Ich helfe Ihnen, Ihr gesprochenes Englisch zu perfektionieren, wann und wie es für Sie am Praktischen ist.
One: Keep it simple Two: Enjoy your mistakes Three: Learn about word and sentence stress and intonation Four: Learn how English word sounds combine Five: Practice, practice, practice How I can help I can offer you an experienced ear, actually, two, to pick out which areas of pronunciation you need to work on to speak … Continue reading Five tips to speak English more naturally
And how not to lose confidence in your speaking skills You need to improve your pronunciation, so you start pronunciation training. Of course, you want to improve but you must know there are dangers. It’s often true that the more you know you feel like the less you know. The problem is that the more … Continue reading The dangers of pronunciation training
The “th” or /ð/ and /θ/ sounds don’t exist in German or many other languages. Notoriously difficult to produce, to make them you have to find the right spot with your tongue on your front teeth. It takes a lot of practice and can take many months or even years to perfect. The question is: … Continue reading Do I have to learn how to say the “th”?
Try my online test for German speakers for free Why should I work on my English pronunciation Chances are that pronunciation work wasn’t a large, or any, part of your English lessons at school. Learning grammar and vocabulary was probably the driving force behind the curriculum, but does this mean that work on how to … Continue reading Test your English pronunciation
Sometimes two languages can live inside one person peacefully, they complement each other and don’t get in each other’s way. Unfortunately, sometimes the opposite is true and we get … L1 interference! Sounds nasty, but it just means though that you use rules that apply to your native language, and apply them to your foreign … Continue reading Tekamolo v.s. Svompt: Word order
Hello my dears. I hope this post finds you well. Today I’m going to write about those pesky words “watch” “look” and “see”. Literal meanings – a recap “See” simply means to use your eyes. “Look” means “to turn our eyes in a particular direction to see something”. (Cambridge) “Watch” means “to look at or … Continue reading Watching out for “look” “watch” and “see”
So, you want to know what the biggest mistake is? As I’m writing this blog post Switzerland is nearing the end of the third week of partial lock down because of COVID-19. People are getting from frazzled to nuclear burn out. We’re not used to a world with so many restrictions and so much global … Continue reading The biggest mistake
Hello, I hope this blog post finds you well. Last week a student directed me to an article with some lovely false friends. I thought I might share the deadliest with you today and add a couple of my own. Undertaker – Unternehmer This is my favourite of all the false friends. An “undertaker” is: … Continue reading Some very deadly false friends …
The kids can’t go to school because of the pandemic, so this week I’ve been “homeschooling” and It’s not so easy to find an undisturbed minute to write. On the plus side it’s a great time to use the present perfect continuous! Everyone’s routines have been turned upside down. Some people, especially in the medical … Continue reading “Someone’s been drinking my beer!” Present perfect continuous to describe ale theft.
Soooo I promised you a part two to my present perfect simple blog post. Here it is, but you’re going to have to work for it. Look at these sentences: Queen Elizabeth the second is a wonderful leader. She has been an inspiration to the people of Britain for many years. She lived in Buckingham … Continue reading Death and Americans: present perfect simple, part II