Double negatives

Do you sometimes get all messed up with double negatives?
They ain't not no good-ain't they?

Here is a series of exercises, and even an interactive games where you can help someone get a job by helping her at her job interview, by suggesting the best use of negatives in her interview.

Click on the confused man to be taken to a great site where you can do some very interesting exercises.

Have fun!

TWIST YOUR TONGUE

Think your pronunciation is good?  Try keeping up with this old favourite.
  Click on the old fashioned record player!

In case you need to read it:

TONGUE       TWISTERS                     DANNY KAYE

Everybody’s heard of Peter Piper         And the peck of pickled peppers that he picked That’s such a silly simple children’s game    It hasn’t even got a name But I’d like to bet that it’ll trip you And I bet you’re gonna have to say you’re licked If Peter Piper you pronounce with ease       Then twist your tongue around these

Moses supposes his toeses are roses            But Moses supposes erroneously For Moses he knowses his toeses aren’t roses
As Moses supposes his toeses to be
                That’s tongue twisters
                And it seems so easy till the word gets sprung
                If you insist you want to try a lisp
                Then step up mister and twist your tongue Now Kissle will whistle at busty Miss. Russell Who’ll rustle and bustle till Kissle will roar So Russell asked Axle for Kissle’s dismissal And this’ll teach Kissle to whistle no more
                       That’s tongue twisters . . . Tito and Tato were tattooed in total But Toto was only tattooed on his toe So Tato told Tito where Toto was tattooed But Tito said Toto’s tattoo wouldn’t show Theda thought Thora was thumping her thimble But Thomas thought Thora was thumping her drum Said Theda if Thora’s not thumping her thimble I think that she surely is thumping her thumb
                       That’s tongue twisters . .     Now Charley is chary when choosing his cheeses And cheese is a challenge when Charley arrives When Charley is charming and chooses a cheddar Then chews it and chips it and chops in some chives Heda is hoping to hop to Tahiti To hack a hibiscus to hang on her hat Now Heda has hundreds of hats on her hatrack So how can a hop to Tahiti help that Snobby Miss. Nora is sniffing her snuffer The snuffer’s no sniffing it makes Nora sneeze When Snyda lets Nort know his Nora is sneezing She snappily snorts Nora’s sneezing a breeze Sheila is selling her shop at the seashore For shops at the seashore are so sure to lose And she’s not so sure of what she should be selling Should Sheila sell seashells or should she sell shoes
                       That’s tongue twisters

ENGLISH IS EASY

You think English is easy?

1) The bandage was wound around the wound. 

2) The farm was used to produce produce .

3) The dump was so full that it had to refuse more refuse.

4) We must polish the Polish furniture.

5) He could lead if he would get the lead out.

6) The soldier decided to desert his dessert in the desert.

7) Since there is no time like the present, he thought it was

time to present the present .

8) A bass was painted on the head of the bass drum.

9) When shot at, the dove dove into the bushes.

10) I did not object to the object. 

11) The insurance was invalid for the invalid. 

12) There was a row among the oarsmen about how to row .

13) They were too close to the door to close it.

14) The buck does funny things when the does are present.

15) A seamstress and a sewer fell down into a sewer line.

16) To help with planting, the farmer taught his sow to sow..

17) The wind was too strong to wind the sail.

18) Upon seeing the tear in the painting I shed a tear.

19) I had to subject the subject to a series of tests.

20) How can I intimate this to my most intimate friend?

Let's face it - English is a crazy language. There is no egg in

eggplant, nor ham in hamburger; neither apple nor pine in

pineapple. English muffins weren't invented in England or

French fries in France . Sweetmeats are candies while

sweetbreads, which aren't sweet, are meat. We take English

 for granted. But if we explore its paradoxes, we find that

quicksand can work slowly, boxing rings are square and a

guinea pig is neither from Guinea nor is it a pig.

If teachers taught, why didn't preachers praught? If a

vegetarian eats vegetables, what does a humanitarian eat?

Sometimes I think all the English speakers should be

committed to an asylum for the verbally insane. In what

language do people recite at a play and play at a recital?

Ship by truck and send cargo by ship? Have noses that

run and feet that smell?

How can a slim chance and a fat chance be the same, while

a wise man and a wise guy are opposites? You have to

marvel at the unique lunacy of a language in which your

house can burn up as it burns down, in which you fill in

a form by filling it out and in which, an alarm goes off by

going on.

English was invented by people, not computers, and it

reflects the creativity of the human race, which, of course, is 

not a race at all. That is why, when the stars are out, they

are visible, but when the lights are out, they are invisible.

PS. - Why doesn't 'Buick' rhyme with 'quick' ?

You lovers of the English language might enjoy this .

