WORDLE is a very popular free word game right now. Play on your computer or phone – with no app needed, and no ads. You can only play it once each day.
Goal – you try to figure out the secret 5-letter word by using up to six other 5-letter words.
You probably need a pretty good vocabulary to do well in this game.
Video showing how to play:
Here are 50 Phrasal Verbs explained with a piece of paper…
English in Brazil by Carina Fragozo is a very popular place online for Brazilians who are trying to improve their English. She has a YouTube channel – where there are hundreds of videos (mostly 10-15 minutes long, in Portuguese). These explain English grammar, pronunciation, and vocabulary, and also offer encouragement and general study tips.
There are videos about many different topics for people with some English experience – such as this one about silent letters (letters that aren’t pronounced) in English words. But there are also videos with “survival English” for beginners – like this one about shopping in a supermarket.
Humans of New York is a website, and Facebook page, that has lots of interesting pictures of people – and a very short story about them. Brandon (the publisher) started with pictures and short stories just about people in New York City. But then he started including personal stories from people in other places around the world – such as Pakistan, Iran, India, Vietnam – and some longer stories on subjects such as refugees and people in prison. The latest set of stories is about people in Brazil. Here is an example:
“He fell in love with me the first day he met me. He kept calling me princess. He said we were meant to be together because our feet were the same size. Look how embarrassed he’s getting!” (São Paulo, Brazil)
— Thanks to Pat for suggesting this website. She uses it for reading practice in her English class. —
A synonym is a word that has the same, or almost the same, meaning as another word.
Synonyms for “cold“: chilly, icy, frigid, and frosty.
They are good to learn because:
One good place to find synonyms is Thesaurus.com A ‘thesaurus’ is a synonym dictionary. Type in a word such as delicious, or enjoy, and they will show you several synonyms – with the most common synonyms listed first. You can also check the pronunciation and definition for each of these words. (It’s important to check the definition for words that you don’t know.)
There’s a popular thesaurus that’s part of the Dictionary.com App – available for free for IOS and Android. After you install the app, you can switch to the thesaurus to find synonyms. There’s also a special tab for English learners, with more explanation.
Here’s a basic list of synonyms for almost 100 very common English words.
For the Oscars this year (the movie academy awards), one of the movies nominated for best picture was Bohemian Rhapsody – about the rock band Queen.
A few years ago, there was a scientific study in England to find songs that made people feel good. The study chose a song by Queen as the #1 feel-good song – Don’t Stop Me Now
Other top feel-good songs included: Abba’s Dancing Queen, the Beach Boys’ Good Vibrations, and Billy Joel’s Uptown Girl
A group of idioms – called “Comparative Idioms” – are used to compare something about a person or thing to something else. For example:
Here are some more common comparative idioms.
| Don’t Say | Say This |
| Pick it up the pencil. or Pick up it. |
Pick up the pencil. or – Pick the pencil up. or – Pick it up. |
| I’m going to pick it up my daughter. | I’m going to pick up my daughter. or – I’m going to pick my daughter up. |
| I’m going to pick up her/she. | I’m going to pick her up. |
Remember
to see another example.