Your Monthly Dose of English - Best of April 2021

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lesson sixth free audiobooks unlock our huge library of language learning audiobooks save them to any device and listen and learn they're yours to keep forever and finally the deal of the month if you want to finally master the language with lessons by real teachers and our complete language learning program take the 12 month challenge and get 12 months of premium or premium plus at up to 45 off to get your gifts and language learning resources click the link in the description below download them right now before they expire [Music] hi everybody welcome back to ask alicia the weekly series where you ask me questions and i answer them maybe okay let's get to your first question first question this week comes from it's memart hello it's me martz it's remark says when do we use the preposition to in a sentence in these examples why do we use two she is now engaged to her longtime boyfriend and i gave birth to two healthy boys okay this is a big question and a big answer there are lots of reasons that we use two in sentences let's talk about a few first we used to to describe movement so for example i went to france or he went to the office we use two before the destination the place that we are traveling to so we use two to talk about movement we also use two in time expressions like she worked from nine to five it means until in these cases or she jogged from three to four so we can use it to express time in this way we also use to when we're using the infinitive form of a verb in a sentence so for a reminder the infinitive form of a verb is the base form like the dictionary form the kind that you find in the dictionary so that's two plus the verb there are many cases there are many different grammar patterns many different structures in which we use the infinitive form so a few examples of this are we're going to buy lunch and he called to say hello in other cases though the rules kind of disappear a bit they fade away it's not so easy to apply a simple rule this is because these uses of two like the ones that you've shared in your example sentences are actually from idioms or they're parts of phrasal verbs these rules don't apply however when we look at two in phrasal verbs and in idioms so you have to remember these kind of like separate vocabulary words you have to memorize them the same way that you would vocabulary words unfortunately there isn't a clear-cut rule for when to use two in cases like these so for example in your first example sentence she got engaged to her long-time boyfriend the two in that sense is part of the get engaged to expression that's an idiom to get engaged to someone that's a set phrase in the second example sentence she gave birth to two healthy boys two in that sentence is part of the expression give birth to so there are lots of set expressions phrasal verbs and idioms that use two and you just have to memorize them like vocabulary words they're like kind of independent expressions independent phrases that you need to think about so this is a quick introduction to a few uses of two and also just consider that sometimes there's not really a specific rule for the reason why two is used in an expression it's just the vocabulary word or it's just the idiom so a good way perhaps to practice this is read i would suggest reading and over time naturally you'll start to kind of get a feel for the expressions that used to and the expressions that used by or at or in or on and so on similar issues exist with other prepositions for sure so i would suggest reading as much as possible to help you identify the most natural choice of preposition you can read novels you can read news articles you can read social media posts whatever make sure you're reading a lot and then you'll kind of over time as i said get a feel for what should be the preposition used so i hope that this helps you i hope this was a good introduction to a few cases in which it is kind of rule-based use of two but also just to give you a heads up give you some information about these expressions that used to uh as kind of a set expression so thanks very much for the question all right let's move on to your next question next question comes from vinai hi venai when i says how do we talk about simultaneous events in present continuous tense okay to talk about two or more events happening right now so two or more things that are happening in the present moment you can try a pattern like one of these i'm listening to music and working at the same time are you cooking and cleaning right now he's watching me while operating the camera so a reminder these patterns are used for two actions that are happening right now at the same time if you want to talk about actions that happen regularly like habits you need to use simple present tense we don't use that ing form for regular actions we can only use these patterns for actions that are happening now so please keep this in mind but i hope that this helps you describe simultaneous actions in the present thanks very much for the question okay let's move on to your next question next question comes from nelly hi nelly nelly says hi alicia what is the meaning of educated guesses thank you yeah sure great question an educated guess is a guess that we make after doing research or after getting some information about the topic so we can compare this to just a guess so a guess is just something that we come up with we have an idea about something we share it we make a guess about something an educated guess sounds like something we actually thought about we tried to find information to make our guests more accurate so for example if i asked you who do you think will be the next president of the united states and you have no idea but you want to guess you could say a famous person like beyonce or something so that's probably not a good strategy making a guest like that though president beyonce does sound pretty awesome so making an educated guess on the other hand would require you to do some research who are the candidates what is their position on various issues are they popular or not so after doing that kind of research and then sharing a guess like choosing one of the candidates that would be an example of making an educated guess so this is the difference between an educated guest and just a guess keep in mind that lots of people like to pretend to make an educated guess when they're really just guessing so keep this in mind too i hope that this helps you thanks for the question okay let's move on to your next question next question comes from lynn hi lin lin says hi alicia i know we use a when it is followed by a consonant sound and use an when it is followed by a vowel sound but i heard we pronounce a as a or a depending on the consonant or vowel sound condition as well i just put these rules together and i'm confused now what's the difference for example he is an or a a european person or this is a or a one-way street thank you so much ah sure okay first let's review the uh or a and and rules we use the indefinite article a or uh before a word that begins with a consonant sound we use an before a word that begins with a vowel sound so a key difference here is sound be careful this has nothing to do with spelling so for example an hour we use and there because our begins with a vowel sound it starts with an h yes in spelling but the sound is a vowel sound our so this is the rule for using a or a and an to answer your question however there actually isn't a rule for when native speakers use the a or a pronunciation it's completely up to the speaker so don't worry about what you've studied you don't have to change anything there so just keep in mind that native speakers will use a pronunciation for emphasis sometimes so we do this when we want to emphasize that like there's a key difference in some situation so here's an example let's imagine you are looking for your phone and i find one here and i say hey i found this phone you might reply and you might say you found a phone you didn't find my phone so the reason that a native speaker would choose to use the a pronunciation there is to emphasize that i just found this phone in particular i found a phone yes it belongs to the category phone but it's not the speaker's phone so the speaker is making a contrast they want to like clearly show the difference between a phone and my phone this desired thing and this thing you found are different so that's the reason that they would use this a emphasis so that pronunciation as emphasis in that situation let's try one more example imagine we're co-workers in this situation and i'm looking for a file an important file and you offer to help me you find a file that you think is correct and you show it to me and i go uh yeah you found a file but it's not the file so in that case i'm contrasting i'm showing a difference i'm emphasizing a difference between this file you found and the file that i'm looking for in this case i'm using the file to mean the file that we both know about this file that we both are looking for right now i'm using the a pronunciation to draw attention to kind of point out that this thing and this thing are different so when i say a pronunciation might be used for emphasis this is what i mean so in sum you can use either a or a it really doesn't matter it's up to you but you might hear native speakers using that a pronunciation for the article when they're trying to emphasize a key difference between this thing and another thing so i hope that this helps you thanks for the question okay let's move on to your next question next question comes from godson ernst pierre luis hello godson ernst uh godson art says i often hear two different pronunciations of the word neither and today i'd like to know which one is right for me please thank you aha the answer is both both neither and neither are both totally acceptable pronunciations there's actually a famous george gershwin song if you're familiar with george gershwin he wrote rhapsody in blue he had