Category: <span>Learning English</span>

“That is so ironic!” “What a coincidence!” We hear these English phrases all of the time. What do they mean? Irony and coincidence are often confused by English speakers, so it can obviously be very confusing for English learners! Coincidence vs. Irony in English What is a coincidence? A coincidence is when two unlikely activities...

Several months ago, we posted a lesson on the five basic ways to use the comma in English. How comfortable are you with using the comma? And are you using it correctly? Today we have some practice sentences for you to test your punctuation skills. Before we begin, here is a refresher on the five...

“After coming to the U.S. I first lived in DC, then I decided to move to Pacific Beach, AKA P.B. There seem to be parties 24/7 here, and most are BYOB. And most are exclusive, friends-only events. FYI, if you are invite to these parties, you need to make some friends with people who live...

In English, there is an expression “April showers bring May flowers.” This means that it rains a lot in April, but this leads to a beautiful, colorful May. We say this expression when the weather is bad in April. In this expression, the word “shower” means “rain.” But there are many uses of the word...

English students often ask what the differences are between British and American English. Depending on who you ask, the answer may vary! Most English teachers agree that while there are many differences in pronunciation, slang, idioms, vocabulary, and spelling, the two languages share enough similarities that one can almost always understand a person who speaks...

Students often ask, “How can I improve my listening skills?” Other than coming to class every day and speaking English as much as you can while living in the United States, the internet is a great tool to improve your listening skills. The following are three websites that CISL teachers highly recommend. Each has a...

To be a good writer in English, you need to have a variety of sentence structures. English speakers love to see many different sentence types in a good read. How do you create a variety of sentence? According to Daily Writing Tips, an excellent website for writers, you should get on A WHITE BUS! A...

Part of learning a language is making mistakes. And part of the fun of learning a language is correcting these mistakes! Here are some common mistakes that ESL learners make.   1. My roommate he is a baker. Incorrect because: It has two subjects! “My roommate” and “he” are both subjects. One needs to be...

Can you spot what is wrong with each of these sentences? You may need to take a refresher “class” on Action and Non-Action verbs. Read this lesson here . . . and another one on verbs that break the rules here! Error Correction with Action and Non-Action Verbs 1. I am having a car since five...