Native English speakers use a lot of informal expressions in day-to-day life! Lately, I've been paying attention to my own conversations – and today I'll teach you 10 English expressions I've used in recent situations. It's much easier to learn and remember phrases when you can see them in context. But if you don't live in an English-speaking country, where can you find conversations to learn from? You can listen to podcasts and interviews, but they don't explain the expressions you might not kn...
Dec 16, 2020•7 min
Today I'm going to give you some tips for pronouncing "world" - a lot of students find this very difficult. We'll also practice work and word, since these are two more that English learners have a hard time pronouncing clearly and correctly. Remember, you CAN master these difficult words with practice! If you want to be fluent in English, your pronunciation doesn't have to be "perfect" (there's really no such thing as perfect pronunciation) - but it does need to be CLEAR so that other people can...
Dec 09, 2020•5 min
This week is the holiday of Thanksgiving in the United States... so in today's lesson, you'll learn useful expressions with the word THANK or THANKS :-) I'll also teach you about a couple common mistake - make sure to watch the whole video so you can avoid the errors. If you want to improve your spoken English by learning more REAL phrases that native English speakers use - then join my Everyday English Speaking courses! You'll learn exactly what to say in everyday situations, social situations,...
Nov 25, 2020•6 min
A student asked about the following four phrasal verbs: flip out freak out piss off tick off She asked, "Are they all the same? Are they all appropriate to use?" Good questions – I'm going to explain them in today's lesson! Piss off, tick off, flip out, freak out Can you see how it's essential to learn phrasal verbs like these in context, with examples? And it's also very important to put them into practice yourself. You can learn 500 more phrasal verbs in a natural and effective way inside my c...
Nov 18, 2020•8 min
The English language has a number of words that sound nice and are fun to say! Today I'll teach you 10 words that many people find beautiful - you can learn what they mean and practice pronouncing them in order to expand your vocabulary. If you're working on getting your vocabulary up to a more advanced level, there are 1,000 more words waiting for you inside our Vocabulary Builder Course - Level 2. OK, now get ready to listen and repeat 10 beautiful English words... Which one was your favorite?...
Nov 11, 2020•7 min
Do you ever use the wrong word in English? It's a very common problem - and it affects students at all levels, from beginner to intermediate to advanced. These mistakes are especially common when the two words appear very similar - like "interfere" and "intervene" or "relation" and "relationship" - or when they seem to have the same meaning, like "problem" and "trouble" or "staff" and "employees." Today I'm going to teach you the differences between all these super-confusing words I just mention...
Nov 04, 2020•11 min
This month we've been doing a series on different ways to say things in English, in order to help expand your vocabulary and know what to say in lots of situations. Today we'll cover 20 ways to say "thank you" – phrases for expressing gratitude and appreciation. We'll start out with some basic ones you probably already know, but keep watching so that you learn some new ones! Thank you so much for joining me; I hope you learned some new phrases today! To continue learning real-life English, join ...
Oct 28, 2020•8 min
Today you're going to learn 20 different ways to say "sorry" in English. Why should you learn all these different expressions? Because they're used in different situations. There are many different times we might want to say "sorry," but we'd use different words depending on whether we spilled some coffee, or hurt someone's feelings, or made a mistake at work. Some of these phrases are more informal and casual, and others are more serious. This means you're not just learning a bunch of equivalen...
Oct 21, 2020•9 min
Last week you learned 20 different ways to say "yes" in English, and today you'll learn 20 different expressions for "no." These are especially important to learn because we often want to be polite when declining an invitation or request – it sounds a little rude to just say "no." Or maybe you want to add some additional information to the simple answer of "no" – a lot of today's expressions include extra meaning. This is just a very small sample of the many ways we have to say "no" in English –...
Oct 14, 2020•7 min
Today you're going to learn a lot of different ways to say "yes" in English. But wait – why should you learn these expressions, when you could just use "yes" to keep things simple? There are two good reasons: So that you can understand native English speakers, because we use these expressions all the time. If you only know the word "yes," then you might be confused when you hear someone say "Why not?" or "Be my guest!" So that you can express your own answers in creative ways. Some of these expr...
