Episodios
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Word roots are an awesome (and sadly underused) tool for learning vocabulary. A word root is a group of letters at the beginning of a word that has a certain meaning. For example, several English words include the Germanic root DR- which is connected with drinking or liquid. This shared meaning across several words makes words more interesting and it makes their meanings easier to learn.
If you're curious about word roots, then don't forget to listen to episodes 15, 19, 34, and 45.
Photo credit: Dan Lundberg.
Mangrove roots at low tide - Mangrove - WikipediaHosted by Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.
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Words are like stairs- they take you to beautiful places, but only if you do the work!
This week, Tim continues progressing through the 2800 words of the New General Service List, or NGSL. This week's five target words are: wind, none, exchange, budget and famous. Five words, twelve meanings. If you think you know these five words but only know one meaning for each one... then you don't really know these words.
Tim has said it before, and now he's saying it again: if you want to really master English, you need to know the different meanings of words!Hosted by Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.
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Learning vocabulary is the biggest task you have when studying English, so it's natural to try to learn more words and expressions... But you also need to know words well, and not stop just at pronunciation, spelling, and one meaning. In Episode 83, Tim explains what it means when you REALLY know your vocabulary, or if your knowledge is too basic and you need to go back and learn more.
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Everyone knows about Halloween costumes and trick or treating... but some Halloween traditions are more personal and secret. In Episode 82, Tim shares some unique personal and family Halloween traditions involving skeletons, pudding and haunted garages.
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Do you want to really master English vocabulary? Then let's keep going with the NGSL! In this week's episode, Tim explains 13 meanings of five NGSL words: survey, majority, stick, request, rich. These are common words, but they have additional meanings that you need to reach a C1 (or higher!) level of English.
Episode 2: The NGSL- 2800 Words For Better English.
Episode 11: NGSL 1331-1340. 10 Words, 27 Meanings.
Episode 62: NGSL 1341-1350.
Episode 73: NGSL 1511-1520
Episode 80: NGSL 1001-1005Hosted by Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.
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"Rome wasn't built in a day."The NGSL, or New General Service List, is a list of the 2800 most used words in English. If you know NGSL words well, you will speak and understand better, and also perform better on tests like TOEFL and IELTS.
Don't forget this important detail: if you know NGSL words well. When you know words well, that
means knowing several definitions for each target word. This is a must!
This week's episode, episode 80, will help you to learn 15 meanings of words 1001 to 1006 on the NGSL.
Earlier episodes in the series:
Episode 2: The NGSL- 2800 Words For Better English.
Episode 11: NGSL 1331-1340. 10 Words, 27 Meanings.
Episode 62: NGSL 1341-1350.
Episode 73: NGSL 1511-1520
Image is from Wikipedia, Von Jamain - Eigenes Werk, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=28952335
The image has been cropped to fit the frame.Hosted by Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.
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What's the best way to learn something? Make it interesting.
Learn the most used irregular verbs from A to H with 51 fun and amusing micro-stories.
Cover photo credit: By Jesus Solana from Madrid, Spain - Black sheep . Do u also feel different? // la Oveja negra. Tambien te sientes diferente?, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=5050231Hosted by Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.
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In Episode 78, Tim explains with over a hundred examples how to build the most important types of sentences- yes/ no questions, wh- questions, subject questions and negative statements- in the present simple.
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What's a common mistake in English grammar? Forgetting to put -S or -ES on the end of verbs in the present simple. In this week's episode, Tim explains every situation where you need to use this common and often misunderstood verb ending.
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The English verb tenses are like a pyramid. You started at the bottom in Episodes 52 through 59, where you learned verbs like be, do, can and should. Then you climbed through the middle in Episodes 66 through 70, when you learned verbs like be, do and can to make questions and other sentence types.
You've worked hard, and now you're ready- in Episode 76, Tim talks about the most commonly used verb tense of all, looking at it from a fresh perspective.
Photo credit:
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Competition is a big part of our lives, and business is competition. In Episode #75, Tim teaches you eleven words and expressions to talk about competition- in business, in love, and in the Olympic games.