There is a two-letter word that perhaps has more meanings

than any other two-letter word, and that is 'UP.' 
It's easy to understand UP, meaning toward the

sky or at the top of the list, but when we awaken in the

morning, why do we wake UP ?

At a meeting, why does a topic come UP ?

Why do we speak UP and why are the officers UP for

election and why is it UP to the secretary to write UP 

a report ? 

We call UP our friends.

And we use it to brighten UP a room, polish UP the

silver; we warm UP the leftovers and clean UP the kitchen.

We lock UP the house and some guys fix UP the old car.

At other times the little word has real special meaning.

People stir UP trouble, line UP for tickets, work UP an

appetite, and think UP excuses.

To be dressed is one thing, but to be dressed UP is special.  

A drain must be opened UP because it is blocked UP.

We open UP a store in the morning but we close it UP 

at night.
We seem to be pretty mixed UP about UP !

To be knowledgeable about the proper uses of UP, look

the word UP in the dictionary.

In a desk-sized dictionary, it takes UP almost 1/4th of

the page and can add UP to about thirty definitions.

If you are UP to it, you might try building UP a list of

the many ways UP is used.

It will take UP a lot of your time, but if you don't give

UP, you may wind UP with a hundred or more.

When it threatens to rain, we say it is clouding UP .

When the sun comes out we say it is clearing UP...
When it rains, it wets the earth and often messes things UP.
When it doesn't rain for awhile, things dry UP.
One could go on and on, but I'll wrap it UP, 

for now my time is UP, so........it is time to shut UP! 

HOLIDAYS

Isn't it true- we often get an assignment to write or tell about our most recent holiday, or vacation. Or our dream holiday.
Want some ideas?

Check out this crazy video by a slightly crazy man about his holidays.
Interesting, but remember he is telling the story "Tongue in cheek"

Click on the picture to learn about his vacation.

DIRECTIONS

Do you get confused by directions?

Try out this great GAME about directions- It really is very good.

You will also be asked to buy some special things at the supermatket- Give your brain a workiut.

FUTURE TENSE

Of you want to be e-mailed when there is an up date to our FREE English learning blog, send an e-mail to me at:
raymondconnors@gmail.com
saying "Put me on the mail list"
You can opt out at any time, and I never share your details with anyone else.

 TENSES

Do you have trouble working out tenses?

Click on this picture of hard-working high school students who have a bright future, to be taken to a set of great fact sheets on TENSES

And here is a great GAME to test your knowledge of TENSES in a fun way:

Click on the picture:

Other links you will see there take you to more quizzes and exercises on tenses- enough to keep you busy for a long time.

HAVE FUN!

CAN YOU DESCRIBE THEM?

You will need some very good ADJECTIVES

If you want to try out your knowledge of ADJECTIVES, click on the picture of the tall, slim, beautiful, Vietnamese women to go to a great quiz on ADJECTIVES.

Do you fancy yourself as a Newspaper Editor?
To see how good you are at using ADJECTIVES as a newspaper editor, Click on the picture of the two ladies on the beach to be taken to a game where you can try out your skills.

More grammar lessons in postings to follow soon.

10 Ways to Get Higher Marks on the IELTS Letter Writing Task

These tips came from this web site which has a lot of FREE information on IELTS

http://www.goodluckielts.com/IELTS-letter-writing-tips.html

IELTS Letter Writing Tips -
10 Ways to Get Higher Marks on the IELTS Letter Writing Task

1. Identify the type of letter you are being asked to write. Is it a formal, semi-formal or informal letter? The entire tone of your letter is based on your answer to this question. Adjust your style and choice of words according to the type of letter you have been asked to write.

2. Open and close the letter correctly. Remember that each type of letter requires a different opening and closing. The chart below will help you remember this:

Style	Characteristics	Opening	Ending
Formal	To someone you have not met, whose name you don't know	Dear Sir / Madam	Yours faithfully
Semi- formal	To someone you may or may not have met, whose last name you know & use	Dear Mr Brown, Dear Ms Stone	Yours sincerely
Informal	To someone you know well, whose first name you know and use	Dear John Dear Anita	Best regards Warm wishes

3. Open a formal and semi-formal letter with a formal sentence. Don't try to be friendly, as you do not know the person you are writing to. Get right down to business and indicate the reason you are writing, as shown below:

Dear Sir / Madam,
I am writing to inquire about / I am writing in connection with...

Dear Mr Jones,
I am writing to inform you ... / I am writing in connection with...

4. Open an informal letter with a general, friendly paragraph. With friends whom we know, we care about the whole person. We have a broader relationship in the context of which this communication is taking place. So it is best to acknowledge that friendship first, before getting down to the reason for your letter. In fact, the first paragraph could be purely friendly small talk, unrelated to the reason for your writing. Look at the example below:

Dear Jane

I hope you and your family are all well. It was such a pleasure to see you again last summer. We sure had a great time catching up with each other after so many years. You have always been a cherished friend, no matter how much of a gap there has been since we met.

