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These days, I see too many English language students wanting to sound like a native English speaker. They feel they need to speak with a specific native English accent while using many idiomatic expressions. This is a hugely ambitious goal for someone who was not exposed to the English language before they were two or three years old. In my own case, I started learning English at the age of six, and although I’ve been speaking and teaching English every day for the past 37 years, I still don’t sound like a native English speaker. So, if you know someone who has achieved this goal as an adult learner, then they’re a genius! For most of us, however, this is a rather pointless and disempowering goal. Why is this a pointless goal? I can think of four reasons: a) When it comes to communicating with others, accent is irrelevant. Whether we sound British, American, Italian, or Chinese, what really matters is how easily others understand us. b) Good speakers and writers avoid using too many idiomatic expressions and complex structures. They keep their language short and simple. c) English grammar is even difficult for natives to master. As a proofreader, I regularly correct and improve native speakers’ poorly written English. d) Out of the 1.5 billion English speakers worldwide, only 25% are native. If, for the sake of facilitating communication, one group had to change the way they spoke, it would logically be the natives. Why is no-one asking them to lose their regional accents and limit their vocabulary to the 5000 words that are sufficient to communicate in most situations? Why is it a disempowering goal? Our voice and the way we speak is a fundamental part of our personal and cultural identity. If we feel that we must change this important aspect of our identity in order to succeed in life, we’re really telling ourselves: ‘I’m not good enough! I must become someone else, or pretend that I am someone else.’ This negative self-image can generate feelings of lack, inferiority, and envy that disempower us. Even if we work with the most brilliant voice coach to change our accent and memorise the whole of the English idioms dictionary, this ‘I’m not good enough’ belief will result in failure. Loss of self-belief and self-confidence is a huge price to pay for a goal that, as I argued above, is totally pointless. What’s a better goal? Instead of wanting to sound like someone else when we speak English, let’s focus our efforts on sounding like our unique self who speaks with a clear pronunciation and uses simple and correct language. Just imagine for a moment how much less stressful and more motivating this goal can be! Also, put yourself in the shoes of the people you interact with in English, both native and non-native. Don’t you think they love the fact that they can understand you easily and interact with you comfortably? Or, do you imagine that they think less of you because you don’t speak like someone from Melbourne, Dublin, or Texas? I’d love to read your thoughts and stories in the comments section.

"I am finished" and "I have finished" have similar meanings, but they are not exactly the same. "I am finished" describes a current state or condition and It emphasizes the result or outcome of the action rather than the action itself. whereas "I have finished" describes a completed action in the past, It emphasizes the action that was completed rather than the result or outcome.

Hello Head Tutor, Minoo. I totally agree with you.The main thing is that people understand us, and we understand them. Keep it simple! Regards, Omar

Dear all, This is to let you know that the tutorial has just been released on my YT channel. It will soon be published in the 'tutorial' section of the 'video lessons' on the platform. If you would like to watch it straight away, go to this link: https://youtu.be/mXrqCJ2hvI0 I hope you enjoy it.

Hello, Thank you for the tips I will try to do that. Eddy

Hello Jesus, All three adjectives can be used, but I would use 'angry' because it's the strongest and matches the word 'demand' better. The other two are weaker: annoyed = slightly angry upset = unhappy, disappointed

Hello Jesus, Thank you for your question, which we covered in yesterday's LIVE Q&A session. To recap: When 'people' is the plural of 'person', you must use a plural verb: These people are .... When 'people' is a synonym for 'ethnic group', then it is a countable noun, and you can say 'a people' (+ singular verb) and 'peoples' (+ plural verb). This second meaning is not commonly used. So, consider 'people' to be plural 99% of the time.

The ‘WHAT’ part includes verb + direct object + indirect object, and we must keep these three elements together. In this case, the direct object is the question and the indirect object is for you. That’s why ‘again’ (an adverb) has come after ‘for you’. Here’s another example from Collins Dictionary: I started to feel good about myself again. You may come across examples where the indirect object has been separated from the verb, but make sure you never separate the direct object from the verb.

