Learn American English Online Blog
February 28, 2011
Today is the last day for the Orange Level. Tomorrow you’ll begin the Violet Level. Here’s a dictation exercise which I’m going to put into a new Orange Level
Learn American English Online Blog
February 28, 2011
Today is the last day for the Orange Level. Tomorrow you’ll begin the Violet Level. Here’s a dictation exercise which I’m going to put into a new Orange Level dictation section. These are all sentences. Write what you hear.
You can find out what I’m saying by clicking here.
February 27, 2011
I just added a new lesson to the Orange Level. This will show you how to use question words with "have to." Many students make mistakes with this or overlook the possibility of putting words like "what," "where," or "why" with "have to," but it’s a necessary thing to do.
February 26, 2011
Here’s the video I made from today’s rally in St. Paul:
Just as the people of Egypt, Libya, Tunisia, and countries in the middle east are tired of being mistreated by their leaders, workers in the United States are tired of being treated unfairly by big corporations and politicial leaders who are slowly chipping away at our rights to bargain for better working conditions and benefits. Power to the people!
February 26, 2011
Today’s lesson is a list of question words. Read through them and see how many you are familiar with. Some are easy, but others might be new to you.
I’m going to a rally at the Minnesota State Capitol today. It’s in support of the teachers who are staging protests in Madison, Wisconsin. They want to keep their rights to bargain for wages and befits, but the governor of that state wants to take their rights away. I’ll show you the video and the pictures later.
February 25, 2011
The lesson for today is on embedded questinns. Embedded questions appear inside statements and refer to a question. If someone asks you a question like this….
"What time does the store open?"
You might answer the question like this….
"I’m sorry. I’m not sure what time it opens."
Look carefully at the response. Notice the word order (S + V) and the lack of a helping verb (does). Remember that you are simply referring to what another person asks, but you are not making a question yourself when forming an embedded question.
Here are some more examples of what embedded questions look like:
Be sure to go to the lesson for more practice, a video, and a quiz.
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Here are the answers from yesterday’s blog post:
February 24, 2011
Today’s lesson shows you how to turn a statement into a question. This is called a "tag question" or an "attached question." Here’s an example:
The teacher is here today, isn’t he?
The speaker begins with a statement, "The teacher is here today," and turns it into a question with "isn’t he?" We use tag questions to indicate that we aren’t sure if something is true, or we want to affirm our knowledge of something by asking another person. Here’s another example:
We have a test tomorrow, don’t we?
The person speaking thinks there is a test, but he isn’t sure, so he asks another person. The first part of the question is in the form of a statement which indicates he has some knowledge of a test, and in the second part of the question (the verb-subject word order) forms the question. Notice that the verb "do" is negative, and it matches the verb tense. In this case, the present tense is used.
How would you complete these questions?:
I’ll give you the answers tomorrow.
February 23, 2011
This is a new video that explains some of the differences between "still" and "anymore."
If you need more practice with this, go to Orange Level Lesson Eighteen.
You can take a quiz on "still" and "anymore" if you click here.
February 22, 2011
Whenever I teach my students how to use "either" and "neither," they really pay attention because they hear these words in conversation, but they aren’t sure how to use them properly.
“Either” and “neither” are similar to “so” and “too,” but they are used with negative verbs:
Notice that “either” comes after the helping verb in the sentence above; the word “neither” goes before the helping verb. Isn’t that interesting? Here are some more examples:
Click here for today’s lesson on “either” and “neither.”
February 21, 2011
Today is Presidents’ Day. It’s a holiday, so I have a little extra time to add a few things to my website today.
My favorite President is Thomas Jefferson. He wrote the Declaration of Independence ("….all men are created equal.") and he was the third U.S. President, serving from 1801 to 1809. He presided over the Louisiana Purchase, which almost doubled the amount of territory claimed by the United States, and he strongly argue