In today’s lesson you’ll learn the sentence structures we use for talking about plans and goals, hopes and dreams – with lots of examples. But first let me ask you: Do you have a plan for improving your English this year? If you DON'T have a plan... ❌ you won't know what to study ❌ you won't feel like you're making progress ❌ you'll lose motivation But if you DO have a plan for your English learning... ✔️ it's easier to study consistently ✔️ you'll know exactly what to learn next ✔️ you'll be co...
Jan 11, 2023•6 min•Transcript available on Metacast Many people make special plans and goals at this time of year, and we call these "new year’s resolutions." In today’s lesson we’ll learn lots of different phrases for them. Now is the time to set your English-learning goals! If you’re looking for a step-by-step program that will help you make real progress towards fluency all year long, come join the Complete Espresso English Program. In the month of January, you can get ALL the courses and e-books in the program for the best possible monthly pr...
Jan 04, 2023•5 min•Transcript available on Metacast When learning another language, it's easy to make the mistake of being a little bit rude, since you might not be aware of the phrases that are considered " polite " or "impolite" by native speakers. I’m sure you already know to say “Please”, “Thank you,” and “Excuse me” – but today I’ll teach you 15 more ways to make your English sound more polite. Polite English is especially important if you're learning English for your job or career. You want to have good relationships with coworkers, make a ...
Dec 14, 2022•6 min•Transcript available on Metacast Do you ever notice that we use the word “said” a lot? He said this, she said that, then I said something else. Now there’s nothing wrong with the word “said,” it’s perfectly fine – but the English language has TONS of other options. Today we’re going to learn 40 words you can use instead of “said” – and as you will see, each one adds some extra meaning. If you want to expand your vocabulary even further beyond basic words, then you’ll love my Advanced Vocabulary and Collocations Course ! The les...
Dec 07, 2022•10 min•Transcript available on Metacast Today I’m going to explain why we never say “more better.” English learners sometimes say things like, “My English is getting more better” – but it’s ALWAYS incorrect. Take the lesson to learn the right way to express comparatives! I hope this helps make things clear! If you already understand this well and you’re ready for a more advanced study of grammar, come join my Advanced English Grammar Course , where we go into much more detail on grammar topics that will help you master the English lan...
Nov 23, 2022•4 min•Transcript available on Metacast Once I asked my students, “What are the most difficult English words for you to pronounce?” and I got a lot of great answers! Today we’re going to practice 15 words that English learners often find hard to say. I’ll say each one once slowly, once at normal speed, and then I’ll say an example sentence – so listen and repeat after me each time. Did you know that you can improve your pronunciation a LOT in the next 30 days when you join my American English Pronunciation Course ? By doing a lesson a...
Nov 16, 2022•7 min•Transcript available on Metacast The verb “be” is one of the most common words in the English language – but it has different forms, like be, being, and been . Do you know when to use each one correctly? I’ll explain it today, with plenty of examples! If you’re looking for simple, clear, step-by-step grammar lessons, check out my Basic & Intermediate Grammar E-Books. They’ll teach you essential English grammar so that you can use it confidently without mistakes. Each lesson in the e-books also has a quiz for practice, and they ...
Nov 09, 2022•6 min•Transcript available on Metacast Today I’m answering a question from a student who asked how to use the phrases “I couldn’t agree more” and “I couldn’t care less” – so today I’ll explain them by using a couple of mini-dialogues. When you’re learning English phrases, it’s so helpful to learn them in context – that way you can see how people use them, and understand the phrases better. That’s why the lessons in my Everyday English Speaking Courses are based on conversations! First you read/listen to a conversation, and then you l...
Nov 02, 2022•5 min•Transcript available on Metacast Today I want to help you avoid a very common mistake that lots of people make – and that is writing the word “grammar” like this: G-R-A-M-M-E-R. There’s actually NO “e” in the word grammar; the correct spelling is G-R-A-M-M-A-R. But when we speak, we pronounce it like “er” – grammer , not gram-MAR – so that’s why people often misspell it with -er. It’s an understandable error. There are actually lots of words in English that end with -ar or -or in an unstressed syllable, and we pronounce them mo...
Oct 19, 2022•4 min•Transcript available on Metacast Today I’m going to teach you 10 English idioms for talking about problems and difficulties. Speaking of problems, idioms like these can be a problem when you’re learning English! When you’re watching TV or listening to a native speaker talk, you’ll often hear idioms and they’re hard to understand because you can’t translate them word-for-word; you have to know the meaning of the whole expression. My course called 300+ idioms in 30 days will teach you tons of common idioms in a way that’s especia...
