Learn English Online

Yesterday 25 June 2015, 500 new English words were added to the Oxford English Dictionary. Oh my goodness I hear you say, yet more to learn, NO, NO, of course you do not need to know all 171,000 – 172,000  words currently in the Oxford English Dictionary to be able to speak English as indeed is the case with any […]

Hi Everyone, today my post is on the subject of what are the requirements for the level of English needed to enter a University in the UK, Australia or the USA. The requirements are pretty high for a very good reason which is for your benefit and for the University’s benefit, why? If you are […]

My post today will look at English accents in the UK only. I shall discuss other English accents outside the UK in a separate post later. Let me start by providing a definition of the word ‘accent’ when related to accents in languages which is as defined in the Oxford Dictionary:- “A distinctive way of pronouncing a language, […]

Learning  to speak English is a challenge and a question so many people ask is how to learn to speak English. What is the best way to learn English? Do I have to have a teacher visit me at my house? Should I go to a local teacher if there is one? Is there a […]

What is the TOEFL Exam? TOEFL stands for Test Of English as a Foreign Language. It is another test of your skill in English which is accepted by certain Universities and Colleges in the UK and the USA. The TOEFL test is an alternative test to the IELTS test I wrote about in my post […]

English as a global language has without a doubt become the dominant language spoken in the world today. You might ask why is this so? Let me answer that question by explaining how English has become a global language. Way back in history, about 400AD, English was spoken by about 4 million people on an […]

What are the most common English words? is a question often asked, for example:- What are the most common English words? or What are the 100 most common English words? or What are the 200 most common English words? or What are the 1,000 most common English words? etc. etc. Of course, these are not […]

Overcoming the fear of public speaking and to improve English public speaking or even public speaking in your native language is a question often asked.   The fear is understandable as one does not have the confidence and there is a fear of making mistakes but remember that everyone learning a language makes mistakes. If […]

As you may have seen from my profile ‘About Me’ I am in my later years of life and will be regarded no doubt by those much younger than me as being old fashioned and not with it, however what I write here today are expressions/words that I find very irritating which seem to be […]

Punctuation, basic English punctuation, punctuation!!!! , . : ; ” ‘ ? ! ( ) – . etc. Oh so complicated at times I hear you say. Well, to make it easier for you to understand in a light hearted way I came across this amusing example the other day:- Yes punctuation is really powerful […]