Hello Mathias, An excellent question! Here's a description of each type of workshop: Sunday workshops: They involve listening to and speaking with your peers, and typing sentences in the chat box in reply to my questions. One week: Grammar Review & Practice I'm attaching the worksheet from our last session on 15th January. You receive this before the session + the link to the online lesson that we will be revising. You can revise that lesson and do the exercises before the session, or you can come unprepared to test yourself and revise the lesson after the session. In the first part of the session, you partner up with one of your peers in a breakout room, and you do the exercises together. So, in this part you're revising a topic while discussing it with another student. In the second part of the session, I take the whole group through the exercises one by one. Here, you will be listening mainly to me, and occasionally answering a question from me in the chat box. The following week: Conversation Practice (occasionally changed to pronunciation practice) I'm attaching the worksheet from our last session on 22nd January. You can prepare your questions and/or your answers before the session, or you can come unprepared if you want to speak spontaneously. In the first part of the session, you partner up with one of your peers in a breakout room. You ask each other the questions and make a note of each other's answers. In the second part of the session, you share the information you've gathered from your partner with the whole group, speaking for 1-2 minutes. Your partner shares the information he/she has gathered from you with the whole group. NEW Saturday Q&A sessions starting 18th March 2023: hey involve mainly listening to me answering questions posted in the Forum, but you can ask questions live as well. You can post any questions you have in the Q&A Forum in four categories: Grammar, Pronunciation, Vocabulary, and General. You can answer your peers' questions in the Forum (the best way to reinforce your own learning). I choose the best questions from different categories every week and answer them in detail in our Saturday Q&A session. We end each session with a quiz to see how well you remember the different points covered. Don't hesitate to continue this thread if you have any follow-up questions on what I've explained above. 47 Conversation Cars - 22 January 23.pdf 46 Negative words -15 January 23.pdf

Hi friends! This is my Video Dictionary – The Farm Part2. I’ll try to publish one vídeo every week. I hope that you appreciate! Thank you! ? THE_FARM2_v2.mp4

Hi friends! This is my Video Dictionary – Baby Things. I’ll try to publish one vídeo every week. I hope that you appreciate! Thank you! VIDEO_BABY.mp4

Hello Rasha, Thank you very much for your support. I'm glad you like my website. You raise a very interesting point, and you're right that occasionally we may see 'will' in the 'if' clause. That's usually when we're using 'will' to show someone's willingness to do / not to something: A: I will not speak to him. B: O.k. If you won't (are not willing to) speak to him, I will do it. In your sentence, too, you can replace 'won't by 'be willing to': If you are not willing to have something done on time, be clear about it.

Thank you for your contribution, Pier. Indeed, it is great to use movies and songs that you like to learn new expressions. I would like to add a couple of suggestions: Choose movies you have already seen in your mother tongue and really liked, and watch them three or four times, first with English subtitles, and then two or three more times without subtitles with one or two weeks between each viewing. You will be amazed at how much more you understand each time even without subtitles. Remember that if you have the subtitles on all the time, your listening comprehension does not improve as much, so limit the subtitles only to the first time you watch a movie. Same goes for your favourite songs. Learn the lyrics (with some translation if necessary), and then listen to them again and again, and sing along with them.

Thank you very much for your positive feedback. We're delighted that you like the site, and hope you will enjoy using it.

Thank you for reporting this, Luca! We've managed to sort out most of the bugs you had reported. Let me know if you feel the experience is overall smoother now. The one that the software is still struggling with is question tags, especially with Present and Past Perfect tenses. We're working on it. Best wishes, Minoo

Hello Luca, The correct answers are: If she didn't have ... When 'have' is the main verb, use an auxiliary with it. ......, he would have taken .... The structure is correct, but it is not negative.

Hello Luca, No, as a phrasal verb, the meaning is complete with out 'yourself': refresh yourself = freshen up

Hello Luca, Yes, both answers should be considered correct. I'll ask the administrator to adjust the test.

Okay, as it is stated in the course. In 2015, we decided to go global, and have now set up subsidiaries in various parts of the world, with Asia Pacific being the most recent addition. Thanks a lot.

Hello Luca, 1. Your answer is also correct, but, if you check the instruction in the test again, it says: If there are two objects, use the person(s) in object position. This is because I want you to practise putting the person in object position, which is common in English. 2. Yes, the mistake is in the participle: wake - woke - woken.

1. 'long' can refer to length or time: How long is the stick? 50 centimetres. How long is the movie: 2 hours. Therefore, in the context, you don't need to mention the word 'time'. 2. With the verb 'believe' you cannot drop 'to be'. If the verb were 'considered', you could: They're considered (to be) weak ...