some musicals anyway he and his brother ira did some like cool musical stuff but there's a very famous example in their work that references this issue so they have neither and neither is good examples or like potato and potato both acceptable or tomato and tomato so there are different pronunciations for a few words and you might know some more but they're both fine they're both acceptable you can use neither or neither i would say personally that probably in today's american english we use neither and for the other words that i mentioned tomato and potato those are the more common pronunciations but you can still use the other pronunciations if you like so that would be my personal recommendation but you can use both they're both fine so i hope that this helps you thanks for the question hi everybody my name is alicia in this lesson i'm going to talk about could have should have and would have what they mean how to use them in the negative and the differences between them so let's get started first i want to begin with could have let's look at the positive and the negative meanings of could have first positive we use could have positive for something that was possible in the past so to give kind of an image of this if our conversation is happening now when we use could have we're talking about something that had possibility in the past something we were able to do for example an example sentence ah if i had known you were throwing a surprise party i could have helped i could have helped so here could have shows us that this action helping was possible in the past in this case the speaker did not know some information and as a result this action did not happen but it was possible at a point in the past the speaker could have helped helping was a possibility in the past so we use could have to express that possibility the negative form however expresses the opposite so in the negative could not have expresses something that was impossible impossible so not possible in the past so here if we want to give an image it's something that was not possible something we were not able to do let's look at an example of this no that couldn't have been sarah in the cafe just now she's at the office so here i'm using couldn't have could not have contracted reduced becomes couldn't so that couldn't have been sarah in the cafe just now in other words it's impossible that just now we saw sarah in the cafe why she's at the office so in this case maybe sarah is the speaker's colleague co-worker so we know sarah is at the office so we saw someone maybe who looks like sarah at the cafe just now but it's not possible it was sarah because sarah's at the office so we can say that couldn't have been so it's impossible that that was sarah so couldn't have been sounds much more natural than it's impossible that that was sarah so we use couldn't have been or could not have been so positive form something that was possible in the past so be careful in maybe contrast a key difference here is this is only about possibility we're not talking about like a plan to do something or regret necessarily we're only talking about possibility when we use could or could not here so with this let's move along to the next part the next part i want to focus on should have so let's look at the positive form should have in the positive expresses regret for something we did not do in the past so an image of this here if our conversation is happening now we want to talk about something we did not do in the past and that now maybe we think oh it's a good idea like i should have done this thing i did not do this thing in the past that's why i marked it with an x here so i did not do this thing but i feel bad now i feel regret like i should have done that thing in the past so an example sentence of this i should have studied more when i was in school here is the should have i should have and this action studied more so in other words the speaker did not study enough in the past the speaker feels he or she did not study enough in the past regrets that and wants to express the change like i wish i had done this thing i should have studied more when i was in school so here we have more this is a common pattern with should have or should not have when we use more it means i should have studied more than i did when i was in school so here the speaker is regret expressing regret sadness about something they did not do therefore when we use the negative form the speaker again expresses regret yes but they're expressing regret for something that happened in the past something they did in the past so i've marked it here with a check this action did happen and we feel regret about that action we feel bad about something we did in the past an example i shouldn't have spent so much time playing video games when i was a kid so here i've used shouldn't have so should not have is how we make the negative form i've reduced it shouldn't have shouldn't have in rapid speech shouldn't have i shouldn't have spent so much time playing video games so what's the action here the speaker played video games when he or she was a child the speaker now regrets that the speaker says i shouldn't have spent so much time i should have spent less time playing video games so i could use positive should have i should have spent less time playing video games when i was a kid here i shouldn't have spent so much time so here a key point with should have is that we're expressing regret remember with could have we're talking just about possibility with should have we're expressing a regret for something that did or did not happen in the past so with this in mind let's go on to the last point for this lesson the last point uh the last point rather is would have would have so when we say would have we often say would've would have i mentioned it here with should have we say should've or shouldn't have same thing with could have like could've or couldn't have is the correct pronunciation in fast speech so when we talk about would have or when we look at would have and we look at the positive form we use it to express a plan for something that did not happen so we're talking about something in the past so from a point in the past something in the future at that time we had a plan for that thing or we thought something was going to happen but in the positive form it did not happen this is kind of tricky let's look at an example situation here i would have arrived on time today but there was terrible traffic so i did not arrive on time so first here's my action i would have arrived on time so i had a plan or i had a desire i was thinking i was going to arrive on time so at this point in time i would have arrived on time today maybe we're thinking when i left the house maybe this is where the action starts my plan was to arrive on time so again this is all happening in the past my conversation is here i was planning to arrive on time but there was terrible traffic terrible traffic means lots and lots of cars it was difficult to drive or difficult to get to work so i did not arrive on time i would have arrived on time but i didn't because of terrible traffic so this shows us this would have shows us all of this information everything here happened in the past on like a timeline so i thought i was going to arrive on time something happened and i didn't so we can use would have to show like our thinking in this point would have in the past about a future action that is also in the past so a couple of past points there at the same time okay so let's compare this then to the negative form the negative form then expresses the opposite so we have a lack of plan or a lack of a desire so lack of something means no plan or no desire so lack of plan for something that happened in the past it did happen yes so we commonly use both of these to talk about other people's choices like when we're giving advice this example sentence is a very common way that we use would not have or wouldn't have let's look if i were you i wouldn't have quit my job before i found a new position so here is my would not have i've reduced it to wouldn't have i would not have quit my job before i found a new position so that means if i were you this is how we're beginning this this is a very common way that this would have or would not have is used so if i were you i'm not you but if i were at this point in time in the past my decision would not have been to quit my job however your decision was to quit your job this did happen you quit your job in my case i would not have done that so here in opposite to the positive form i'm talking about a point in the past like if i were you just in general and i'm talking about a future decision i might make in this case the person listening did choose to quit his or her job i'm saying i would not have quit my job that would not have been my decision for the future so again there's kind of this idea of two points in the past like a kind of a general i guess a starting point in the past if i were you in this case and some decision some plan some like desire or lack of desire in this case in the negative form so we use these like i said to talk about like other people's choices when we're giving advice like oh if i were you i would have done this in the past so we use would have to talk about uh past decisions and maybe to talk about things um like if you if you were the speaker like things you might change what would you do differently so we use this to talk about these sorts of past past decisions and give advice and talk about um how we might make different decisions in the future so this kind of expresses a desire or lack of desire this one should have expresses regret in the past could have expresses possibility so this is just a quick introduction to the differences between these three expressions and their negative forms i didn't write them not here so would not have uh but if you have any other questions about this please let us know in the comments they are very similar i know they sound very similar and it can be hard to understand how to use them but try to keep these