One of the top 10 vocabulary mistakes in English made by speakers of Spanish, Italian, French, or other languages derived from Latin comes from confusing the English adjective actual or adverb actually with words that look or sound very similar in the Romance languages, words like actual in Spanish, actuel in French, or attuale in… Read more »
Posts Tagged: vocabulary lesson
Comic Strip English – Doonesbury
A great way to practice English is to read the comics – they’re short and funny, they feature everyday English vocabulary that you can really put to use, and like movies they give you plenty of visual clues to what’s going on. A classic American comic strip is Gary Trudeau’s Doonesbury. in circulation since 1970 and featuring such… Read more »
Learn TOEFL Vocabulary Fast
To learn the most common English vocabulary words tested on the TOEFL, check out these online flashcards created by Acadia Center. Read and listen to the words and their definitions, and test your knowledge by studying the flashcards, taking the word quiz, and playing word games online. Each set of flashcards presents a new group… Read more »
Film Notes: The Young Victoria
The third in a series, this article provides a preview of a current movie along with a vocabulary lesson for intermediate to advanced English learners. The selected vocabulary words are in bold and followed by succinct definitions. Previous articles: Invictus and Sherlock Holmes . Victoria, crowned queen at the age of 18 in 1837 and… Read more »
English through Song: John Gorka
Gritty (showing fortitude in a difficult situation) songs about hardscrabble (earning a bare subsistence) or mean-street (poor or rough part of town) childhoods are a folk music tradition and the truth has often been bent (changed enough to give a false impression) by songwriters with middle-class backgrounds jealous of the aura that comes with hardship, so it’s refreshing… Read more »
Film Notes: Invictus
The second in a series, this article provides a preview of a movie you might like to see along with a vocabulary lesson for intermediate to advanced English learners. The selected vocabulary words are in bold and followed by succinct definitions. Sherlock Holmes was the previous article in the series – check back soon for… Read more »
Film Notes: Sherlock Holmes
Film Director Guy Ritchie’s new take on the iconic 19th-century English detective Sherlock Holmes was released on Christmas Day in the USA. While preserving some of the brooding (preoccupied with morbid thoughts) aloofness (emotional distance, reserve) and bohemian (unconventional, anti-establishment) eccentricities of the character as seen in earlier film versions dating back to the Basil Rathbone series… Read more »