Hello Luca, When a proper noun exists (sale), we tend to use that instead of the gerund form (selling).

Hello Luca, You're being asked to listen TO people's pronunciation FOR some information (the specific way they're pronouncing something). 'to be listening' is the Continuous Infinitive form, and is used instead of the Present Infinitive to stress the continuity of the action. You may want to review the different infinitive forms in this exclusive video.

Okay, I had police constable, Bobby Robert of Scotland Yard in mint. Thanks.

Hello Butterfly55, Your formulation is correct. The problem is your word order: Robert used to be called Bobby.

1. seem to do / be / have something used to make what you say about your thoughts, feelings or actions less strong I seem to have left my book at home. I canʼt seem to (= Iʼve tried, but I canʼt) get started today. 2.ˈtake to somebody/ something [no passive] to start liking somebody/ something I took to my new boss immediately. He hasnʼt taken to his new school.

Thanks a lot. I’ve studied those structures for a few days, it should come with ease. Kind regards

Hello Butterfly, 1. The second conditional is about zero and low probability Present & Future situations. That's why it's perfectly o.k. to use it with words like 'now' and 'tomorrow': If we left the house now (improbable because you are not ready ready), we WOULD get there by noon. 2. Yes, that sentence is correct too. There are many possibilities: will / would / could you ask him ..... & also the imperative: ask him ... 3. That's the idea!

Hello Mino. Thanks for your explanation.

Hello, I think there is an error in the Intermediate Daily Challenge. Every time I read out loud the sentence "We charge a three percent commission", it says: Not quite. Mistake: We charge a 3% commission. Correction: We charge a three percent commission. I'm sure it is a very smart device, I do mean it, but how could it know that I speak in digital characters? ?

Hello Phil, That is highly amusing! It seems that your machine is a lot cleverer than mine! I have tested these sentences several times myself, and I don't remember this happening to me. Thanks a lot for reporting this. I have reported it to Tom to fix.

Hello Elisabet, I'm really glad that you're enjoying the daily challenges. Keep up the good work, and speak to you in our next session soon.

Really good for learning vocabulary specially with children. Blessings.

Minoo explains grammar in a very clear and understandable way and support her explanation with examples. I'm improving the language. Thanks.

Very nice! Thank you, Rodolfo!

Hi Folks A new exclusive video is available. Check it out now: When can we use ‘being’. Although 'be' is a state verb and can never take a Continuous tense, we often see and hear the word 'being'. In this lesson, we're going to look at the uses of 'being': When 'be' means 'behave' In Passive Structures As a Gerund

Yes, Sandeep, the 'would' here is an implied Conditional 2: If there were a war, it would be a disaster. It indicates that the author feels that the war is 'improbable'. If the author had used 'will', the sentence would be an implied Conditional 1 sentence, and would indicate that the author feels that the war is 'probable'. Therefore, you are right in assuming that the choice of 'would' instead of 'will' expresses the author's opinion as to how probable or improbable an event is.

Hello Sandeep and Phil, As Phil has said, 'would' gives the sentence a hypothetical sense (Second Conditional). 'will' is a prediction of something probably happening in the future: Conditional 2 (improbable/hypothetical): We are not going to introduce such a policy because (if we did,) it would not be constitutional. Conditional 1(probable): It is risky to introduce such a policy because (if we do,), it will not be constitutional. In the other example, the same logic can apply if we are actually discussing what's currently going on in a tribal setting. However, there's another possibility, and that is describing how things used to work in the past (using 'would' as an alternative to 'used to'): In that culture, whenever a chief died, his son would inherit all his dominions.

Hello Kyoko, It seems that Hari tried to reply to your question, but we can't see what he wrote. The tense you must choose here is the Present Simple, because we're stating a fact: They never HEAR from .... except when he NEEDS .... I hope this clarifies it for you. Happy continuation, and I look forward to hearing form you on the results of the strategies we discussed during our one-to-one session lat week.

Thank you, Viral, for posting the question, and Hari, for answering. Let me just refine what Hari has said: 1. As Hari says, because of 'when', the two actions are simultaneous, and therefore, there's no need for Past Perfect. However, Hari, be careful, we cannot use 'was being' here, because we're using 'be' as a main verb in its actual meaning and in the Active voice So: Somebody WAS here when I WAS at the office. 2. This sentence is correct because 'It looks like ...' is about the present moment, and because there's no reference to a particular past time in the sentence, we can use the Present Perfect. 3. As Hari says, we cannot say 'been being'. Viral, please watch my latest exclusive video lesson called 'When we can use 'being'. So, the two options are: It looks like somebody has been in my home. Somebody was in my home when I was at the office.