three kind of themes in mind possibility and regret and then kind of desire or advice here so i hope that this helps you understand the differences between these three if you have questions or comments or if you want to practice making an example sentence please feel free to do so in the comment section of this video of course if you liked the video don't forget to give it a thumbs up subscribe to our channel and check us out at englishclass101.com for some other things that can help you with your english studies thanks very much for watching this lesson and i will see you again soon bye-bye hi everybody welcome back to top words my name is alicia and today we're going to talk about 10 modal verb patterns let's go can could you can could you okay so this first one is can you or could you blah blah so a lot of people ask what's the difference between can you and could you which one should i use if you're making a request basically you can use either one if you want to sound a little bit more polite i would recommend you use could you so if you're talking to your friend or your family member you can say like can you help me with this or can you help me make dinner or can you buy some milk at the store or can you please fix your hair it looks weird if you want to be a little bit more polite like when you're talking to someone at work or talking to someone you don't know so well you can use could you blah blah so could you please send me that file or could you please tell me where the restroom is you can use those for more polite situations both of them are totally correct both of them are fine to use in most everyday situations so it's up to you to decide how polite you want to sound okay example sentence can you help me move this sofa i may might i may might okay may and might this presents another very very common question when you want to talk about your own plans as in this example sentence with i may be or i might we have the same feeling yes they both express something we're not sure about an upcoming plan that we're not sure about but in american english today might tends to be more commonly used in everyday conversation may tends to sound a little bit more polite a little bit more formal when we're talking with our friends we say i might go to the beach this weekend or i might go to a party to make it negative we say i might not do that or i might not go to dinner after all i feel kind of sick so might tends to be used more in everyday conversation again just as with can and could may and might are both completely correct they're both fine to use it's just up to you to choose how polite you want to sound okay examples i might take a day off next week what should i what should i okay this one focuses on the word should we use should to ask for advice and to give advice generally so we tend to use this word in kind of close situations you're asking somebody for help maybe you're asking for someone's opinion so you can say what should i do if you are having trouble in an everyday life situation or you can use this to make a more complex sentence like what should i get for dinner tonight like to ask for someone's opinion or maybe you can change as well the eye to something else to another person what should he do or what should she do or what should they do you can change that i in the sentence to ask about someone's opinion regarding a third person regarding another party so this is a very basic sentence yes what should i this pattern but you can change it with these very very simple small things to ask about others outside yourself another example what should i make for dinner i think you should i think you should okay so here again we're seeing should used in this case we're seeing i think you should so that means we are seeing an advice pattern being presented here this is something you can use to kind of softly and maybe a little politely express your opinion about something in this case i think you should is followed by a verb i think you should verb i think you should go i think you should quit i think you should stop eating so much junk food you're giving some kind of advice to the listener you can make this less polite by dropping i think so you make the sentence you should you should do this you should do that that will make the sentence less polite including i think at the beginning of it makes it sound a little bit softer so it sounds a bit nicer a little bit kinder examples i think you should start exercising shall we shall we okay shall we this is another very common question lots of people like to ask about the difference between shall we and will we they are very different you cannot use them interchangeably shall we is a polite way to suggest you do something maybe you've seen this in a romantic movie like shall we dance or shall we go for a drink something like that it sounds kind of polite a little bit nice to say shall we instead of do you want to they have the same meaning though but shall we sounds a little bit more formal so shall we and will we are sometimes confused by learners will we is quite different will we is asking a question about a future plan like will we have to pay for this later or will we be in time for the movie shall we is like suggesting you do something with another person will we is saying something like oh my gosh i'm not sure about this future plan that we have together is it true is it going to happen that's the difference between the two oh another point about this shall we tense we tend to use shall we or shall i we don't really use shall he or shall she so often we tend to use it for our own activities that's why you'll see shall we or shall i used more uh this is also true for an expression like shall you you don't see that shall is used together with some other person example shall we visit your parents for christmas if i i would if i i would this is a very common pattern if i something i would a lot of people like to use this an expression like if i were you i would so they like to ask should i use were should i use was in a pattern like if i were you or if i was you the correct answer is if i were you i would we use was in a pattern like if i was something something something to talk about a possible past situation when you want to talk about something that is not true now so an unreal situation now like being you which is not true not possible use were if i were you it's not possible so please use were in that case you can of course use this in other situations if i something i would for example if i lost my job i would find a new one or if i won the lottery i would buy a house so you can use verbs in this pattern as well just keep in mind the verb form that you use if i won the lottery or if i ate a big dinner we're using simple past tense in this verb form so please make sure not to use like simple present tense or don't use an ing verb form here if i simple past tense i would blah blah for example if i had a bigger house i would have dinner parties so final point here remember when you use this pattern to express something that is not true not real like in my example sentence if i won the lottery i would buy a house make sure you're using the correct verb form after would too if i won the lottery past tense verb i would buy a house the verb in the main clause is in the infinitive form so make sure that your verbs match this is a good one to study grammar with okay onward you must not you must not okay here we see a rule must is commonly used to express rules we don't use must so much in everyday conversation because it tends to sound quite strong you will however see must used in official rules like if you're traveling you're going to like the airport maybe you are seeing some rules on a sign somewhere or you're seeing i don't know maybe you're reading a contract something official that's where you tend to see must used we use must in everyday conversation for super super strong things like you must do this or you must not do that maybe your doctor gives you some advice for example so in general you don't see this in everyday conversation so much but you should know when it means that you should take something seriously like in an official rule like you must not smoke in this area or you must stop eating junk food or you're going to get very very unhealthy or you must not forget your mother's birthday that's actually very true that's very strong situation you must not forget your mother's birthday you must not disappoint your mother exactly exactly so these are all very very important and strong things that we need to communicate we do that with must you can also of course change your subject to he or she or they as well so that you're not just talking to you the listener or the reader but you can use it to express something another person must or must not do example passengers must show their passports to immigration officers this must not be this must not be okay this use of must sometimes is a bit challenging the key with this use of must is the use of must with b so when we use must and b together we're talking about a possible condition or a possible state in this example we see it in the negative this must not be something something something so we use this in a situation like for example you're looking for a place you're using the gps on your phone and you come to this place and you think this seems correct but my the restaurant i'm looking for is not here we might say this must not be the right place that means this is probably not the right place or this expression describes a very high chance that something is not true in the negative when we use it in the positive for example oh this must be the right place i found the restaurant it means there's a high possibility i am correct so this use of must is when we use it with b to make the negative must not be to make the positive this must be so you can use it to talk about places you can also use it to talk about conditions so for example like when you look at answers on a test you might think to yourself this must be the correct answer or this must be correct you can