Oct 07, 2020•7 min
Today you're going to learn 14 business English "buzzwords" – informal expressions that you might hear at work or in a professional context. I'll tell you a little story that will teach you expressions like: push the envelope a shoestring budget streamline pitch an idea the lion's share ...and more There are tons of these informal expressions used in the business world, and my Business English Course includes several lessons about business idioms. You'll also learn practical phrases and vocabula...
Sep 30, 2020•5 min
Today I'm going to teach you how to use worse and worst correctly. Even some native English speakers confuse these words! After taking this lesson, you'll understand the difference clearly - and you'll also learn a few expressions with each one. The opposite of worse is better, and I'm here to help your English get better! You can learn more when you join one of my online courses. At Espresso English, you can improve all your English skills - from grammar to vocabulary, speaking, listening, read...
Sep 23, 2020•6 min
Do you know what color these words describe: maroon, fuchsia, hazel, and ivory? You probably learned simple colors like red, yellow, and blue in your first year of English... but the language has a lot more color words than these basic ones! Today you'll learn 12 interesting vocabulary words for colors. One quick note: Online, you'll often find very long lists of color words - but many of those are NOT in used in everyday English... they are typically used to describe different colors of paint, ...
Sep 16, 2020•5 min
⭐ Download the worksheet: http://bit.ly/miniexercise5 ✔️ Read the lesson text: https://www.espressoenglish.net/20-different-ways-to-use-the-word-set-in-english/ ❤️ Free sample lessons from my courses: http://bit.ly/EEFreeSamples Hello students! Today is the final day of our mini-course on words with multiple meanings – I hope you've been enjoying it. Our multiple-meaning word of the day is SET. You'll learn how it's used as a verb, noun, and adjective. We'll also learn phrasal verbs like set asi...
Sep 11, 2020•14 min
⭐ Download the worksheet: http://bit.ly/miniexercise4 ✔️ Read the lesson text: https://www.espressoenglish.net/20-different-ways-to-use-the-word-cut-in-english/ ❤️ SUBSCRIBE to get new lessons on YouTube! http://bit.ly/subscribe2espressoenglish Hi there! It's lesson 4 of our mini-course on words with multiple meanings, and we're going to focus on the word CUT. Today you'll learn 20 ways to use it - from different definitions, to phrasal verbs (cut back, cut off, cut out, etc.) to idioms (cut cor...
Sep 10, 2020•13 min
⭐ Download the worksheet: http://bit.ly/miniexercise3 ✔️ Read the lesson text: https://www.espressoenglish.net/20-different-ways-to-use-the-word-break-in-english/ Hi students! It's day 3 of our mini-course all about words with multiple meanings, and our word today is BREAK. Get ready to learn lots of different ways to use this word in English. 1. The basic and most common definition is to damage something and separate it into pieces. Yesterday I was washing the dishes and I accidentally dropped ...
Sep 09, 2020•14 min
⭐ Download the worksheet: https://bit.ly/miniexercise2 ✔️ Read the lesson text: https://www.espressoenglish.net/20-different-ways-to-use-the-word-get-in-english/ Hello students, and welcome to day 2 of our mini-course on words with multiple meanings! Yesterday's word was RUN, and today we'll focus on GET. Again – a very common word, but one that is extremely versatile – this means it can be used in lots of different ways. You already know the basic meaning of GET, but today you're going to learn...
Sep 08, 2020•12 min
⭐ Download the worksheet: https://bit.ly/miniexercise1 ✔️ Read the lesson text: https://www.espressoenglish.net/25-different-ways-to-use-the-word-run-in-english/ Hi students! Today is the first day of our 5-day mini-course about English words with multiple meanings. In this mini-course, we're going to look at 5 VERY common words and learn a total of 100 different ways to use them. This will improve your ability to express yourself in English, because you'll discover lots of new ways to use some ...
Sep 07, 2020•15 min
Today I want to invite you to join a FREE mini-course starting soon – all about English words with many different meanings and uses. During your English studies, you may have seen lists of the most common English words – they're simple words that we use VERY frequently, like run, set, play, and so on. You already know what they mean, right? But here's the problem: These common words have MULTIPLE meanings. In fact, if you check the dictionary, some of these words have hundreds of different defin...
Sep 02, 2020•3 min
One place I see a lot of students making mistakes is in using the verb agree. Specifically, which preposition to use after it: Do you agree on something or agree with something or agree to something? We actually use ALL of these in English - but in different situations. So today you'll learn 5 ways to use the verb agree correctly, with example sentences. It's really easy to make these little mistakes when you're learning English, and it's hard to discover and correct your own errors! As an teach...