In my opinion: 1. Somebody was being in my home when I was at office (past continuous instead of past perfect because two action are simultaneously occurring, additional I used passive voice as the person is not known, somebody). 2. It looks like somebody is in my home ( present simple instead of present perfect, based on your scenario 1, as there is no time frame to show continuity). 3. Firstly, we mustn't use 'being' after 'be' since it sounds awkward. Therefore, somebody was in my home, would be more appropriate. In all the three circumstances I used 'past simple' instead of 'present simple' as past simple is more appropriate for your scenario 1. I have posted the above as far as my knowledge. Please correct me if I'm wrong. Regards, Hari Kiran

Hello Bernard and Hari, You're both right. When 'everybody' is the subject of a sentence, it definitely takes a singular verb: Everybody smiles when they pose for a photo. (Hari, please note that the 'singular' verb form is with 's': smiles). However, in Bernard's sentence, 'smile' is in the imperative form, which is the same as the base verb. Someone is asking everybody to smile for the photo: Everybody, SMILE (for the photo), please!

Hello, perhaps ... He needs to pull his socks up

Hello Hari, Assuming your question is about expanding our repertoire of such words (and not how to use them grammatically correctly), I would recommend reading novels as a way of enlarging your repertoire. It is the descriptive texts in novels that will be full of adjectives and adverbs. However, I would suggest that you choose simplified graded novels where you will find common and frequently used adjectives and adverbs that you can use in your own speaking and writing. There are two good series you can choose novels from: - Macmillan Readers - Oxford Bookworms And remember, as I recommend for any type of vocabulary building exercise: 1. Write down a phrase or a sentence that contains the word you're learning, not (just) the translation. 2. Check and learn the pronunciation of the new word in an online dictionary or use the audio version of the same book to hear all of it including the new words.

Hello Bernard, This sentence requires a mixed conditional: He is afraid of spiders, so he didn't visit Australia when he WAS in New Zealand: If he wasn't / weren't (Conditional 2) terrified of spiders, he would have visited (Conditional 3) Australia (during his trip to New Zealand last year).

Thank you everyone for participating in this challenge, which was slightly trickier than the previous two. The first point, as Butterfly55 has explained, is that 'anyone' is used with a singular verb. The trickier point is that if you need a pronoun or a possessive adjective to accompany 'anyone', 'everyone', etc., you should either use his/her & him/her, which is heavy, or use the 'genderless they'. So, the correct answer is: Has anyone brought their laptop with them? Well done if you got it right, but don't worry if you didn't. The purpose of the challenge is to make you aware of these tricky points.

Follow up: To continue communicating with someone after an event. Ex: Don't forget to follow up after the interview! To wrap up: To finish an event or an activity. Ex: Let's wrap up this meeting so we can go to lunch. To come up with: To think of an idea. Ex: We need to come up with a new strategy by next week. To burn out: To become a very overwhelmed with a heavy workload. Ex: If you work 80 hours per week, you will burn out. Carry out: To execute a project or assignment. Ex: Who will carry out your duties when you leave the company? To write up: To summarize information information in a formal report or study. Ex: Would you please write up a report about our newest product? Good Luck !!

Hello, I think there are two main categories of vocabulary words: the concrete and physical objects that you can see, and "abstract words" such as verbs, adjectives, adverbs, ... I find the first category the easiest to memorize, You just have to search a picture on the internet to illustrate the word, And we can even make flashcards with them. We can organise them by topic groups. The second category is more difficult to keep in mind. As far as I'm concerned, one of the best way to master new words is making up my own sentences with those words and try to use them. It's good to write down the sentences, and say them out loud as Minoo said. This technique is also useful to study any grammar point (especially the English tenses). And I'm going to try your suggestion Minoo for getting rid of English subtitles when I watch a film in original version...

Welcome to the ‘General Questions’ Forum. Here, you can post any language question. However, if your question is related to the content of the modules you are studying on the Anglo-Pedia Platform, please post it in the dedicated Forum below. An example of a General question: Which spelling is correct: 1990s or 1990’s?