use both a noun and an adjective after this to express that high or low condition of something being true example this must not be the right place it's closed that can't be that can't be okay that can't be this is the reduced form of that cannot be this means it's impossible so some condition or some state is impossible this is different from must not be because must not be expresses that there's a very very low chance that something is true that can't be expresses that something is completely impossible there is zero percent chance that something is true so for example if i think i see my co-worker at the coffee shop but i know my co-worker is at the office i might think to myself that can't be resa she's at the office today maybe she looks just like my co-worker but i know it's not possible i expressed that with can't be this is quite different from that must not be because must not be expresses there's still a little bit of a chance that that is true can't be expresses that it is completely impossible interestingly we don't really use this in the positive form much we don't say this can be correct we tend to say this could be correct we don't really use this this can be pattern so if you want to express something as impossible completely impossible use this can't be also couldn't be is acceptable here but when you want to express that something is just possible use could be not can't be interesting point okay example that can't be the right file the data is totally different we shouldn't we shouldn't okay so here we're using should again this time in the negative shouldn't is the reduced form should not becomes shouldn't in this case we're using it with the subject we meaning something you and i together should not do so again this is an advice pattern we should not do something of course you can make this positive by simply removing not after should we should blah blah blah so we shouldn't steal we shouldn't disrespect our mothers we shouldn't forget our mother's birthdays right this is the important point from today's lesson i think not uh we shouldn't so when you want to express something that's not a good idea something that you don't think you as a group should do you can express that with we shouldn't verb in this case also please remember you follow the verb with the infinitive form we shouldn't do something we shouldn't eat we shouldn't talk we shouldn't forget so don't use like an ing form don't use the past tense form here please follow should this use of should the advice form with the simple infinitive form example we shouldn't think too much about this all right that is everything for this episode that was 10 modal verb patterns that you can use what did you think you could let us know in the comments alright that is everything for this episode thanks very much for watching and i will see you again next time bye bye hi everybody welcome back to know your verbs my name is alicia and in this lesson we're going to talk about the verb deliver let's get started let's begin with the basic definition of the verb deliver the basic definition is to take something from one person and give it to another person some examples fedex delivered my package today he delivers pizzas three nights a week now let's look at the conjugations for this verb present deliver delivers passed delivered past participle delivered progressive delivering now let's talk about some additional meanings for this verb the first additional meaning is to give birth or to help someone give birth let's start with some examples our doctor has safely delivered many babies the mother delivered twins so this use of the verb deliver refers specifically to childbirth sometimes the verb is used to talk about someone like a doctor or a nurse or a midwife or other helper aiding a mother in giving birth to children in that case we see sentences like the first example sentence our doctor has safely delivered many babies that means the doctor has assisted in the birth of many different uh babies has assisted in safely it's probably a key word here but safely delivered safely helped many babies into the world the second example sentence however is focused on the mother so the mother delivered twins means the mother gave birth to twins so deliver refers to giving birth in that sentence so depending on the subject of the sentence it can mean either helping someone give birth or actually giving birth when we're talking about the mother usually so deliver can refer to both of these things but they're both related to childbirth child care let's go on to the second additional meaning for this lesson the second additional meaning for deliver is to speak or to sing especially when directed at somebody let's look at some examples martin luther king jr delivered a moving speech in washington dc the judge is delivering the verdict later today so both of these example sentences show kind of a formal event the first example sentence refers to a very famous speech the second example sentence refers to a formal situation like a courtroom where a judge is delivering as in the example sentence a verdict a verdict means a choice a legal choice or a legal decision really um so in the first example sentence martin luther king jr delivered a speech it means spoke yes but there's usually some kind of like big intention there's a specific aim behind the words we could also use it to talk about singing like delivered an amazing performance for example if you're talking about maybe opera just to give an example but there's kind of some large aim some purpose some big like intention for the performance uh in the case of singing or for the words in the case of speaking so in the first example sentence we see that it's a speech it's an important speech we're talking about so martin luther king jr delivered an important speech we could say gave an important speech yes but using deliver kind of upgrades the formality upgrades the seriousness of the situation the second example sentence about the judge delivering a verdict we see that choice of deliver there because it's a formal situation again we could say the judge gave the verdict or the judge provided the verdict as well but deliver is like the judge is sort of passing the information in a formal manner this is kind of the nuance of the word choice deliver here so you can see deliver used to talk about communication in formal and kind of important situations in this way let's go on to the next additional meaning for this verb the next additional meaning is to produce results as promised let's start with some examples i'm not sure they're going to deliver on time they delivered on their promises so this use of the verb deliver means to provide something that's expected like there's some order or there's some request that has been made and that needs to be fulfilled so someone needs to keep their promise that's the feeling of this use of deliver so in the first example sentence we see i'm not sure they're going to deliver on time means i'm not sure they're going to keep their promise on time like maybe the schedule has changed some problem has arisen we don't know but i'm not sure they're going to deliver it means i'm not sure they're going to complete the thing they said they would complete in the time frame we agreed upon so i'm not sure they're going to finish i'm not sure they're going to be able to do the thing they said they would do on time the second example sentence is more positive though they delivered on their promises here past tense delivered so they were able to do the things that they promised to so there was a promise made in the past there was some agreement reached in the past and the agreement or the promise was fulfilled they delivered on their promises they were able to do the things they said they would do let's continue to the next additional meaning for the verb deliver the next additional meaning is to save someone from something let's start with some examples deliver us from evil the rescue team delivered people from danger a key point about this meaning of the verb deliver is that it's rather formal and perhaps even biblical biblical means it relates to the bible so if you have read the bible or if you're familiar with some of the prayers or some of the ways of speaking from the bible you might be familiar with this use that we see in the first example sentence deliver us from evil so deliver us from evil means save us from evil save us from evil things so deliver in this way is not so commonly used in everyday speech if you attend church or if you attend another kind of religious or maybe religiously related organization you might hear this use of deliver there in your community in general however in the news we don't use the verb deliver to talk about saving or maybe even rescuing people in those cases like i said save and rescue are more common deliver tends to be used more like in biblical contexts the second example sentence like the rescue team delivered the people from danger that's kind of i'm kind of stretching the meaning of that one a little bit that might not be such a typical example but it's sort of um the kind of situation that you could imagine deliver being used in so if i were writing a report or if i were making the news for the day i probably would not use deliver in that way but um the meaning is still communicated there so deliver tends to be used in like serious situations uh like deliver us from evil evil is quite serious or to deliver someone from danger or from a very stressful situation so it tends to be something more serious in nature but like i said deliver is not used so commonly in this way in everyday speech you might hear it more in like specific religious organizations let's continue on to some variations for the verb deliver the first variation is to deliver a blow to deliver a blow this means to have a damaging effect on something some examples she delivered a blow to the company when she announced her decision the team scored another goal delivering a blow to their opponents okay so to deliver a blow means like to cause some damage