Cover photo credit: Horse-racing-4 - Sport hippique — Wikipédia (wikipedia.org) The photo has been cropped to fit into a thumbnail.Hosted by Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.
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IELTS is a very popular English exam that is used by universities, employers and even immigration authorities to judge a person's level of English. IELTS includes a speaking test with three parts; the complete speaking test lasts around fifteen minutes. In this week's episode, Tim takes the IELTS to show you what a real test sounds like and how it is structured. Returning in the role of examiner is Tim's friend and colleague from Great Britain, Christian, whom you met in Episode 53: A Spot of British English.
IELTS and the IELTS logo see in this episode's thumbnail are trademarks of IELTS Partners: The British Council, IELTS Australia Pty. Ltd. and Cambridge English (part of Cambridge University Press & Assessment).Hosted by Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.
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The NGSL (which Tim first discussed in Episode 2) is a list of the 2809 most used words in English. If you know the words of the NGSL well, then you have a very solid start on learning English vocabulary. In Episode 73, Tim explains 26 meanings of 10 words from the NGSL, starting with word 1511 (BOND) and 1520 (DIVISION).
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In April of 2024, Tim spent one week in Singapore, where he walked through jungles, visited museums, and of course tried all kinds of local food- especially Hainan-style chicken rice. It was a fun and exciting trip, and one you can share in by listening!
Tim will update this post later in the week with photos and videos.Hosted by Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.
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There's an easy way to learn lots of verbs at the same time: by using the prefixes OVER and UNDER. Just add OVER to a verb to say that the action is done too much, or UNDER to say that the action is done too little. OVEREAT? Eat too much. UNDEREAT? Eat too little.
In Episode #71, Tim explains over a dozen more easy to use and remember verbs and adjectives using these simple prefixes.
Cover photo: Leichtathletik Gala Linz 2018 men´s 110m hurdles Okafor-6401 - Hurdling - Wikipedia. The photo is of Leon Okafor of Austria.Hosted by Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.
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Questions get all the attention, but you have to learn how to make sentences with NOT + VERB if you want to speak correctly and master the verb tenses. Doing this is harder than it sounds because there are two classes of verbs: auxiliary and action. In Episode #70, Tim explains how to negate sentences that have both auxiliary and action verbs, and supplies 100+ real-world examples so you remember better how to do it yourself.
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In Episode 69, Tim explains wh- questions using two complementary methods.
The first method is the old-fashioned one, using the rules of grammar. A wh- question is one that starts with a question word such as who, what, where or why. Wh- questions all use the same construction QU + A + S- question word, then auxiliary verb, then subject.
The other method is what Tim calls brute force empiricism, in other words, learning from lots of examples. In Episode 69, Tim reads over 200 examples of wh-questions, starting with shorter questions and moving on to longer ones so you are never challenged.Hosted by Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.
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Do you want to improve your fluency and speak more naturally? Then master short answers- these are short, polite responses to subject questions or yes/no questions. In Episode 68, listen to Tim explain how to construct and use short answers with the help of over 100 examples.
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What are the rules for constructing questions in English? Well, first we need to remember that there are different types of questions, for example subject questions. Another common type of question is yes/ no questions, questions that we can answer with "yes" or "no", for example, "Do you like pizza? or "Are you at home?".
In this week's episode, Tim explains the rules for making yes/ no questions, and then supplies you with 150+ examples of yes/ no sentences in crystal clear audio. The sentences are in the five most used verb tenses- present simple, past simple, present continuous, past continuous and present perfect.
If you want even more examples of yes/ no questions, listen to Episode #5.Hosted by Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.
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Episodes 52 through 59 were Part 1 of Tim's mini-course on the English verb tenses and dealt with auxiliary verbs. In this week's episode, Tim opens Part 2 of his course, which teaches the sentence constructions you need to know to master each verb tense. The first sentence type we will deal with is subject questions, which ask who did an action.
(For even more examples of subject questions, listen to Episode 25.)Hosted by Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.
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