Top articles

• sport

  22 avril 2010 ( #Vocabulary )

  French is easy in this respect, you can almost always say "faire de" + sport, for instance "faire du vélo". In English it is a little more complicated. You have different ways to say it: 1) to play volleyball, tennis, basketball, badminton, rugby, football,...

• The Queen's English Society

  13 juin 2010 ( #Culture )

  This society wants to do something similar to the "Académie Française"; that is to decide what is correct English and what isn't. Personally, I really dislike the Académie Française, and for the same reasons that I dislike the "Queen's English Society":...

• Comparison USA - Germany

  10 avril 2010 ( #External links )

  OK, so this is a little off-topic, but I think that this rather long article is really interesting. It's written by a German who currently lives in the USA. It gives a good insight into American culture, from a European point-of-view. Some extracts: "The...

• OUP English Language Teaching on Youtube

  23 janvier 2011 ( #External links )

  I've just found some interesting videos on YouTube. International Express Elementary: "Berghaus" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CV0ZQzpmkQk International Express Pre-Intermediate: "Venice" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bOTNxk32scw International Express...

• Youtube: 21 accents

  03 mars 2011 ( #External links )

  Yesterday I found this video on Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/embed/3UgpfSp2t6k In this video a young woman says the same sentences with different accents: The accents are from: 1. London, England 2. London, England 3. London, England 4. Dublin, Ireland...

• pronunciation: equipment

  07 novembre 2009 ( #Pronunciation )

  In French you pronounce the French word "équipement" /ekipman/ In English you pronounce "equipment" as /i'kwipment/ On of the difficulties of correctly pronouncing this word is the word stress: equipment, but we'll talk about that later... The other difficulty...

• #hashtag

  26 janvier 2013 ( #Culture )

  "French say 'non' to the t erm hashtag in battle to stop English words violating their language" On the website of the Daily Mail you can find an article about the Académie Française who decided to forbid the word 'hashtag' (used on Twitter) and replace...

• "English: it's a neologism thang, innit"

  10 mai 2011 ( #Culture )

  An interesting article in The Guardian yesterday (Monday May 9th 2011): http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/may/09/neologism-thang-scrabble-abominations Some extracts: "Standardized spelling soon followed, and the British generally chose the...

• odd

  03 mars 2011 ( #Vocabulary )

  I have always liked the word "odd". Difficult to say why... One of the reasons is the spelling: a vowel + 2 consonants; but as a student pointed out this afternoon, there are other words in English with this pattern. And when I thought about it, I found...

• Cheltenham

  16 décembre 2009 ( #Culture )

  Not an article about language this time... From 1988 till 1990 we lived in this beautiful town in England: Cheltenham.Just below a picture of "Lansdown Terrace", where we lived in a flat on the second floor.It was very close to the town centre and there...

• why a blog

  06 novembre 2009 ( #Why a blog? )

  Why would I want to write a blog? It will probably not get noticed amidst the millions of other blogs on the web.But I really think it would be a pity not to find a way to "remember" all the interesting things that come out of the English lessons, like:-...

• Relative Clauses: Pronouns

  22 juillet 2016 ( #Grammar )

  Defining Relative Clauses: relative pronouns Defining relative clauses give detailed information defining a general term or expression. Defining relative clauses are not put in commas. Defining relative clauses are often used in definitions. Object pronouns...

• make or do?

  28 janvier 2010 ( #Vocabulary )

  The French verb "faire" can be translated by "to make" or "to do"! And it is not easy to know which one to choose! 1) to do (when you talk about an activity) faire le ménage = do the housework faire les devoirs = do homework faire la vaisselle = do the...

• "Borgen" or watching TV with subtitles

  26 novembre 2013

  I always tell my students to watch American/English films in English, with French subtitles. I am convinced that it helps them to improve their English, even if they don't understand much of what is being said. Recently I had the opportunity to try this...

• Evolingo

  19 juin 2013

  One of my students talked about 'Evolingo'. Evolingo is a free online e-learning system. This is the link:http://www.evolingo.com/ I'm happy to pass on this information.. I haven't tried it myself (well only just a little), so I would be very interested...

• Ms.

  09 juillet 2017 ( #Culture, #Vocabulary )

  When teaching 'writing emails', I always have to explain Ms to my students. They know Mr , Mrs and Miss , but in general it's the first time they encounter Ms . By MARGALIT FOX JULY 6, 2017 (New York Times) Sheila Michaels, who half a century ago, wielding...

• Abbreviations for emails and text-messages

  25 novembre 2009 ( #Culture )

  I just found this very interesting list of the abbreviatons you can use in emails; Some are very well known, like: FYI (for your information) ASAP (as soon as possible) but most of these abbreviations are completely new to me: (they can be find on this...

• French words in the English language

  29 novembre 2010 ( #Vocabulary )

  There are a lot of French words in the English language. Some of them have been imported a long time ago, some more recently. Most of them have kept their meaning, at least partly... beret (round flat cap) boutique (small shop that sells fashionable clothes...

• you (thou)

  03 février 2010 ( #Culture )

  Pe rsonally I really like the fact that in English there is no difference between "tu" and "vous". Here in France it's always complicated to figure out which of the two to use. Although I would prefer to say "tu" to most people, I find that the road to...

• Bilingualism: Good for the brain

  15 octobre 2010 ( #Culture )

  Bilingual education is controversial in the United States, but a growing body of research shows that regularly speaking two languages comes with certain types of improved mental performance. In a Perspective article appearing today in the journal Science,...

• Question piège!

  26 novembre 2009 ( #Vocabulary )

  "Ah, il avait plein de questions piège dans ce test!!""Tiens, on dit ça comment en anglais?" Euh... OK. 1) "une question piège" = "a trick question". but: 2) une piège = a trap For instance: "We found a fox with his leg in a trap." Or " "When Mary begins...

• The cousin explainer

  16 décembre 2018

  A lot of people find it difficult to know how to explain family relationships. The image above might help you. This is an image of a tea towel, but it is sold out, and I don't know which company made it. Below you can find as well the French version of...

• s'inscrire / s'abonner

  16 novembre 2009 ( #Vocabulary )

  Words that students often ask to have translated are "s'inscrire" and "s'abonner". s'inscrire à (un cours/école): to enrol on a course to register for a course to enrol in a school to join swimming lessons to join a club Inscription = enrolment AE: to...

• website: www.bbc.co.uk

  24 novembre 2009 ( #External links )

  I just discovered an interesting website: BBC Worldservice On this website you can find subjects like: pronunciation, vocabulary, quizzes,etc. as well as links to a series on Youtube "The flatmates" specially designed for English languages learners. Here...

• All by myself

  03 décembre 2009 ( #Vocabulary )

  Some might know this song by Eric Carmen/Céline Dion. It was made famous by the movie "Bridget Jones diary". Here is an extract of this movie: All by myself In English there are quite a few expressions that mean : "seul" 1) alone "Alone" just means "seul",...