Archive by Author
There are signs everywhere in English! Posted by Gabriele on Jul 15, 2014
There is song in English with a chorus that goes like this: Sign, sign, everywhere a sign , Blockin’ out the scenery, breakin’ my mind, Do this, don’t do that, can’t you read the sign? This song is very fitting because today’s post is about signs in English, signs that you will see on the…
English: Same word, two spellings. Posted by Gabriele on Jul 10, 2014
Last month I wrote a post about some common spelling rule differences between British and American English. That post was about spelling rules that can be applied to many different words, in systematic ways, in either America or Great Britain. This post is about specific words that are just spelled differently in these two…
Extreme sports and English vocabulary Posted by Gabriele on Jul 8, 2014
It is the time of year when people are outside enjoying the nice weather and often even playing some sports with friends. Today I thought we’d look at some vocabulary for different sports in English, but not regular old sports like baseball or volleyball, extreme sports or xtreme sports. Extreme sports are sports that are…
A top 10 list of all-American things for the 4th of July Posted by Gabriele on Jul 3, 2014
In honor of America’s Independence Day, tomorrow July 4th, I am going to present some all-American products, people, and activities. Firth though let me explain that to say something is “all-American” implies that the thing has qualities or characteristic of traditional American ideals or that the thing originates from the United States of America or…
How HOT is it? Posted by Gabriele on Jul 1, 2014
It is now summer, at least in the northern hemisphere, which means the weather outside is getting hotter. Today I thought I would introduce you to a number of new ways to say ‘hot’ in English. This way you will have many more words to choose from the next time some asks you, “What…
Spell it right! Posted by Gabriele on Jun 26, 2014
I know that I would be lost without spell check on my computer and I bet most of you feel the same. After all it is really important to always spell check your work, but even when you (and I) do proofread and spell check our work, mistakes still slip through. We are all humans…
Onomatopoeia: The sounds we make and how to spell them Posted by Gabriele on Jun 24, 2014
I’ve written about onomatopoeia in the past, but focused mainly on animal and ‘thing’-related sounds. Today we are going to look at some of the sounds that humans make and how they are spelled. First of all take a look at this great infographic from Grammar.net and all the examples it has of onomatopoeia. (Remember…