Idioms with “May”
April showers bring May flowers, and May brings… a lot of idioms! There are quite a few idioms that use the word “may”. Today, we are looking at a few that are easy to incorporate into everyday speech. Note: these all use the word “may” that is a modal, not the word “May” that is [...]
Take the 30-Day Phrasal Verb Challenge with CISL!
It’s phrasal verb month at CISL! Many students groan when they hear the words “phrasal verb.” We understand why: there are hundreds of phrasal verbs in the English language, and the only way to learn them is to memorize them. There is no “quick fix” when it comes to learning phrasal verbs! Or is there? [...]
Grammar Lesson: The Third Conditional
Our month on Conditionals continues! Today we are focusing on the Third Conditional. Do you need to refresh yourself on this grammar point? If so, read our last two grammar lesson entries, The First Conditional and The Second Conditional, before moving on to today’s lesson. You can’t change the past. This we know! But don’t [...]
Lesson of the Month: December 2011
DID YOU KNOW: WORD BORROWING English has borrowed a lot of words from different languages, and sometimes from languages you might not expect! What languages do you think the following come from? 1. ALCATRAZ (The island prison off the coast of San Francisco) 2. SOIREE (A very elegant evening party) 3. SIESTA ( a short afternoon [...]
Lesson of the Month: November 2011
USE OF THE PASSIVE Most of you have found yourselves studying the Passive at one time or another in your CISL classes. Like many other concepts, how you construct it is not as confusing as why or when you should use it. We’re going to mention this month just one common use of the passive, [...]
Lesson of the Month – August : Find the Errors!
GRAMMAR: In each of the following sentences, there is ONE error. Find it and fix it! 1. The streets are icy, so walk slowly and no fall down! 2. Turn left at the next corner and you don’t forget to signal! 3. The wind is blowing, it snows, and the sky looks very gray. 4. [...]
Lesson of the Month – July 2011: Making Suggestions
GRAMMAR: MAKING SUGGESTIONS with WHY DON’T, LET’S and HOW ABOUT Here are 3 different ways of making suggestions or invitations. The grammar is a little different in each one, so watch the verb! Why don’t we go to that new Italian restaurant for lunch today? Let’s go to that new Italian restaurant for lunch today. [...]
Lesson of the Month – June 2011: DOMAINS
VOCABULARY: BE THE MASTER OF YOUR DOMAIN! One of the most interesting ways to learn vocabulary is by DOMAIN- a group of different words that are associated with the same concept. The words last month were all in the WALK domain. This month, we have a few examples of the big SPEAK domain. See how [...]
Lesson of the Month – May 2011: Useful Idiomatic Expressions
VOCABULARY: IDIOMATIC EXPRESSIONS This month we have five pairs of idiomatic expressions – and, to make it interesting, they are pairs of opposites: 1. MORNING, NOON AND NIGHT = Very often, frequently. My sister complains that her husband talks about sports morning, noon and night. 2. ONCE IN A BLUE MOON = Almost never, very [...]
April 2011 – Lesson of the Month : What do apostrophes (‘) do?
GRAMMAR: What do apostrophes (‘) do? Apostrophes have two main jobs in English: They help nouns show possession or ownership, for example John’s car or my sister’s home. Apostrophes have been doing this job for more than 300 years and they do it very nicely and don’t usually cause anybody any trouble. They indicate that [...]
