Pronunciation Practice

Finding English pronunciation tricky?

Having problems with English pronunciation? Well, don't be too hard on yourself - blame the language! Is it any surprise people have problems speaking English clearly when we pronounce words like 'once' with a /w/, but then ignore the /w/ completely in 'answer'. Why on earth are words like 'Wednesday' pronounced as 'wensday'? And what about 'creature' with 2 syllables but 'creation' pronounced with 3?

100 Answers to Common English Questions

100 Answers to Common English Questions

Idiomatic Expressions with GO

http://www.espressoenglish.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/10-expressions-go.mp3

#1 – go into overdrive

= start working very hard (more intensely than normal).

“Every year around Christmas, my department goes into overdrive – there’s so much work to do.”

#2 – go off on a tangent 

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Holidays collocations!

The end of December in the U.S. is known as "the Holidays".

The word "holiday" can mean any holiday, from religious holidays to national holidays like (in the U.S.) Independence Day and Memorial Day. However, "The Holidays" means the time around the end of the year. One reason that English speakers call this time of year "The Holidays" is to avoid simply calling it "Christmas".

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               Year Of English  

Words that have similar meanings are called "synonyms".

In the past, you may have tried learning lists of synonyms at the same time. For example, you might look at this list of words that are synonyms for "good":

I can't stand...

You're talking about men with a group of girlfriends. Everyone is talking about what kind of men they don't like. You tell them about a quality that you don't like in men.

I can't stand it when a man doesn't trim his nails.