6. It was a dark and stormy night
“Grab the closest book to you and open to the first page. What’s the first sentence? A good first sentence sets up the story and makes you want to keep reading. Some first sentences are classics, like the opening line to George Orwell’s “1984”:

“It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen.”

“Some others…don’t do the job as well.

When and why do we use this tense?
“This tense is used to explain continuous actions which are happening at the point when someone is speaking.

Structure:

“Subject + auxiliary verb (conjugated present tense of “to be”) + gerund

“As you can see, the structure is relatively simple.

Examples:

“They are playing football

“He is watching television

“We are relaxing by the beach

1. Use lots of visuals, pictures, gestures, and quick sketches
“If you only use words when talking to a newcomer they will likely become overwhelmed and frustrated by their lack of understanding, or bored because they don’t understand. Adding visuals of all kinds and gestures can help ELLs gain an understanding of a topic, without knowing every word. I used to draw a lot on the board for my students, even with my limited art skills to emphasize that it isn’t about how well a picture is drawn, so that when students drew to show their understanding they would be less self-conscious.

7. Respect the silent period

There are several different types of noun, as follows:
Common noun
“A common noun is a noun that refers to people or things in general, e.g. boy, country, bridge, city, birth, day, happiness.

Proper noun
“A proper noun is a name that identifies a particular person, place, or thing, e.g. Steven, Africa, London, Monday. In written English, proper nouns begin with capital letters.

If you are like most language learners I have met, then I would guess that you sometimes (or always) get scared before speaking (or even by the idea of speaking).

Have you tried reading out loud to learn English?
“Reading out loud gets an unfair reputation. A lot of people see it as something you do when you’re a kid… or something you only do with kids, if you’re reading a story to small children. The truth is, there’s a lot of educational value in reading out loud, even for adult learners.

“Being human beings, it is only natural for us to look for feedback from our bosses when we give a talk or present ideas so that we can make them better for next time but it is important for us to remember that our colleagues also look for feedback from us too. In today’s post we are therefore going to focus on ways of giving constructive criticism to our colleagues in English.

How well do you know the difference between affect and effect?

Affect and Effect are different in meaning, though frequently confused. Affect is chiefly used as a verb and its main meaning is ‘to influence or make a difference to’, as in the following example sentences:

The pay increase will greatly affect their lifestyle.

The dampness began to affect my health.

The weather will affect my plans for the weekend.

Here are 5 common phrases that native speakers use to say “I understand”

“As you will all know, the most common way to express agreement and understanding in English is by saying the sentence “I understand”, however, it is very important to try to use more varied expressions so as to enrich our conversations. As learners of another language, it is important to learn several ways to express the same idea. Which brings us to the purpose of this article! We are going to have a look at some other ways to say “I understand” in English.