Oct 12, 2022•6 min•Transcript available on Metacast Today we have a GREAT question from a student who asked: “Which is correct: if I was… or if I were…? ” The answer is that we use BOTH in English, but in different situations! I’ll give you some good examples to make it clear. Try to practice this right away by writing two sentences – one with “if I were” and one with “if I was” – to help you remember when to use each one correctly! Do you sometimes find yourself frustrated by English grammar? The problem might be that nobody has explained it to ...
Sep 28, 2022•5 min•Transcript available on Metacast Today we’re going to learn some very practical phrases that native English speakers use for making invitations and responding to them - whether you want to accept the invitation (say yes) or decline the invitation (say no). When you know the phrases that native English speakers use, then you can use them confidently without worrying if your English sounds strange or wrong. That’s why I created the Everyday English Speaking Courses – to help you learn real phrases and expressions for daily life! ...
Sep 21, 2022•5 min•Transcript available on Metacast It's the goal that every English learner dreams of... being FLUENT in English! But what's the fastest way to get there? Today, I'm going to tell you my opinion and response to this question.
Sep 08, 2022•6 min•Transcript available on Metacast If you're working on improving your spoken English, you might have a problem with pauses . Maybe you start a sentence, but you hesitate because you're not sure how exactly to express your thought in English. You know how to say it in your native language, but you're just not sure how to translate it. This is really annoying because even though you can speak some English, you feel slow and incomplete - you definitely don't feel like you're fluent. Today you're going to learn how to eliminate paus...
Sep 07, 2022•6 min•Transcript available on Metacast Yesterday you learned how you can get fluent faster by focusing on learning phrases, NOT on memorizing individual words or grammar rules. But there's another problem that might be holding you back from becoming fluent. That problem is not being confident in your English. Here are three simple ways you can increase your confidence to speak English.
Sep 06, 2022•7 min•Transcript available on Metacast Over the next four days, I'm going to share with you my best tips for improving your English speaking . Let's get started! Here's one reason it can be hard to speak English. You might know a good number of English words... but then it's difficult to put them together into sentences when you speak. First of all, it's a LOT of work to put together an entire sentence word by word. It takes a lot of time, and it makes your speaking slow. Second, a lot of questions come into your mind: Am I using the...
Sep 05, 2022•4 min•Transcript available on Metacast A collocation is two or more words that go together naturally. Learning collocations is essential for making your English sound fluent and natural! Today we'll learn 50 English collocations with the words big, great, large, deep, strong, and heavy. These words all seem rather similar, but they are used in DIFFERENT combinations of words. WOW, those were a LOT of collocations – are you ready to see how well you learned them? Click here to take a quiz! It’s so important to practice and review what...
Aug 31, 2022•6 min•Transcript available on Metacast Are you ready to practice your pronunciation with some longer words? The ones we’ll practice today all have 5 syllables – like the word vocabulary: vo- CA -bu-la-ry I’ll say each word twice – once a little more slowly with some separation between the syllables, and then once at normal speed. Repeat after me both times. To improve your pronunciation FAST, join my Pronunciation & Shadowing Courses . My pronunciation course will train you to pronounce all the sounds in the English language clearly ...
Aug 24, 2022•7 min•Transcript available on Metacast When writing letters and e-mails in business English, it's really important to avoid mistakes - which can make your writing look unprofessional. Today you'll learn about 10 common mistakes in business English writing . I'll explain why they are wrong and how to correct them. If you want to learn the phrases that native English speakers use for business English letters, e-mails, interviews, meetings, presentations, negotiations, and more – check out my Business English Course! The 40 lessons insi...
Aug 17, 2022•8 min•Transcript available on Metacast Today we’re going to do a vocabulary with pictures lesson to help you learn 20 words for shapes in English , both two-dimensional and three-dimensional ones. You’ll learn both the noun form (the name of the shape itself) and the adjective form (how to describe something else with this shape) – in some cases those are the same, and in other cases they’re different. Have you ever wanted to say something in English, but you just couldn’t think of the right word? That’s a vocabulary problem, and it ...