or to cause some harm but this doesn't usually mean physically it's more like mental or emotional damage in the first example sentence she delivered a blow to the company with her decision that means she made a decision and that somehow damaged her company so maybe she was like the ceo or a top management person at her company she decides to quit and she's a very valuable worker so it's damaging to the company physically not damaging but the company loses something important so we can say she delivered a blow to the company she caused damage or she had like a damaging effect on the company as a result of her decision so she delivered a blow we could say in the second example sentence we see it in a sports situation so team a scored another goal so we see another goal meaning there was a previous goal or goals already but the team scored another goal and delivered a blow to their opponent so team b so that means team a their score went up and team b's maybe motivation or morale was damaged so deliver a blow again doesn't mean physically attacking someone it means that there's some kind of damage usually like kind of a mental or emotional damage in this case perhaps motivation related damage occurs so to deliver a blow can mean to cause damage to someone or something like an organization or a company let's go on to the second variation for this verb which is to deliver the goods to deliver the goods this is a very informal and very casual expression that means to give the things that have been promised examples i'm not sure they're going to be able to deliver the goods on time you have to be prepared to deliver the goods if you want to work here so both of these refer to some kind of service or some kind of goods some kind of like there's items of some kind being provided so you will hear this perhaps in movies and in tv shows this is a very very very casual expression um that sometimes has the nuance of maybe activities that aren't legal uh so it could refer to like like drugs or medication that's illegally obtained or to some other kind of substance or some other kind of like stolen goods for example there's something that you don't want to say specifically like what it is so we say deliver the goods so the goods can mean any number of things deliver the goods means like give the things that are promised like we talked about in one of the additional meanings but it's like you have to promise to provide the things you say you're going to provide so it has a little bit of kind of a a dark feeling about it i think sometimes we may casually use this expression among friends now and then with various like small situations like deliver the goods like the party supplies for example um but in more serious situations it can refer to maybe not completely legal activities to deliver the goods okay so those are a few hopefully new ways to use the verb deliver if you have any questions or comments or if you know a different way of using the verb deliver please feel free to let us know in the comment section of this video hi everybody welcome back to know your verbs my name is alicia and in this episode we're going to talk about the verb post let's get started the basic definition of the verb post is to publish or announce something on a sign or something similar to a sign examples he posted an advertisement on the community bulletin board let's post signs around town now let's look at the conjugations for this verb present post posts passed posted past participle posted progressive posting now let's talk about some additional meanings for this verb the first additional meaning is to share something on social media examples i saw that photo you posted on instagram yesterday did you see that message she posted on facebook so when we upload information like photos or messages tweets whatever we can use the verb post to talk about that for twitter i suppose we can use tweet as a verb too you can say i posted on twitter or i tweeted as well um but post is the kind of the general verb we can use for all social media when we share anything on social media we can say i posted something on facebook or on instagram or on twitter or on snapchat or on what else is there youtube posted on youtube i uploaded it to youtube i supposed to but post is the general verb used for social media sharing so i think actually that this use of post comes from the original like definition which is like to put something in a community sign or like to put something in a community place where many people can see it because that's the purpose of social media is to share something so many people will see it so i think that use of post comes from that basic definition of the verb post like sharing something in a community space because we want other people to see it and respond to it the second additional meaning is to send something by mail this is more commonly used in british english actually in american english we tend to use the verb mail more often but in british english you might hear post used examples can you post me the documents i posted a few letters today so here post refers to mailing something like can you post me the documents means can you send me the documents by mail like physically by male the second sentence i posted some letters refers to mailing some letters sending some letters via mail so this is kind of more commonly used in british english post is more commonly used to mean male in british english in american english we tend to use the verb male more commonly so depending on the type of english you are studying or you prefer to use you might make a decision here with this verb so post or mail post british male american the third additional meaning is to send someone somewhere for work examples he's been posted outside the white house there's security posted around the building so you can see in these example sentences it's kind of work relating to security or to military to guarding of some kind we don't really use it for like a regular office job like i wouldn't say like i've been posted to my company's like branch in beijing it sounds a little bit weird we would say maybe transfer or i've been like i've been transferred or i've been moved to my company's office when we're talking about like a specific place like a job where we need to stand and wait somewhere and it tends to be for like security military purposes that kind of thing we can use the verb post to talk about that it might sound a little out of place if you use post for a different job so these are a couple examples of ways that you can use post to refer to being sent somewhere to do this kind of work now let's move on to some variations for this verb the first variation is to keep someone posted to keep someone posted this means to provide regular updates to someone examples keep me posted about your project i'll try to keep you posted about my schedule so to keep someone posted means to give them regular updates like you can think back to the original definition of the verb like post like sharing information in a community way to keep someone posted is sort of like to continue to share information so as you're working on a project or as you're making progress with something you share your updates you share your information you keep someone posted so we see that in these sentences so in the first one keep me posted about your project it means please send me updates about your project i want to know the second example sentence i'll try to keep you posted about my schedule means i will try to keep you updated i will try to send you regular updates about my schedule let's go on to another variation for this verb the second variation is to post bail to post bail this means to offer money in exchange for freedom from prison examples he posted bail and got out of jail immediately many people aren't able to post bail even for minor crimes this is a very specific variation in the u.s criminal system there's this thing called bail so if someone is convicted if someone is arrested and has to go to prison because of a crime they committed there's this thing called bail if the person can pay this amount of money they can be released from prison they don't have to stay in prison we refer to paying that money so that the name of that money is bail but we use the verb post here so we say post bail to post bail means to pay the required amount of money to get out of jail so this is a specific phrase that we use only for this type of money to post bail we don't use this in another like financial transaction at all to post bail refers only to paying this amount of money to get out of jail so this is a very specific one i don't know if you have bail in your country but this is something that uh exists in the u.s so those are a few new ways i hope that you can use the verb post of course if you have questions or comments or want to practice making sentences please feel free to do so in the comment section of this video hey everyone welcome to the monthly review the monthly show on language learning where you discover new learning strategies motivational tips study tools and resources by the way all the lessons and bonuses you're about to see can be downloaded for free on our website so click the link in the description right now to sign up for your free lifetime account okay today's topic is how to adjust your routine and learn language from home many of us are spending more and more time at home so how do you make the best of this time and learn your target language learning at home can be tough with all the distractions and in this episode you're going to discover the pros and cons of learning at home and how to successfully learn from home without getting distracted [Music] how to adjust your routine and learn language from home recently many people have started to work and take classes from home with language learning since it's something people do in their own time a lot of it is done at home anyway but that doesn't mean that all of this hasn't affected how people learn if you used a language learning app or listen to lessons during your commute but