Archive for May, 2012
Glacier National Park Posted by Gabriele on May 24, 2012
Here is another post in my series looking at America’s National Parks. Glacier National Park is found in the state of Montana, bordering Canada. This park is very large encompassing over 1,000,000 acres (4,000 km2). There are over 130 lakes within the park and more than 1,000 different species of plants and hundreds of species…
That versus Which Posted by heather on May 23, 2012
Have you ever struggled with knowing when to use that and when to use which? Well struggle no longer! Restrictive Clauses The first thing we need to discuss is something called a restrictive clause. A restrictive clause is a part of the sentence that you can’t get rid of because it specifically restricts the noun…
The Sounds That Animals Make in English Posted by Gabriele on May 22, 2012
It is amazing how different people around the world hear the sounds of the same animals. I always find this fascinating at least. Since I have been talking about onomatopoeia in the last few posts I thought I would share with you the way the sounds of some different animals are heard and written…
Noisy Animal Verbs (more onomatopoeia) Posted by Gabriele on May 21, 2012
I introduced the topic of onomatopoeia yesterday with a number of “noisy verbs” found in English. Remember onomatopoeia is a word that imitates or suggests the source of the sound that it describes. Today I am going to focus on the verbs used to describe the sounds that animals make. Keep in mind these…
Onomatopoeia Posted by Gabriele on May 20, 2012
This is a really fun word to say in English! Click here and you should be connected to a link where you can hear how to pronounce this word correctly. What does this funny word mean? Onomatopoeia is the word we use to describe words that imitate or suggests the source of the sound that…
Comparison of Adjectives Posted by heather on May 19, 2012
I am tall but Mary is taller and Tom is the tallest of us all. Can you find the adjective in the sentence above? Remember, an adjective is a word that describes or tells us more about a noun or a pronoun. If you said “tall” then you were correct. Tall is the adjective in…
Nursery Rhymes Posted by Gabriele on May 18, 2012
Having lived abroad and having taught ESL for a number of years I have heard many people talk about what it means to be “fluent” in a second language. I set a very high standard for fluency myself and I think true fluency comes with both linguistic and cultural knowledge. In discussing how to determine…