Aug 10, 2022•6 min•Transcript available on Metacast Come along, come across, come off, come on, come out, come over, come up... Phrasal verbs like these can be easy to confuse because they all seem so similar! Today we’re going to learn 1 0 phrasal verbs with the word “come,” and I’ll give you an example sentence for each one to show you how it’s used in English. I challenge you to try writing your own sentences with each of these phrasal verbs – because when you use them yourself, that’s when you really start to remember them better so that they...
Jul 27, 2022•5 min•Transcript available on Metacast Right now it’s summer, and it’s hot as blazes! (= the weather is extremely hot). This inspired me to teach you 15 English words and expressions with “hot.” Some of these are idioms – short phrases or expressions that you can’t understand literally, you can’t translate them word for word to get their meaning – instead, you have to know the meaning of the whole phrase. Your own language has idioms, too... and lots of them are probably different from the ones we use in English! That’s why I created...
Jul 20, 2022•8 min•Transcript available on Metacast If you had to talk with a doctor in English , would you know what to say? In today’s lesson you’ll learn phrases and vocabulary for talking about medical problems. Now you’re a bit better-equipped to talk to a doctor in English if you ever need to someday – but there’s a lot more to learn! In order to be fluent and CONFIDENT in English, you have to be comfortable speaking English in many different situations in day-to-day life. My Everyday English Speaking Course will teach you the phrases you n...
Jul 13, 2022•7 min•Transcript available on Metacast Today’s lesson will be a challenging one – we’re going to look at 10 more advanced vocabulary words. But I’m not going to just tell you what they mean… instead, you’ve got to try to figure out what they mean based on an example sentence. I’ll show you a sentence with the word and give you three choices for what it means. Try to choose the correct answer, and after a few seconds I'll show you the right one. If you like the higher-level words in this lesson and you want to learn over 1000 more of ...
Jun 29, 2022•9 min•Transcript available on Metacast The English language has a lot of silent letters that cause difficulties for both native speakers and English learners, because they make the spelling of words different from their pronunciation. You don’t want to make embarrassing mistakes by saying these words wrong, so today let’s practice pronouncing some common English words with silent letters from A to Z! Thanks for practicing with me! When you practice by repeating out loud, you’re training your mouth to pronounce these English words mor...
Jun 22, 2022•8 min•Transcript available on Metacast What's today's date? Can you answer quickly in English? A lot of English learners have doubts about how to say and write dates correctly , and you don’t want to make mistakes with something so common and basic. So let’s make sure you’re doing it the right way, because there are a lot of little details to remember. If you want make less mistakes fewer mistakes in your English, it’s good to learn the most common ones so that you can avoid them! This means your English will be more accurate, and yo...
Jun 15, 2022•7 min•Transcript available on Metacast Do you know what it means to: drop someone a line get your wires crossed or beat around the bush? These are all examples of idioms that we’re going to learn today! Idioms and informal expressions like these are used frequently in movies, TV shows, and casual conversations. But a lot of English textbooks don't teach you these expressions! So you might be confused when you hear them in real life. That's why I created the 300+ English Idioms Course - to teach you the most common idiomatic expressio...
Jun 08, 2022•6 min•Transcript available on Metacast You already know a LOT of nouns in English, but did you know that there are different types of nouns ? That’s what we’ll be learning today! Make sure to watch to the end of the lesson, because I’m going to clarify a very common confusion between categories of nouns that many English learners have. There's a lot more grammar to learn - and you can learn it easily in my Basic and Intermediate Grammar E-Books ! They have 70+ step-by-step lessons and quizzes teaching you grammar in about 10 minutes ...
May 25, 2022•8 min•Transcript available on Metacast Today I want to help you fix a pronunciation problem that I hear in a LOT of students’ English, and that is saying things like this: I ask-ed him to help me. We pre-par-ed for our trip. The mistake is with the verbs in the past, ending in -ED. The correct way to say them is: askt (not ask-ed) pre-pard (not pre-par-ed) It’s a small mistake, but unfortunately it makes it obvious that someone’s not a native English speaker. I’ll explain some simple rules to help you pronounce the -ED ending correct...
May 18, 2022•7 min•Transcript available on Metacast A lot of English learners are curious about the word “shall.” Is it the same thing as “will”? When exactly do we use it? I’ll answer those questions in today’s lesson. I hope this lesson has helped you understand when people sometimes use “shall” and what it means, as well as the alternatives which are becoming more and more common nowadays, especially in American English. If you’ve got a question about a word or a phrase, please let me know, because I love getting ideas from students about tips...
May 11, 2022•5 min•Transcript available on Metacast 