Anyway, the reason I'm writing is that I have some good news - I am getting married this summer...

5. Identify the main purpose of the letter. Are you asking for help, apologizing, inviting someone, complaining or thanking someone? Learn appropriate and polite expressions that will support what you need to say.

6. Learn and use standard written phrases. Students sometimes struggle to finish their writing in time. This happens when you are trying to write every sentence from scratch. The fact is, in conventional letter writing in English, we use a number of standard expressions and phrases and add on to them the specific information we wish to communicate. By learning how to use these expressions, you will find the letter writing task much easier and will never have to fight for time.

7. Make sure you write at least 150 words. Practice writing letters till you know what 150 words feels like and looks like. You will lose marks if you write less. You will not lose marks if you write more; the only restriction on writing more is in terms of time, not the number of words.

8. Learn the correct spelling of commonly used words. It is surprising how many IELTS students make a mistake when spelling words such as "sincerely", "faithfully", "in connection with" and so on. You can prevent yourself from losing marks by learning the correct spelling of these words and expressions which you are highly likely to use on your exam.

9. Stay on topic. In order to complete your letter within 20 minutes or less, practice writing letters where you stick to the point. The General IELTS Task 1 does require you to make up a bit of a story to complete your letter, but don't make your story so complicated that you run out of time.

10. Include all three bulleted points. If you exclude even one of the points given to you in the question prompt, you will lose valuable marks. Practice writing letters that include the three points and go back and check that you have included them in each practice exercise you do.

BAD ENGLISH

Have you ever wondered just what you might be saying if your English is bad?
Have a look at these signs in English, and see if you can understand what they REALLY mean- Some of them are quite funny!

One of my On-Line ESL learners, Boris from Russia, was very amused by my explanation of the importance of good pronunciation, and suggested I should publish it.

Well here goes! Some of my in class students will be familiar with my explanation, but for those of you who have not seen it, this may be amusing.

So, How important IS correct pronunciation? It can be quite important.

Situation 1. T v Th

Guys, You are talking to a beautiful girl and you want to make a comment on her appearance, so that she feels complimented.

You stare lovingly at her mouth and say, with poor pronunciation,

YOU HAVE SUCH BEAUTIFUL TIT.

But you meant to say

YOU HAVE SUCH BEAUTIFUL TEETH.

Oh MY!

Situation 2. s V Sh

You go to a restaurant and you are going to really impress all your friends with your excellent English and you say to the waiter,

CAN WE SHIT OVER THERE?

But you meant to say

MAY WE SIT OVER THERE?

Oh MY!

Please pay attention when your teacher wants you to practice pronunciation- Sure it can be boring, but the results of NOT paying attention to it can be embarrassing.

BUSY ENGLISH BANANA

BUSY BUSY BUSY!

So sorry I have been so busy I have not up-dated this blog for a week!

However, I have an exciting link to share with you today.

What do these two pictures say?

The first one is a British flag, and the second one is a banana. Strange combination!
So if we put them together, we get something like “ENGLISH BANANA”.

Is there such a thing as an English Banana?  I doubt it, England is too cold to grow bananas.

But a friend of mine has combined these two words and he calls his business exactly that

ENGLISH BANANA, and the web site is Englishbanana.com

If you click on the picture of the “English Banana” it will take you to his site.

There you will find so many excellent learning and teaching resources.

For example:

- 1,500 free printable worksheets- These will keep you (or your students) busy for a very long time

- 60+ free MP3 podcast lessons available to download

(Test your listening skills)

- free weekly online class on WiZiQ.com

(Connect with this series of free on line lessons every week for great FREE interactive learning, + check out the many other FREE on Line lessons here)

-          Facebook group

-          (Make lots of new friends and connections) and

-         

-          BEST OF ALL

-          If you are a teacher, you can download the complete “TALK A LOT “ English teaching curriculum to teach your students speaking skills in English very quickly (Believe me- I have used it extensively both as a curriculum AND as stand alone supplementary materials. It is one of the few curriculum I know of that needs NO BOOKS, but still works extremely well.

Welcome to the followers of this blog.

Its so nice to have you here, and I hope you can all tell a friend to hook into our community and benefit from our free shared resources.

Today I was talking with a Russian student who has taught himself English from using only FREE resources, and he says it’s the best way- He has worked at his own pace, selected only what he needed, and I was very surprised at the high quality of his English. With NO LESSONS, he sat for IELTS and scored straight 8s- AND HE HAS NEVER HAD A TEACHER- So it CAN be done if you have the willpower, and know where to find the right stuff.