on the internet I stumbled upon this website: http://www.differencebetween.net/. They even have a special language section: http://www.differencebetween.net/category/language/...

• présent simple

  08 avril 2010 ( #Grammar )

  I have "discovered" that the French présent simple can be translated by loads of different tenses in English. 1) present simple J'habite en France. I live in France. 2) present continuous J'écris sur mon blog. I'm writing on my blog. 3) present perfect...

• WordReference.com

  14 mars 2010 ( #External links )

  My favourite language website is www.wordreference.com . This website provides an online dictionary, and also language forums. On these forums you can ask specific questions about words/expressions that you don't know how to translate, or you can ask...

• moral /morale

  06 novembre 2009 ( #Vocabulary )

  In one of the coursebooks they talk about 'boost company morale". When I looked "moral" up in the dictionnary, I made an interesting discovery! English French the morale le moral the moral la morale How not to get confused!! Example sentences: English...

• false friends: furniture, chance, library

  07 novembre 2009 ( #Vocabulary )

  There are a lot of false friends... Some of the more common ones are: 1) furniture (En) / fournitures (Fr) furniture (En) = les meubles fournitures (Fr) = supplies Yesterday I bought new furniture for my living room. (Hier j'ai acheté des meubles for...

• interlocuteur

  06 décembre 2009 ( #Vocabulary )

  Some words are very difficult to translate. In fact you wonder how it is possible that in one language a word can be commonly used , when in another language it doesn't even exist. One of these words is the French "interlocuteur". There is no English...

• "appel d'offre"

  09 décembre 2012 ( #Vocabulary )

  I am often asked to translate the French expression: "appel d'offre". In the beginning I didn't have a clue, but after a couple of times I decided to check the English equivalent. Appel d'offre = Call for tenders = Call for bids = Invitation to tender...

• the 'real' origin of some well-known proverbs, customs, etc.

  26 mars 2013 ( #Culture )

  My colleague Anne sent me this interesting text yesterday. EDIT: apparently all the 'explanations' are incorrect, but it is fun to read anyway. Read this website to get the real explanations: http://historymedren.about.com/od/dailylifesociety/a/bod_hoax.htm...

• Website: www.literature.org

  01 juillet 2012 ( #External links )

  Just an interesting link: www.literature.org On this website you can find some British novels and short stories. Among others: Louisa May Alcott - Little Women Charlotte Bronte - Jane Eyre Emily Bronte - Wuthering Heights Lewis Carroll - Alice's Adventures...

• belle-mère

  11 novembre 2009 ( #Vocabulary )

  In English you have to translations for "belle-mère". One is "mother-in-law", the other is "step-mother". Your "mother-in-law" is the mother of your husband/wife. Your "step-mother" is your father's wife; someone he got married to after he (for instance)...

• right / wrong

  16 novembre 2009 ( #Vocabulary )

  A question today about the difference between true/false and right/wrong..... 1)You say of a statement that is "true" or "false". "The sun is bigger than the Earth." = True (Fr: vrai) "The moon is bigger than the Earth." = False (Fr: faux) 2) "You are...

• "English for poetry....."

  16 juin 2010 ( #Culture )

  Following up on my previous article, where I mentioned the "Académie Française", I just want to mention Maurice Druon (who died in 2009). Mr Druon was the secretary of the Académie Française and he had (in my opinion) very bizarre ideas about languages....

• could

  17 avril 2013 ( #Grammar )

  How you can use "could" + infinitive.. 1) request permission to do something Could I ask you a question? Could I ask a question please? Could we go home now? (In this case "could" is the polite version of "can"; "may" is another polite version." 2) past...

• Pronunciation of "gh"

  04 janvier 2010 ( #Pronunciation )

  The "gh" at the end of a word is rarely pronounced, in fact they are silent letters. Some examples of words where you don't pronounce them : high (Fr: haut) to weigh (Fr: peser) although (Fr: bien que) though (Fr: bien que) through (Fr: à travers) In...

• How do you say 2010?

  02 janvier 2010 ( #Culture )

  How do you say 2010? It's a good question. Up to 1999, we would say the year by saying the 4 numbers two by two.So 1999 is: nineteen ninety-nine.And 1825 is: eighteen twenty-five, etc.etc. The year 2000 is pronounced as "two thousand"2001 : two thousand...