Navigation

PELA/Learn English SLANG, IDIOMS, & PHRASES!/Page 5
Archive | Learn English SLANG, IDIOMS, & PHRASES!

Learn the meanings of useful English slang, common idioms and phrases, and other tricky words that can help you improve your English!

What are Puns? They’re ‘Punny’! Playing with Words

  • Devon Balwit
  • March 27, 2017
  • How can I improve my English? Learn English SLANG, IDIOMS, & PHRASES!

What are ‘puns’? As we teach in our English classes, some words with different meanings can sound similar.  This can make us laugh. Sound jokes are called puns.  They are fun to create, and when we get (understand) a pun, we feel clever. Sometimes, we also groan when we understand the pun.  We call those...Continue Reading...

What is the Difference? “even” vs. “even though” vs. “even when”

  • Devon Balwit
  • March 22, 2017
  • Learn English SLANG, IDIOMS, & PHRASES! Useful English VOCABULARY!

There are some important differences between how “even“, “even though“, and “even then” is used in English!   As covered in our English classes: Even is an adverb that intensifies.  It can modify nouns or verbs. A mosquito is small, but it carries diseases.  Even something as small as a mosquito can be dangerous. This woman...Continue Reading...

Do vs. Be: Are You Confused? Do You Need Help?

  • Devon Balwit
  • March 6, 2017
  • Learn English SLANG, IDIOMS, & PHRASES!

Even my intermediate level students still struggle with knowing when to use Do and when to use Be in questions.  It’s time to review. In the simple present and simple past tenses, we use do as a helping verb when we have a different main verb. Do you think kids are cute? / Do you want...Continue Reading...

Trash-talking, Teasing, and Mockery (Part Two): Bullies and Bullying

  • Devon Balwit
  • March 2, 2017
  • Learn English SLANG, IDIOMS, & PHRASES!

A bully is  a person who teases, hurts, or picks on someone weaker. (You can read our earlier blog post – Part 1 – if these verbs are new for you.) Bully can be used as a noun or a verb. Many schools have rules against bullying.  They ask teachers to watch out for children who...Continue Reading...

What’s the Difference between “TO” & “FOR” and how they express ‘Purpose’?

  • Devon Balwit
  • February 27, 2017
  • Learn English SLANG, IDIOMS, & PHRASES! Useful English VOCABULARY!

There is an important difference between ‘to‘ and ‘for‘ and how they are used to talk about ‘purpose’ in English! When you ask people a why question, most often they answer with “because.” For example: “Why do you train so hard?”  “I do it because I want to be an Olympic athlete some day.” However,...Continue Reading...

Learn the difference! HOW or WHAT are you doing?

  • Devon Balwit
  • February 20, 2017
  • Learn English SLANG, IDIOMS, & PHRASES! Useful English VOCABULARY!

How big is the difference between “how” or “what are you doing”? Really big! Two questions that often confuse students are: How are you doing? & What are you doing? For example, if you ask this woman “How are you doing?,” she’ll say “Great!  Fantastic!” However, if you ask her “What are you doing?,” she’ll...Continue Reading...

Clown Idioms and Phrasal Verbs: Just Clowning Around

  • Devon Balwit
  • February 8, 2017
  • Learn English SLANG, IDIOMS, & PHRASES!

What are some common and useful ‘clown’ idioms? The man in this picture is a clown.  He has painted his face and dressed strangely to make people laugh.  Maybe he works for the circus or performs on the street for money. We borrow the word clown to make the phrasal verb clown around. When we...Continue Reading...

Actually… you may not be using “actually” correctly!

  • Devon Balwit
  • February 6, 2017
  • Learn English SLANG, IDIOMS, & PHRASES!

Romance languages like French, Spanish, Italian, and Portuguese share a close common ancestor with English.  This is both good and bad for students.  A positive is that many words have the same meaning.  They just have different spelling and pronunciation. However, sometimes we find “false friends.”  For example, the word embarrasada in Spanish doesn’t mean...Continue Reading...

Then & Now: The difference between “Used to…” or “Be used to…”

  • Devon Balwit
  • January 25, 2017
  • Learn English SLANG, IDIOMS, & PHRASES! Useful English VOCABULARY!

What is the difference between “used to” and “be used to”? We use the modal verb used to + the simple form of the verb (V1 or the base form of the verb with no changes) to talk about a past habit.  We use it when the present is different from the past.  Here are...Continue Reading...

Trash-talking, Teasing, and Mockery

  • Devon Balwit
  • January 23, 2017
  • How can I improve my English? Learn English SLANG, IDIOMS, & PHRASES!

Have you heard or seen instances of trash-talking, teasing, or mockery out in the real world?  When athletes complete, they look for any edge (or advantage) over their competition.  Much of that comes from physical skill, but some is psychological.  Often, they try to distract their opponents by trash-talking.  Trash-talking is when someone says bad things...Continue Reading...

  • Categories

    • Categories

    Popular Post

    General IELTS Task 1 Practice – ‘Formal’ letters

    • Chris Quinn
    • December 18, 2023

    Opening & Closing Sentences for IELTS Task 1 Letters

    • Chris Quinn
    • November 13, 2023

    IELTS Writing Task 1 Charts & Sample Responses

    • Chris Quinn
    • October 23, 2023

    It’s Halloween Season at PELA!

    • Chris Quinn
    • October 9, 2023

    IELTS Prepositions about Amounts for Writing Task 1

    • Chris Quinn
    • October 2, 2023

    Tags