you don't commute anymore the pandemic has probably ruined your flow with many of us spending more time at home being able to learn from home efficiently is a good skill to have because while learning or working from home sounds good it's not exactly easy to do part one the pros and cons of learning at home first the pros there's convenience you can learn whatever you want you also have more time in the day since you're not commuting or walking from the train station into work it's also easier to practice speaking many people might find it hard to practice on the train or at a lunch break or in the office during work it might sound a little strange but at home you can dedicate more time to practicing speaking what's your favorite pro of learning at home leave us a comment now what about the cons distractions there are a lot more distractions at home there's the tv there's the couch and the food and family members coming in and out next there's no physical or mental separation between rest and work which is crucial for focus it's the same reason why people prefer going to the gym instead of working out from the comfort of their own home if you're in a place where there's only one goal like working out and you're surrounded by people working out you'll have no problem doing it but if you're in a place you associate with rest eating and watching tv you might have trouble focusing but if you're spending more time at home then you should at least make the best of it and learn your language at home part two how to successfully learn from home without getting distracted so here's how you do it first pick a dedicated place for learning and preferably not your bed just like an office is associated with working time and your bedroom is associated with rest you need a place associated with language learning it could be your desk in the corner of the room it could be your basement as long as it's far from distractions and places of rest second pick a time that way for example when it's 9 pm you know it's time to put in 10 minutes of language learning three time box your study sessions what's time boxing time boxing is simply setting a fixed amount of time for an activity for example you're going to dedicate the next 10 minutes to language and nothing else if you usually have trouble concentrating time boxing is a good way to set boundaries and get things done four start small just like with setting small measurable goals and realistic routines don't set aside two hours for study time instead try to time box 5 10 or 15 minutes and stick with that for a week or two you can always increase your time later once you get more comfortable with your routine five do multiple sessions in one day instead of trying to master a lesson in the lesson dialogue in one shot space out your learning throughout the day in the morning afternoon and at night so take an audio or video lesson and read along with the lesson notes in the morning you'll get acquainted with the conversation all the words and grammar rules don't rush to memorize it all you'll come back to it later in the day and do this for around 5 to 15 minutes during the day practice shadowing the dialogue practice recalling the words do this for around 10 minutes you can also write out the lesson dialogue practice using the grammar rules or drill the words with flashcards and at night come back and review for about 10 minutes you can re-listen to the lesson or just the dialogue track by doing multiple sessions in one day you'll be a lot more comfortable with the language simply because you spaced out your learning and came back to review and while it may feel repetitive it's the repetition that helps you master the language over the long term 6. use at-home time to practice speaking more it would be hard to practice if you were commuting or out on a walk but if you're at home you can easily speak out loud without drawing attention or feeling embarrassed so to recap one pick a specific place for learning that's far from distractions like your bed two pick a specific time for studying three time box your study sessions four start small five do multiple sessions in one day and six use at home time to practice speaking more so thank you for watching this episode of monthly review next time we'll talk about the power of learning a language with someone else if you enjoyed these tips hit the like button share the video with anyone who's trying to learn a language and subscribe to our channel we release new videos every week and if you're ready to finally learn language the fast fun and easy way and start speaking from your very first lesson get our complete learning program sign up for your free lifetime account right now click the link in the description see you next time bye there are a lot of people working to learn another language but there are also a lot of people who grew up speaking two or more languages without even thinking about it if you're able to speak two languages you're bilingual if you can speak more you're multilingual in many countries being bilingual or multilingual is normal or even expected but in some countries people grow up speaking and learning one language if you speak one language you're monolingual so what can monolinguals learn from bilinguals or multilinguals this video will look at what it's like to be comfortable in two or more languages here are six pieces of information relating to bilingualism and multilingualism that you can use in your language learning first bilingualism and the brain how does being bilingual or multilingual affect the brain do you dream in both languages do you see subtitles in your head for the other language as somebody's talking the answers to questions like these are different for everyone some people may dream mostly in the language they're most comfortable with and occasionally in another language some people may be able to effortlessly move between the languages they know while others may get stuck from time to time these are all normal parts of knowing more than one language people who were exposed to another language since birth may have certain advantages in language acquisition over monolinguals they may already be familiar with certain sounds and sound combinations that monolinguals are not familiar with as a language learner you're probably quite familiar with this if you've already mastered a language and have decided to start learning a new one you're probably going to unconsciously make connections to words in different languages you'll think to yourself this word has the same vowel sound as another word i know so it should sound pretty similar when it comes to studying things like new vocabulary words and grammar however monolinguals bilinguals and multilinguals all need to spend time learning and memorizing so in your own learning don't be discouraged by people who speak your native language and your target language they may have had a totally different learning experience than you consider your language studies not language abilities second language mistakes and confusion you may be wondering if bilinguals ever confuse languages in their heads people who are fluent in multiple languages can separate the languages mentally however there are situations where people momentarily forget words even in our native languages or we think of a word in one language but not in another in some cases we might even want to use a word that exists in one language but not in the other an interesting concept from academic literature on this topic is perfect bilingualism it's the idea that someone can speak two languages perfectly at an equally high level many people assume that someone who grew up speaking two languages would be able to use both of them perfectly and sound flawless but this is generally not true bilingual people are often more comfortable talking about certain topics in specific languages there are also situations where bilingual people may pronounce words with a slightly different accent than monolingual people interestingly enough there's also a similar pattern among bilingual couples bilingual couples usually have a single dominant language even if they can speak another language with fluency and ease people will usually use the language that's most efficient and comfortable third bilingual societies you imagine a place where you talk to your family in one language your neighbors and another your boss in a third and write letters and a fourth this might sound like a dream for many language enthusiasts but in some societies it's normal this type of multilingual society occurs on border regions all throughout the world in northern iraq for instance people usually speak kurdish turkish and iraqi arabic and many of them use modern standard arabic and english at school in some parts of china people might learn english at school speak their city's dialect of mandarin when out shopping speak standard mandarin at work and perhaps even speak another language when at home with their families some of these people might even say they're bad at languages when people say this it's often because they grew up using these languages not learning them in school when they were using a language at a friend's house and got their pronunciation corrected there was no anxiety involved this kind of learning is different than learning in a school setting where tests and classrooms can cause pressure and discomfort media exposure plays a huge role too many people around the world are functionally bilingual in english thanks to tv and youtube sometimes parents even in societies where people speak several languages will put on educational english videos for kids to watch but what's even more fun is something that's enjoyable for the kids that's already in english you can do this too as an adult language learner there's a time and a place for coursework but if you're able to shut off the learning part of your brain and simply absorb content you're interested in you'll be surprised at what you can pick up after a couple of months fourth heritage languages you might know someone from an immigrant family who speaks