Learning American English

Some More Advanced Vocabulary My students each year take the TOEFL exams for several reasons:  mainly so that they can go abroad and study at one of my institution's partner universities -- as in any other higher learning institution -- but also as a measure of their skills and ability.  Some advanced students need to be pushed a little farther, so I have developed and continue to develop some more advanced vocabulary exercises for them, and I thought I would share one of them with you today.   Below, you will find a series of words and the review exercises to go along with them.  Take your time going through these exercises, as I did write them for a clearly upper intermediate to advanced (C1-C2) level.  If they are too difficult for you, leave them for a while until you make some progress, then come back to them.  Take as many notes as you want, and don't hesitate to consult one or another online dictionary or thesaurus for some help. The...

Do you have this look of sheer terror on your face when you think about irregular verbs?   Oh come on, they're not that  bad, are they?  Chances are, you've been memorizing them in a list where you almost have to recite the three mutations (conjugations) to be able to use the second one or the third one.  This is an acceptable method if you are able to use the three without hesitating too much.  And if you have a lot of time to recite the three forms of the verb each time you need to use one. However, there are better ways.  Contextualization is the key, in my opinion.  Below is a first series of irregular verbs in different sentences, including sentences (answers) that you will need to construct.  Take the time to go through them and really do them, i.e. thinking about each answer.  Take as much time as you need before checking the answers which will be at the bottom of the page ... eventually.  Then, once you have finished t...

Brat So now I turn to one of my father's favorite words, which says a lot for my brothers, my sister and myself -- brat .  A brat is basically a bad child, and according to the Collins Dictionary etymologicial listings comes to us from the O.E. bratt , a poor child's piece of clothing, which in turn is from the Celtic brat  meaning a piece of cloth one wore just to cover the body. I shouldn't really mention that I'm referring to my students when I think of this word, but suddenly it just popped into my head.  A brat , and especially the stronger spoiled brat , is an obnoxious, misbehaving child who demands things -- notably attention -- and whose behavior is far from decorous.  Perfect examples of brats , including the spoiled variety, would be Justin Bieber*, Paris Hilton*, any of the Kardashians*, most professional soccer players* here in Europe, and of course One Direction*.  All you want to do is slap them across the face and send them packing or m...