Grammar Byte: Parts of Speech
There are different kinds of words, according to the particular part (or role) a given word plays when it is used in speech or writing. We give each kind of word a label that shows which part...
All English - Helping you connect with the world
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Grammar Byte: What’s an Adjective?
Adjectives are words that describe the qualities of a nouns. Adjectives are related to the senses: Feeling, tasting, seeing, smelling, hearing. In English, describing words come before the thing (the noun) that they are...
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Grammar Byte: Meet the Noun Family
NOUNS Nouns are naming words for people, places, things, ideas, and animals. PRONOUNS Words that can be used to replace a noun. ex. you, it, that, we, there ADJECTIVES Words that describe or modify...
What If English Were Phonetically Consistent?
Reading English can be frustrating because the spelling of sounds varies a lot. Take for example the letters “ough”. They can be pronounced in at least eight different ways: Enough Plough Through Though Thought...
Why British Singers Lose Their Accent When Singing
One day my son and I were listening to some music and he told me the singer was British. “Really?!” I said. “He sounds American to me.” “All singers sound American,” he replied in a matter...
Grammar is embedded in vocabulary
If it’s not obvious from reading this blog, I have a strong bias for teaching vocabulary over grammar. Research is conclusive: Explicit learning of grammar does not help language acquisition. It may help...
Measuring the Immeasurable
One of the big problems with education is how to measure student results. We tend to measure what is easily measurable rather than measuring what’s truly important. And this especially true in measuring language...
Sounds have no meaning
It’s interesting to read something like this. There are no languages where sounds have consistent meanings from word to word. This generalization is what Charles Hockett (“The origin of speech”, Scientific American, 203: 88-96, 1960)...
A History of English Pronouns
Thought vomit on the topic of pronouns… Currently in English we have these pronouns (direct ~ object)… I ~ me You ~ you He ~ him She ~ her It ~ it [for non-human...
English as a Rock Star
English is a language that many people aspire to learn. Because it’s a lingua franca (universal language) people think that it’s special. But it’s far from being refined or sophisticated. All its complexity has...
Why does a sideways head movement mean “no”?
When we communicate we do so with both speech and body language. An almost universal symbol for “no” is a sideways movement of the head (or the related finger waving). Where did this no movement...
Are Deaf Readers Bilingual?
My brother and his wife are sign language interpreters speaking American Sign Language (ASL). ASL is its own language with syntax and grammar and the signs are not merely replacements for English words. The...
Evolution of the Alphabet – Free Download
How did the letters of the English Alphabet come to be? Download this Evolution of the Alphabet chart for free: Source: https://usefulcharts.com/blogs/charts/evolution-of-the-english-alphabet And while you’re at it, check out this video on the history...