a different language at home than they do with everybody else that language is referred to academically as a heritage language basically a language that someone learned at home without using it very much anywhere else you can imagine that such an arrangement would produce huge variation in language ability some people have heritage languages that they learn from visiting their grandparents once a week others learn through rigorous homeschooling routines enforced by their parents heritage learners often have some marked differences in their speech compared to speakers who grew up in a monolingual environment they might have an accent that's affected by the dominant language they grew up with or they might feel uncomfortable using some grammar or vocabulary that they're not as familiar with but on the other hand they might be able to smoothly use things like tone grammatical gender and other aspects of language that are extremely difficult for learners to master their listening comprehension is also likely good another big difference is in reading and writing you probably don't remember but reading and writing took time to learn it may be difficult to motivate yourself or a child to learn to read or write in a new language especially if that language has a different and complicated script we may be tempted to rely on the reading and writing skills we already have instead of learning something new if you have a heritage language and you're working on reactivating it be kind to yourself maybe you feel like you should know how to read or write in your heritage language but you don't and that's okay you can work on building those skills as any other language learner would a great way to build literacy is to read text with audio that you can listen to at the same time you can use the lesson notes from our language learning program or watch videos with subtitles this is easy to do from the comfort of your home fifth gaining fluency in a second language there's a lot of divided discussion about whether it's possible to learn a language to a native level it's important to consider what native level means maybe a native speaker of your target language can talk about their work flawlessly but they can't speak in depth about a topic beyond their field you don't expect yourself to be able to talk about absolutely everything with 100 perfection in your native language so don't expect that you'll magically be able to communicate perfectly in the language you're learning either moreover it's important to remember that nobody speaks flawlessly all the time we all make mistakes and we know how to correct ourselves and clarify information the best speakers in the world make mistakes even on stage everybody stumbled over their words before does that mean they're not fluent in their own language of course not you can do some amazing things to get a native-like accent in a foreign language but they all take a great deal of work lots of people convince others that they're native speakers for the first few minutes of conversation does it really matter if you end up making mistakes after 40 seconds 40 minutes remember the perfect speech is not required to speak like a native as we've talked about in this video lots of bilingual and multilingual people have strengths and weaknesses too six can a bilingual person forget a language language skills can deteriorate over time if they're not used if you're very busy with one language and rarely use the other you might see a drop in your abilities in a language you don't use as often completely forgetting a language takes a very long time though while you might forget a word here and there in one language you likely won't lose a language completely unless you don't use it for decades this is something to think about for anyone who is considering spending their life in another country make sure to keep your language skills up otherwise as time goes on things may be harder and harder to remember being bilingual or multilingual is pretty interesting a lot of language learners compare themselves to bilinguals or multilinguals remember that bilingual and multilingual people put in work too when they were kids so don't feel discouraged if it seems like your own learning is slow it simply takes time and that's true for everyone for even more tips and information related to language learning check out our complete language learning program sign up for your free lifetime account by clicking on the link in the description get tons of resources to have you speaking in your target language and if you enjoyed these tips hit the like button share the video with anyone who's trying to learn a new language and subscribe to our channel we release new videos every week i'll see you next time bye if a native speaker of your target language spoke to you how much of their speech do you think you could understand your answer of course depends a lot on your vocabulary skills in this video we're going to cover five tips for memorizing vocabulary quickly when you learn new vocabulary words you increase your skills in reading writing listening and speaking as you learn a language you gain the ability to recognize vocabulary words and learn when to use them it's important to have a vocabulary that covers a range of topics so that you can understand important announcements safety information conversations between friends and posts on social media in this video we're going to talk about why vocabulary is important some features and the tools we offer that help you focus on memorizing and some tips for memorizing words faster throughout this video remember that consistency is a key component to memorization if you haven't done this already consider adding a number of vocabulary words you'd like to master to your monthly language goals okay let's get to our tips first master our core word lists we offer 11 core word lists these lists are made up of the most common words in your target language the 100 core word list is the best list for absolute beginners after you master that list you can move on to the other lists in the series the 2000 core word list is a combination of all of the lists plus an additional 1000 words having knowledge of about 2 000 vocabulary words in your target language will set you up for success knowing a variety of words in your target language is important because it allows you to speak about and understand many different topics while grammar is certainly important having the vocabulary you need to go about daily life study or make plans is essential so how do you use the core word lists with our flashcard feature our flashcard tool can display the vocabulary word show a picture and translation and play an audio recording of the vocabulary you'll work on improving your recognition production and listening comprehension skills using a tool like this helps you associate new words with images you also get to hear pronunciation and pitch accents from native speakers you have the ability to choose how many new cards you'd like to learn daily by the way using the 2000 core word list isn't the only way to review all key vocabulary words you can also merge your preferred lists if you lack confidence in speaking studying vocabulary can help you if you master the most common words in your target language speaking will become a bit easier among our core word lists are popular topics relating to hobbies nature food and recreation if you need some help making sentences with your new vocabulary you can take a look at the core word list example sentences for ideas these are all steps you can take to improve your speaking confidence second create your own sentences creating your own sentences is a great way to work on memorizing new vocabulary you can create sentences related to your daily life so that you can easily remember the sentences and use them you can also try creating sentences you think you're likely to need before a conversation with a native speaker in addition to our core word lists we also have a dictionary feature if you need help finding a certain vocabulary word you can search for it in our dictionary the dictionary includes audio from native speakers so you can hear how the word is pronounced naturally and at a slower speed with a premium membership you'll have access to your own personal word bank you'll be able to add words from the dictionary and our lessons to this word bank and study them using flashcards another thing that can help you with memorization is reading along with lesson dialogues and listening to the host's explanations when you find a sentence that stands out or when you make a sentence you think will be useful make sure to actually use the sentence your memory will go stronger and stronger as you review sentences and practice saying them from memory third read every day how often do you read in your target language reading is a fun activity that can motivate you to spend some time studying new vocabulary when you read you encounter words you've seen in lessons but you also find new words apart from reading for fun our language learning program offers reading comprehension pathways for all levels these pathways feature video lessons with vocabulary you're likely to see in real life for example an advanced pathway might include lessons for understanding promotional information medical instructions and directions these pathways are designed to test your ability to recognize words another way to memorize words fast is by learning songs in your target language if you're studying a language with sounds that are very different from your first language this can be a really helpful tactic you can make a monthly goal to memorize one to three songs you like in your target language you can find the lyrics to the song with a search online and you can search for a translation as well as you listen to the song read the lyrics this can help you connect the sounds you're hearing with the characters or the letters you're reading and remember the songs can be from anywhere it could be a kids song a new pop song or a tv show theme you can choose the key is to find