Aug 26, 2020•7 min
HAVE is one of the most common verbs in English, and we use this word in many different ways! In today's lesson, you'll learn 30 different collocations with have. These are the typical combinations of words that native speakers often use. I'll show you the collocations in example sentences. You can also create your own sentences using these collocations to help you remember them better. A lot of students tell me they know a lot of English words, but they have a hard time putting the words togeth...
Aug 19, 2020•9 min
Students often say, "I have a doubt" and then ask me something about English. However, native speakers DON'T usually say it this way. If you want to know the answer about something, you should say "I have a question." So how can you use the word "doubt" correctly? You'll learn how - with lots of examples and expressions - in today's lesson! When you're not exactly sure about the right word to use, it can make you lose confidence in your English skills, and then you hesitate to speak. But when yo...
Aug 12, 2020•7 min
You might be thinking... why make a video about pronouncing CAN and CAN'T - that's so easy and obvious! But there are some pronunciation changes when native English speakers say these words fast. This lesson will help you understand can/can't better when you HEAR them, and it will also help you SAY these words more naturally in sentences. These pronunciation differences between can and can't are small but important... and native English pronunciation is FULL of these little details! If you want ...
Aug 05, 2020•5 min
Do you know what it means to have a "free spirit" or "free rein"? Is being a "freeloader" a good thing or a bad thing? Today you'll learn the answers to these questions and much more - I'll teach you 10 interesting expressions with the word "free." Expressions like "get off scot-free" and "give someone free rein" are examples of idioms - short phrases that can't be explained or translated literally. What's the best way to learn idioms, if you can't translate them literally? The best way is to le...
Jul 29, 2020•7 min
In soccer, we don't say "make a goal," we say "score a goal." Outside of sports, we don't say "follow a goal," but we do say "pursue a goal" or "work towards a goal." Learn 20 collocations with the word "goal"! "Collocations" are the common combinations of words that are frequently used by native speakers. These typical combinations of words can be hard to learn because often there are no rules that can help you know which words to use together - these expressions simply exist because people com...
Jul 22, 2020•4 min
A lot of students ask me about phrases and idioms they've heard in conversations and TV shows. In today's lesson, I'm going to share the answers with you, explaining each expression with a few examples. Quick answers to your questions about idioms There are a lot of idioms in English... and sometimes even native English speakers come across expressions we don't know! So how do we figure them out? We interpret them from the context. Based on the situation in which the idiom is said, we make our b...
Jul 15, 2020•7 min
When you're worried, it's even harder to express yourself in English - but this lesson will help: 10 Practical English Phrases for Talking about Worries & Relief. These can help expand your vocabulary by going beyond the basic "I'm worried" and "I'm relieved." To learn more, join my Everyday English Speaking Course: https://www.espressoenglish.net/everyday-english-speaking-course...
Jul 08, 2020•5 min
Did you know that these words all have DIFFERENT ways to pronounce the "u" in the beginning? ultimate union urgent urine In today's lesson, you'll practice pronouncing English words starting with U . Listen and repeat to improve your pronunciation! Just like when you do exercise in the gym to improve your physical condition, doing pronunciation exercises improves your ability to speak English correctly! That's why my American English Pronunciation Course is full of practice. Whatever sounds you ...
Jul 01, 2020•5 min
Prepositions like in, of, at, from, and to are used very frequently in English. However, there are some cases in which you SHOULDN'T use one – and in today's lesson, you'll learn 5 times you should not use a preposition. This is one of my top grammar lessons on Espresso English. I hope you enjoy it! English grammar can certainly be complicated... but I'll make it clear to you when you join my Advanced Grammar Course! The 45 lessons in this course will teach you all the verb tenses as well as adj...
Jun 24, 2020•6 min
These two words are pronounced the same, but they are spelled differently and have different meanings! Lesson text: https://www.espressoenglish.net/difference-between-compliment-and-complement/ This is a free sample from the e-book 600+ Confusing English Words Explained. It will help clear up your doubts about how to use English words correctly, so that you can speak and write more confidently. Click here for more information....
Jun 17, 2020•3 min