a fun way to read every day this will help you improve your vocabulary fourth test your listening skills test your listening skills with our listening comprehension pathways each of the pathways presents a conversation asks a question and then gives a breakdown in our audio lessons the hosts break down the dialogue by talking about the usage of key vocabulary and phrases they also explain the grammar after you listen to the breakdown the dialogue is easier to understand make sure to re-listen to the lesson dialogues to review these important concepts another way to use our site for listening comprehension is by changing the flashcard settings with our flashcards you have the option to focus on building listening comprehension if you choose this setting the front of your flashcard will play an audio clip and the back will show the answer additionally if you're a premium plus member you can practice listening with your native speaker teacher you can request audio responses from your teacher instead of text if you understand their message you can respond with an audio file of your own or with text if you don't fully understand you can ask your teacher for help one more thing you can do is use tv shows to practice listening you can choose a segment of a show to practice watch it once with subtitles then once without subtitles determine how much you can comprehend then look up the words you don't know fifth take vocabulary quizzes there are many ways to test yourself with vocabulary quizzes each of our lessons includes a vocabulary slideshow and quizzes that you can use for review we also have video vocab pathways which introduce new vocabulary based on certain themes and they include pictures you can also try making your own written tests with our flashcard feature change the flashcard settings according to your preferences you can choose between recognition production and listening comprehension card types based on the card type you chose write down either the vocabulary word or its translation when the card appears check your answers and give yourself a score for your study session writing vocabulary by hand is another great way to work on memorizing words earlier we talked about learning vocabulary with songs a fun and effective way to test your vocabulary and writing skills is to fill in the blanks copy and paste the lyrics of a song into a document and replace some of the words with blanks test your knowledge of the lyrics by filling in the blanks with the correct words you can make it a little easier by including a word box a list of vocabulary to use somewhere in the song you can also do this with dialogues you want to practice from tv shows to make sure you get all of the tools mentioned in this video subscribe to our premium plan you'll get access to all of our resources including the core word lists and the flash card tool so to recap in this video we talked about five tips for memorizing new words they were master our core word lists create your own sentences read every day test your listening skills and take vocabulary quizzes these tips are fun and effective ways to help you reach your vocabulary goals a bit faster if you want to go the extra mile subscribe to premium plus to get access to your own native teacher what are your vocabulary goals how will you achieve them share your answers in the comment section below and for even more tips on how to remember vocabulary fast check out our complete language learning program sign up for your free lifetime account by clicking on the link in the description get tons of resources to have you speaking in your target language and if you enjoyed these tips hit the like button share the video with anyone who's trying to learn a new language and subscribe to our channel we release new videos every week i'll see you next time bye consistent hard work is one of the biggest factors that determines someone's success and it's true for language learning too while it's important to choose a course and study method that's right for you at the end of the day the results you see are a product of the effort you put in however the quantity of time spent studying a new language doesn't necessarily determine the quality of your study spending three hours a day watching movies doesn't help you learn much if you're not actively engaging with the language in this video we'll talk about how to actively engage your mind while studying number one think of your brain as a muscle you might be familiar with the phrase feel the burn or maybe no pain no gain if you've been to your local gym recently there's a chance you might have heard one of these phrases or seen something similar on a poster on a wall in the world of sports and workouts there's a common idea that the discomfort you feel when running lifting weights or doing some other physical activity is what brings results the discomfort you feel is your muscles being pushed to their limit it's the limit pushing that strengthens your muscles so that over time your performance increases in the context of language learning it's helpful to think of your brain as a muscle being trained just as we need to push against our physical limits when exercising we also need to push our mental ones when learning a foreign language have you ever studied or practiced your target language in a way that left you tired or even exhausted if so you've experienced what it's like to push your brain out of its linguistic comfort zone number two practice active listening one of the easiest ways to push your language skills is to practice active listening active listening is when you listen to spoken language and do your best to understand what you hear the best way to accomplish this is by using audio that you can't completely understand on the first listen preferably you want to use audio that has subtitles or transcripts in your target language for you to double check your understanding after you listen to it you can use movies youtube clips or our lessons during this exercise you might feel like you're able to pick out only a few words here and there during this practice session you should listen to the audio several times the first time around it's okay if no words or just a few words stick out to you simply make a mental note of any words or sounds you recognize the second time you listen you're likely to recognize a little more than you did the previous time expect similar results with your third or even fourth time listening when you reach a point where you can't understand any more words go ahead and look at the subtitles or transcripts listen to the audio again and read along with the text odds are that you'll see words in the text you know but didn't hear correctly you're also likely to encounter words that are new to you completely as you play back the audio and read along try to guess what these words mean from the context of the words around them after you've read along a couple times look up the unfamiliar words in a dictionary or translator app this active listening exercise routine is a great way to increase your listening and comprehension skills while picking up some new vocabulary along the way it also allows you to learn new words in context which itself is a powerful way to help you retain what you study number three practicing with native speakers practicing with native speakers is the best way to push your language skills using what you've studied to communicate in real time is how you'll really challenge yourself try to connect with a native speaker on a weekly basis remember consistency is important when you're learning a foreign language if you live in a large metropolitan area then there's a chance that there are some local native speakers nearby try visiting a local language exchange or meetup group to make the necessary connections if you're unable to find a practice partner locally then you can take your search online there are a number of sites that help you find and connect with other language learners from around the world for example if you're a native english speaker learning a new language you can find a native speaker of your target language who is learning english there are tons of language learners around the world who have learned or are learning a second language you're likely to find someone who knows your target language and is looking to improve his or her english learning a new language isn't always easy but it's the discomfort that comes with pushing your ability in the language that produces results in your studies don't be afraid to step outside of your comfort zone it's okay to move far outside of your native language you'll expand your mind and your skills also remember that language learning is in every way a lot like an adventure there will be fun times and times when it feels like you're swimming upstream it's by keeping your head up through these ups and downs that you will experience the satisfaction that comes with learning a foreign language keep moving ahead and for even more tips on how to engage better in your language learning check out our complete language learning program sign up for your free lifetime account by clicking on the link in the description get tons of resources to have you speaking in your target language and if you enjoyed these tips hit the like button share the video with anyone who's trying to learn a new language and subscribe to our channel we release new videos every week i'll see you next time bye great work here's a reward speed up your language learning with our pdf lessons get all of our best pdf cheat sheets and ebooks for free just click the link in the description

Channel: Learn English with EnglishClass101.com

Views: 86,327

Keywords: englishclass101, learn english, english language, the United States, english alphabet, read, write, speak, school, teacher, tutorial, lessons, compilation, how to, fast, quick, easy, fastest, easiest, english pronunciation, english grammar, basics, english phrases, review, best of, monthly dose of english, comp, compilations

Id: wcRaUX16BO8

Length: 89min 52sec (5392 seconds)

Published: Tue Apr 20 2021